Yehezkiel 5:17

5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ²  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Yehezkiel 14:9

14:9 “‘As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word – I, the Lord, have made a fool of ³  that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.

Yehezkiel 16:33

16:33 All prostitutes receive payment, ⁴  but instead you give gifts to every one of your lovers. You bribe them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors!

Yehezkiel 16:43

16:43 “‘Because you did not remember the days of your youth and have enraged me with all these deeds, I hereby repay you for what you have done, ⁵  declares the sovereign Lord. Have you not engaged in prostitution on top of all your other abominable practices?

Yehezkiel 22:28

22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ⁶  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

Yehezkiel 32:27

32:27 They do not lie with the fallen warriors of ancient times, ⁷  who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, having their swords placed under their heads and their shields on their bones, ⁸  when the terror of these warriors was in the land of the living.

Yehezkiel 36:11

36:11 I will increase the number of people and animals on you; they will increase and be fruitful. ⁹  I will cause you to be inhabited as in ancient times, and will do more good for you than at the beginning of your history. ¹⁰  Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Yehezkiel 38:17

38:17 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by my servants ¹¹  the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days ¹²  that I would bring you against them?

[5:17]  ¹ tn Heb “will bereave you.”

[5:17]  ² tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.

[14:9]  ³ tn The translation is uncertain due to difficulty both in determining the meaning of the verb’s stem and its conjugation in this context. In the Qal stem the basic meaning of the verbal root פָּתַה (patah) is “to be gullible, foolish.” The doubling stems (the Pual and Piel used in this verse) typically give such stative verbs a factitive sense, hence either “make gullible” (i.e., “entice”) or “make into a fool” (i.e., “to show to be a fool”). The latter represents the probable meaning of the term in Jer 20:7, 10 and is followed here (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:193; R. Mosis “Ez 14, 1-11 - ein Ruf zur Umkehr,” BZ 19 [1975]: 166-69 and ThWAT 4:829-31). In this view, if a prophet speaks when not prompted by God, he will be shown to be a fool, but this does not reflect negatively on the Lord because it is God who shows him to be a fool. Secondly, the verb is in the perfect conjugation and may be translated “I have made a fool of him” or “I have enticed him,” or to show determination (see IBHS 439-41 §27.2f and g), or in certain syntactical constructions as future. Any of these may be plausible if the doubling stems used are understood in the sense of “making a fool of.” But if understood as “to make gullible,” more factors come into play. As the Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, it is often translated as present perfect: “I have enticed.” In this case the Lord states that he himself enticed the prophet to cooperate with the idolaters. Such enticement to sin would seem to be a violation of God’s moral character, but sometimes he does use such deception and enticement to sin as a form of punishment against those who have blatantly violated his moral will (see, e.g., 2 Sam 24). If one follows this line of interpretation in Ezek 14:9, one would have to assume that the prophet had already turned from God in his heart. However, the context gives no indication of this. Therefore, it is better to take the perfect as indicating certitude and to translate it with the future tense: “I will entice.” In this case the Lord announces that he will judge the prophet appropriately. If a prophet allows himself to be influenced by idolaters, then the Lord will use deception as a form of punishment against that deceived prophet. A comparison with the preceding oracles also favors this view. In 14:4 the perfect of certitude is used for emphasis (see “I will answer”), though in v. 7 a participle is employed. For a fuller discussion of this text, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 23-25.

[16:33]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[16:43]  ⁵ tn Heb “your way on (your) head I have placed.”

[22:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[32:27]  ⁷ tc Heb “of the uncircumcised.” The LXX reads, probably correctly, “from of old” rather than “of the uncircumcised.” The phrases are very similar in spelling. The warriors of Meshech-Tubal are described as uncircumcised, so it would be odd for them to not be buried with the uncircumcised. Verse 28 specifically says that they would lie with the uncircumcised.

[32:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “and their iniquities were over their bones.” The meaning of this statement is unclear; in light of the parallelism (see “swords”) it is preferable to emend “their iniquities” to “their swords.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:135.

[36:11]  ⁹ sn These verbs occur together in Gen 1:22, 28; 9:1.

[36:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your beginning.”

[38:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “by the hand of my servants.”

[38:17]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text adds “years” here, but this is probably a scribal gloss on the preceding phrase. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:201.