Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 21:19

"Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they twain shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city." — Ezekiel 21:19 (ASV)

Appoint thee two ways. —Or, set before thee. The prophet is directed to represent Nebuchadnezzar as about to go out with his armies, and hesitating whether he should first take the road to Jerusalem or to the capital of the Ammonites. His choice of the former is determined, as he supposes, by his divinations, but really by the overruling hand of the Lord, who thus shows beforehand what it will be.

The whole is presented in the vivid and concrete imagery so characteristic of Ezekiel; but it is impossible that the scene in real life was to be determined in this way by the prophet’s open interference. The whole is a vision, in which life and action are conveyed by this manner of describing the course of future events as actually taking place before the eyes of his hearers. The two ways come forth out of one land; their starting point is the same—Babylon—and they diverge towards different destinations.

Choose thou a place. —Literally, make a hand or, as we say, a finger-post. The verb used here never means “choose,” nor does the noun ever mean “place”; however, the verb is often used both in the sense of to make and to engrave, and “hand” frequently occurs in the sense of a pillar, and occasionally in that of a guide post. (See 1 Samuel 15:12; 2 Samuel 18:18; Isaiah 56:5.) The prophet, in vision, sets up this guide post to direct the king on his march. The roads to Rabbah and to Jerusalem from Babylon would be the same for many hundred miles. It is impossible, therefore, to suppose that Ezekiel actually stood at their parting.

Head of the way, called more poetically in Ezekiel 21:21 mother of the way, is the point where the road forks. From this point the road to Jerusalem would lie on the right, that to Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites, on the left.