Yehezkiel 6:1-14
Konteks6:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 6:2 “Son of man, turn toward 1 the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them: 6:3 Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, 2 Hear the word of the sovereign Lord! 3 This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing 4 a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. 5 6:4 Your altars will be ruined and your incense altars will be broken. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. 6 6:5 I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, 7 and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6:6 In all your dwellings, the cities will be laid waste and the high places ruined so that your altars will be laid waste and ruined, your idols will be shattered and demolished, your incense altars will be broken down, and your works wiped out. 8 6:7 The slain will fall among you and then you will know that I am the Lord. 9
6:8 “‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. 10 6:9 Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize 11 how I was crushed by their unfaithful 12 heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves 13 because of the evil they have done and because of all their abominable practices. 6:10 They will know that I am the Lord; my threats to bring this catastrophe on them were not empty.’ 14
6:11 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and say, “Ah!” because of all the evil, abominable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine, and pestilence. 15 6:12 The one far away will die by pestilence, the one close by will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and has escaped these 16 will die by famine. I will fully vent my rage against them. 6:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord – when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, 17 the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols. 6:14 I will stretch out my hand against them 18 and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, 19 in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”
Yehezkiel 8:1--9:11
Konteks8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, 20 as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting in front of me, the hand 21 of the sovereign Lord seized me. 22 8:2 As I watched, I noticed 23 a form that appeared to be a man. 24 From his waist downward was something like fire, 25 and from his waist upward something like a brightness, 26 like an amber glow. 27 8:3 He stretched out the form 28 of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind 29 lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem 30 by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue 31 which provokes to jealousy was located. 8:4 Then I perceived that the glory of the God of Israel was there, as in the vision I had seen earlier in the valley.
8:5 He said to me, “Son of man, look up toward 32 the north.” So I looked up toward the north, and I noticed to the north of the altar gate was this statue of jealousy at the entrance.
8:6 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing – the great abominations that the people 33 of Israel are practicing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see greater abominations than these!”
8:7 He brought me to the entrance of the court, and as I watched, I noticed a hole in the wall. 8:8 He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and discovered a doorway.
8:9 He said to me, “Go in and see the evil abominations they are practicing here.” 8:10 So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure 34 of creeping thing and beast – detestable images 35 – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. 36 8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel 37 (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant 38 vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.
8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? 39 For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’” 8:13 He said to me, “You will see them practicing even greater abominations!”
8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed 40 women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 41 8:15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even greater abominations than these!”
8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there 42 at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, 43 were about twenty-five 44 men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, 45 facing east – they were worshiping the sun 46 toward the east!
8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! 47 8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare 48 them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”
9:1 Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, 49 you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!” 9:2 Next, I noticed 50 six men 51 coming from the direction of the upper gate 52 which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit 53 at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.
9:3 Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub where it had rested to the threshold of the temple. 54 He called to the man dressed in linen who had the writing kit at his side. 9:4 The Lord said to him, “Go through the city of Jerusalem 55 and put a mark 56 on the foreheads of the people who moan and groan over all the abominations practiced in it.”
9:5 While I listened, he said to the others, 57 “Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare 58 anyone! 9:6 Old men, young men, young women, little children, and women – wipe them out! But do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary!” So they began with the elders who were at the front of the temple.
9:7 He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courtyards with corpses. Go!” So they went out and struck people down throughout the city. 9:8 While they were striking them down, I was left alone, and I threw myself face down and cried out, “Ah, sovereign Lord! Will you destroy the entire remnant of Israel when you pour out your fury on Jerusalem?”
9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, 59 for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ 60 9:10 But as for me, my eye will not pity them nor will I spare 61 them; I hereby repay them for what they have done.” 62
9:11 Next I noticed the man dressed in linen with the writing kit at his side bringing back word: “I have done just as you commanded me.”
[6:2] 1 tn Heb “set your face against.” The expression occurs at the beginning of Ezekiel’s prophetic oracles in Ezek 13:17; 20:46; 21:2; 25:2; 28:21; 29:2; 35:2; 38:2.
[6:2] sn Based on comparison to a similar expression in Ugaritic, the phrase may imply that Ezekiel was to actually go to these locations to deliver his message.
[6:3] 2 tn The phrase “mountains of Israel” occurs only in the book of Ezekiel (6:2, 3; 19:9; 33:28; 34:13, 14; 35:12; 36:1, 4, 8; 37:22; 38:8; 39:2, 4, 17). The expression refers to the whole land of Israel.
[6:3] sn The mountainous terrain of Israel would contrast with the exiles’ habitat in the river valley of Babylonia.
[6:3] 3 tn The introductory formula “Hear the word of the sovereign
[6:3] 4 tn Heb “Look I, I am bringing.” The repetition of the pronoun draws attention to the speaker. The construction also indicates that the action is soon to come; the Lord is “about to bring a sword against” them.
[6:3] 5 tn The Hebrew term refers to elevated platforms where pagan sacrifices were performed.
[6:4] 6 tn Thirty-nine of the forty-eight biblical occurrences of this Hebrew word are found in the book of Ezekiel.
[6:4] sn This verse is probably based on Lev 26:30 in which God forecasts that he will destroy their high places, cut off their incense altars, and set their corpses by the corpses of their idols.
