And I will prepare destroyers against thee,.... The Chaldeans, men of savage dispositions, bent upon the destruction of their neighbours; and who had already destroyed many nations, and so fit instruments for such service, as after mentioned; and who yet did not come merely of themselves, but were moved and directed to it by the powerful and all wise providence of God, in consequence of a previous preparation and appointment of them by the Lord in his counsels and purposes.
It is, in the original text, "I will sanctify destroyers" ; and not only intends a purpose and design; but suggests, that what they should do by his will and order would be consistent with his holiness and justice; and also that being prepared and ready, they might quickly expect a visit from them:everyone with his weapons; of war, or slaughter weapons, as in Eze 9:2; or, "a man and his weapons" ; not a single man only, as Nebuchadnezzar, but him and his army; everyone of the destroyers prepared with proper instruments to do execution: andthey shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast [them] into the fire; the sons of the king, the princes of the blood, the nobles of the land, and other persons of rank and distinction, comparable to the tall cedars of Lebanon; so the Targum,"and they shall slay the beauty of thy mighty ones, as the trees of a forest are cut down, and cast into the fire;''or else the stately palaces of the king and his nobles, and other beautiful buildings, which were lined and ceiled with cedar, are here meant; and which the Chaldeans burnt with fire, Jer 52:13.
ytvdqw "sanctificabo", V. L. Montanus, Cocceius. wylkw vya "virum et arma ejus", Vulg. Lat.