Ezekiel 29:21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Ezekiel 29:21
A Horn for Israel and Opened Speech Are Promised
A brief promise joins Israel's rising strength with Ezekiel's opened mouth among the people.
What helps us understand it
Earlier material that actually helps
Ezekiel 29:17–20Ezekiel 29:21 continues the same chapter after “Egypt Becomes Babylon's Pay after Unrewarded Labor at Tyre”; the change into “A Horn for Israel and Opened Speech Are Promised” answers, qualifies, or advances that local prophetic movement.
Ezekiel 29:17–20 closes with “I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they…”; Ezekiel 29:21 opens “In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth….”
How the passage moves
The unit begins at 29:21 with the address, action, vision, lament, or measurement named in its title.
By 29:21 the movement reaches its stated warning, promise, response, or transition before the next unit begins.
Why this reading fits
Uncertainty and ethical limit
The horn does not authorize nationalist domination or claims of prophetic infallibility.
What remains true
Hope tells the truth about devastation while imagining renewed agency, just leadership, belonging, worship, land care, and divine presence beyond the ruins.
How this should shape us
What proportionate response follows?
Support concrete repair, return, safety, accountability, and community without promising instant cure or claiming a modern people or state exhausts the vision. This response follows Ezekiel 29:21's specific concern, “A Horn for Israel and Opened Speech Are Promised.”
Teach it back
Explain Ezekiel 29:21 in your own words. Name its place in Ezekiel, one source-controlled observation, one uncertainty, one enduring truth, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Stated movement
The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries this unit. A brief promise joins Israel's rising strength with Ezekiel's opened mouth among the people.
Placement in Ezekiel
Within the same chapter, this unit advances from “Egypt Becomes Babylon's Pay after Unrewarded Labor at Tyre” into “A Horn for Israel and Opened Speech Are Promised.” Its non-interchangeable contribution is: A brief promise joins Israel's rising strength with Ezekiel's opened mouth among the people.
Uncertainty and ethical limit
The horn does not authorize nationalist domination or claims of prophetic infallibility.
What the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Exilic setting and recoverable limits
The promise addresses Israel in and after Babylonian displacement through gathering, land, cleansing, heart, Spirit, shepherd, covenant, presence, and rebuilt-community images. Corporate hope and later reception must not erase the first exilic horizon.
How certain? strongEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Ezekiel within Jewish Scripture
Ezekiel 29:21 belongs first to Ezekiel's exilic prophetic-priestly book and its conversations with Torah, temple traditions, kingship, land, and earlier prophets. Later Jewish and Christian reception must not erase Israel or the first horizon.
How certain? probableHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Canonical relationships after the first horizon
Earlier Torah and prophetic traditions, later biblical reuse of watchman, shepherd, heart, Spirit, resurrection, Gog, temple, river, and city imagery, and New Testament reception may clarify trajectories only after Ezekiel 29:21 is read in Ezekiel's own movement.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Within Ezekiel 29:21, divine presence, holiness, judgment, responsibility, hope, land, leadership, and human limitation must be weighted according to The prophetic word through Ezekiel rather than flattened into a timeless slogan.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
A brief promise joins Israel's rising strength with Ezekiel's opened mouth among the people.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The horn does not authorize nationalist domination or claims of prophetic infallibility.
A vivid line in Ezekiel 29:21 can be detached from the dated exilic setting, literary form, surrounding unit, and book-level movement.
A brief promise joins Israel's rising strength with Ezekiel's opened mouth among the people. The interpretive limit remains: The horn does not authorize nationalist domination or claims of prophetic infallibility.
Hope tells the truth about devastation while imagining renewed agency, just leadership, belonging, worship, land care, and divine presence beyond the ruins.
A brief promise joins Israel's rising strength with Ezekiel's opened mouth among the people.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Ezekiel 29:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezek.xml, OSIS 29:21
Supports: Verse-level controls for difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, place names, textual issues, vision language, and material alternatives.
Official NET Ezekiel PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Ezekiel 29:21
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with visible alternatives and ancient-to-modern limits.
Enter the Bible Ezekiel course, Outline and passage studies: nations, Tyre, Egypt, and laments; applied to Ezekiel 29:21
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and interpretive questions, including ethical attention to gendered rhetoric and the final vision.
Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Ezekiel Parts 2-3 study guides: nations, watchman, shepherd, and restoration; applied to Ezekiel 29:21
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Ezekiel 29:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ezekiel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezek.xml, OSIS 29:21
Open the fixed Hebrew Ezekiel file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Ezekiel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2016; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, place names, textual issues, vision language, and material alternatives.
Exact location: Official NET Ezekiel PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Ezekiel 29:21
Open the official NET Ezekiel PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Ezekiel course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, themes, and passage studies
Alan G. Padgett; revised by Tyler Mayfield
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised June 2023
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with visible alternatives and ancient-to-modern limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Ezekiel course, Outline and passage studies: nations, Tyre, Egypt, and laments; applied to Ezekiel 29:21
Open the Enter the Bible Ezekiel course ↗open university study guide series
Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Ezekiel Parts 1-3 Study Guides
Joel S. Baden and Jacqueline Vayntrub
Yale Bible Study, 2024
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and interpretive questions, including ethical attention to gendered rhetoric and the final vision.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Ezekiel Parts 2-3 study guides: nations, watchman, shepherd, and restoration; applied to Ezekiel 29:21
Open the Yale Jeremiah and Ezekiel course ↗