[6:5] 7 tc This first sentence, which explains the meaning of the last sentence of the previous verse, does not appear in the LXX and may be an instance of a marginal explanatory note making its way into the text.
[6:6] 8 tn The Hebrew verb translated “wiped out” is used to describe the judgment of the Flood (Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23).
[6:7] 9 sn The phrase you will know that I am the
[6:8] 10 tn Heb “when you have fugitives from the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the lands.”
[6:9] 11 tn The words “they will realize” are not in the Hebrew text; they are added here for stylistic reasons since this clause assumes the previous verb “to remember” or “to take into account.”
[6:9] 12 tn Heb “how I was broken by their adulterous heart.” The image of God being “broken” is startling, but perfectly natural within the metaphorical framework of God as offended husband. The idiom must refer to the intense grief that Israel’s unfaithfulness caused God. For a discussion of the syntax and semantics of the Hebrew text, see M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:134.
[6:9] 13 tn Heb adds “in their faces.”
[6:10] 14 tn Heb “not in vain did I speak to do to them this catastrophe.” The wording of the last half of v. 10 parallels God’s declaration after the sin of the golden calf (Exod 32:14).
[6:11] 15 sn By the sword and by famine and by pestilence. A similar trilogy of punishments is mentioned in Lev 26:25-26. See also Jer 14:12; 21:9; 27:8, 13; 29:18).
[6:12] 16 tn Heb “the one who is left, the one who is spared.”
[6:13] 17 sn By referring to every high hill…all the mountaintops…under every green tree and every leafy oak Ezekiel may be expanding on the phraseology of Deut 12:2 (see 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 16:4; 17:10; Jer 2:20; 3:6, 13; 2 Chr 28:4).
[6:14] 18 sn I will stretch out my hand against them is a common expression in the book of Ezekiel (14:9, 13; 16:27; 25:7; 35:3).
[6:14] 19 tc The Vulgate reads the name as “Riblah,” a city north of Damascus. The MT reads Diblah, a city otherwise unknown. The letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) may have been confused in the Hebrew text. The town of Riblah was in the land of Hamath (2 Kgs 23:33) which represented the northern border of Israel (Ezek 47:14).
[8:1] 20 tc The LXX reads “In the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth of the month.”
[8:1] sn In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month would be September 17, 592
[8:1] sn Hand in the OT can refer metaphorically to power, authority, or influence. In Ezekiel God’s hand being on the prophet is regularly associated with communication or a vision from God (3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).
[8:1] 22 tn Heb “fell upon me there,” that is, God’s influence came over him.
[8:2] 23 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb (so also throughout the chapter).
[8:2] 24 tc The MT reads “fire” rather than “man,” the reading of the LXX. The nouns are very similar in Hebrew.
[8:2] 25 tc The MT reads “what appeared to be his waist and downwards was fire.” The LXX omits “what appeared to be,” reading “from his waist to below was fire.” Suggesting that “like what appeared to be” belongs before “fire,” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:277) points out the resulting poetic symmetry of form with the next line as followed in the translation here.
[8:2] 26 tc The LXX omits “like a brightness.”
[8:3] 28 tn The Hebrew term is normally used as an architectural term in describing the pattern of the tabernacle or temple or a representation of it (see Exod 25:8; 1 Chr 28:11).
[8:3] 29 tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.
[8:3] 30 map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[8:5] 32 tn Heb “lift your eyes (to) the way of.”
[8:10] 35 tn Heb “detestable.” The word is often used to describe the figures of foreign gods.
[8:10] 36 sn These engravings were prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut 4:16-18).
[8:11] 37 sn Note the contrast between these seventy men who represented Israel and the seventy elders who ate the covenant meal before God, inaugurating the covenant relationship (Exod 24:1, 9).
[8:11] 38 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
[8:12] 39 tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[8:12] sn This type of image is explicitly prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 26:1).
[8:14] 40 tn Given the context this could be understood as a shock, e.g., idiomatically “Good grief! I saw….”
[8:14] 41 sn The worship of Tammuz included the observation of the annual death and descent into the netherworld of the god Dumuzi. The practice was observed by women in the ancient Near East over a period of centuries.
[8:16] 42 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.
[8:16] 43 sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).
[8:16] 44 tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.
[8:16] tn Or “exactly twenty-five.”
[8:16] 45 sn The temple faced east.
[8:16] 46 tn Or “the sun god.”
[8:16] sn The worship of astral entities may have begun during the reign of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:5).
[8:17] 47 tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”
[8:18] 48 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
[9:1] 49 tc Heb “they approached.” Reading the imperative assumes the same consonantal text but different vowels.
[9:2] 50 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[9:2] 51 sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.
[9:2] 52 sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).
[9:2] 53 tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.
[9:4] 55 tn Heb “through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem.”
[9:4] map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[9:4] 56 tn The word translated “mark” is in Hebrew the letter ת (tav). Outside this context the only other occurrence of the word is in Job 31:35. In ancient Hebrew script this letter was written like the letter X.
[9:4] sn For a similar concept in the Bible, see Rev 7:2-4; 13:16; 14:9, 11; 20:4; 22:4.
[9:5] 57 tn Heb “to these he said in my ears.”
[9:5] 58 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
[9:9] 59 tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”
[9:9] 60 sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.
[9:10] 61 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
[9:10] 62 tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.” The same expression occurs in 1 Kgs 8:32; Ezek 11:21; 16:43; 22:31.
