Nebuchadnezzar's Three Arrows All Pointed to Jerusalem

Midrash Aggadah Vayikra Rabbah 19:6

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 7, 2025

Before he launched his final assault on Judah, Nebuchadnezzar paused to consult the omens. He was a king of his age, and the practice of his age was belomancy, divination by arrows. He bent his bow and asked the wood and feather to tell him where his armies should strike.

He pointed the first arrow westward and let it fly. The shaft curved in the air and turned toward Jerusalem. He pointed the second arrow eastward. The shaft swung in the air and turned toward Jerusalem. He drew a third time and asked the arrow which city in the world was the guilty one, the one whose fall would satisfy the ledgers of heaven. The third arrow flew, and it, too, pointed to Jerusalem.

The king took the three-fold sign as a license. The prophet Ezekiel would later describe exactly this scene, the king standing at a crossroads, shaking arrows and consulting teraphim: "For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination" (Ezekiel 21:21).

The midrash treats the moment with grief, not triumph. Jerusalem's own sins had turned every arrow toward her. The sages taught that when a nation abandons the covenant, even the wooden shafts of foreign kings begin to point at her gates.

Themes

Destruction Holy Land Exile Prophecy Divine justice

Biblical References

Ezekiel 21:21

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