Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
parting—literally, "mother of the way." As "head of the two ways" follows, which seems tautology after "parting of the way," HAVERNICK translates, according to Arabic idiom, "the highway," or principal road. English Version is not tautology, "head of the two ways" defining more accurately "parting of the way."
made . . . bright—rather, "shook," from an Arabic root.
arrows—Divination by arrows is here referred to: they were put into a quiver marked with the names of particular places to be attacked, and then shaken together; whichever came forth first intimated the one selected as the first to be attacked [JEROME]. The same usage existed among the Arabs, and is mentioned in the Koran. In the Nineveh sculptures the king is represented with a cup in his right hand, his left resting on a bow; also with two arrows in the right, and the bow in the left, probably practising divination.
images—Hebrew, "teraphim"; household gods, worshipped as family talismans, to obtain direction as to the future and other blessings. First mentioned in Mesopotamia, whence Rachel brought them (Genesis 31:19, Genesis 31:34); put away by Jacob (Genesis 35:4); set up by Micah as his household gods (Judges 17:5); stigmatized as idolatry (I Samuel 15:23, Hebrew; Zechariah 10:2, Margin).
liver—They judged of the success, or failure, of an undertaking by the healthy, or unhealthy, state of the liver and entrails of a sacrifice.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Ezekiel 21:21:
Ezekiel 21:19
Hosea 3:4
Hosea 4:12
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