Yehezkiel 19:7

19:7 He broke down ¹  their strongholds ²  and devastated their cities.

The land and everything in it was frightened at the sound of his roaring.

Yehezkiel 22:7

22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ³  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ⁴  within you.

Yehezkiel 22:25

22:25 Her princes ⁵  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ⁶  within it.

Yehezkiel 44:22

44:22 They must not marry a widow or a divorcee, but they may marry a virgin from the house of Israel ⁷  or a widow who is a priest’s widow.

¹ tc The Hebrew text reads “knew,” but is apparently the result of a ר-ד (dalet-resh) confusion. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. However, Allen retains the reading “widows” as the object of the verb, which he understands in the sense of “do harm to,” and translates the line: “He did harm to women by making them widows” (p. 282). The line also appears to be lacking a beat for the meter of the poem.

² tc The Hebrew text reads “widows” instead of “strongholds,” apparently due to a confusion of ר (resh) and ל (lamed). L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284) favors the traditional text, understanding “widows” in the sense of “women made widows.” D. I. Block, (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:602) also defends the Hebrew text, arguing that the image is that of a dominant male lion who takes over the pride and by copulating with the females lays claim to his predecessor’s “widows.”

³ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

⁴ tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.

⁵ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

⁶ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

⁷ tn Heb “from the offspring of the house of Israel.”