Ezekiel 21:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Sword, be extinguished, so that you are prepared for the demise of the lineage of my son, aimed at the complete annihilation of my son Israel’s descendants. You will reject every tree, meaning every individual.

The term "sword" serves once more as a metaphor for the judgment executed upon the Jews and neighboring nations through the Babylonians. It appears to me that God Himself commands the sword to be sharpened and to gleam as it brings destruction and uproots all that stands, illustrating that such actions take place by His divine will and not solely by the might of the Babylonians; rather, it is through His intervention that all these events come to pass. Similarly, in Deuteronomy, God declared, “I will shatter My sword like lightning, and My hand shall receive judgment, and I will render vengeance to My enemies, and I will repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh” (Deuteronomy 32:41, 42). In these statements, the sword and arrows represent the punitive authority that administers just retribution to those deserving of punishment. He then continues: