Yehezkiel 1:4-14
Konteks1:4 As I watched, I noticed 1 a windstorm 2 coming from the north – an enormous cloud, with lightning flashing, 3 such that bright light 4 rimmed it and came from 5 it like glowing amber 6 from the middle of a fire. 1:5 In the fire 7 were what looked like 8 four living beings. 9 In their appearance they had human form, 10 1:6 but each had four faces and four wings. 1:7 Their legs were straight, but the soles of their feet were like calves’ feet. They gleamed 11 like polished bronze. 1:8 They had human hands 12 under their wings on their four sides. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, 1:9 their wings touched each other; they did not turn as they moved, but went straight ahead. 13
1:10 Their faces had this appearance: Each of the four had the face of a man, with the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left and also the face of an eagle. 14 1:11 Their wings were spread out above them; each had two wings touching the wings of one of the other beings on either side and two wings covering their bodies. 1:12 Each moved straight ahead 15 – wherever the spirit 16 would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 1:13 In the middle 17 of the living beings was something like 18 burning coals of fire 19 or like torches. It moved back and forth among the living beings. It was bright, and lightning was flashing out of the fire. 1:14 The living beings moved backward and forward as quickly as flashes of lightning. 20
Yehezkiel 8:2-14
Konteks8:2 As I watched, I noticed 21 a form that appeared to be a man. 22 From his waist downward was something like fire, 23 and from his waist upward something like a brightness, 24 like an amber glow. 25 8:3 He stretched out the form 26 of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind 27 lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem 28 by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue 29 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 30 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 31 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 32 of creeping thing and beast – detestable images 33 – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. 34 8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel 35 (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant 36 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? 37 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 38 women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 39
Yehezkiel 10:1-22
Konteks10:1 As I watched, I saw 40 on the platform 41 above the top of the cherubim something like a sapphire, resembling the shape of a throne, appearing above them. 10:2 The Lord 42 said to the man dressed in linen, “Go between the wheelwork 43 underneath the cherubim. 44 Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” He went as I watched.
10:3 (The cherubim were standing on the south side 45 of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.) 10:4 Then the glory of the Lord arose from the cherub and moved to the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud while the court was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory. 10:5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard from the outer court, like the sound of the sovereign God 46 when he speaks.
10:6 When the Lord 47 commanded the man dressed in linen, “Take fire from within the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man 48 went in and stood by one of the wheels. 49 10:7 Then one of the cherubim 50 stretched out his hand 51 toward the fire which was among the cherubim. He took some and put it into the hands of the man dressed in linen, who took it and left. 10:8 (The cherubim appeared to have the form 52 of human hands under their wings.)
10:9 As I watched, I noticed 53 four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; 54 the wheels gleamed like jasper. 55 10:10 As for their appearance, all four of them looked the same, something like a wheel within a wheel. 56 10:11 When they 57 moved, they would go in any of the four directions they faced without turning as they moved; in the direction the head would turn they would follow 58 without turning as they moved, 10:12 along with their entire bodies, 59 their backs, their hands, and their wings. The wheels of the four of them were full of eyes all around. 10:13 As for their wheels, they were called “the wheelwork” 60 as I listened. 10:14 Each of the cherubim 61 had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub, 62 the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.
10:15 The cherubim rose up; these were the living beings 63 I saw at the Kebar River. 10:16 When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them; when the cherubim spread 64 their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not move from their side. 10:17 When the cherubim 65 stood still, the wheels 66 stood still, and when they rose up, the wheels 67 rose up with them, for the spirit 68 of the living beings 69 was in the wheels. 70
10:18 Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. 10:19 The cherubim spread 71 their wings, and they rose up from the earth 72 while I watched (when they went the wheels went alongside them). They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the Lord’s temple as the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.
10:20 These were the living creatures 73 which I saw at the Kebar River underneath the God of Israel; I knew that they were cherubim. 10:21 Each had four faces; each had four wings and the form of human hands under the wings. 10:22 As for the form of their faces, they were the faces whose appearance I had seen at the Kebar River. Each one moved straight ahead.
Yehezkiel 11:24-25
Konteks11:24 Then a wind 74 lifted me up and carried me to the exiles in Babylonia, 75 in the vision given to me by the Spirit of God.
Then the vision I had seen went up from me. 11:25 So I told the exiles everything 76 the Lord had shown me.
Yehezkiel 37:1-10
Konteks37:1 The hand 77 of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed 78 me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones. 37:2 He made me walk all around among them. 79 I realized 80 there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry. 37:3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.” 37:4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 37:5 This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath 81 into you and you will live. 37:6 I will put tendons 82 on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath 83 in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a sound when I prophesied – I heard 84 a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 37:8 As I watched, I saw 85 tendons on them, then muscles appeared, 86 and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath 87 in them.
37:9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, 88 – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’” 37:10 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.
[1:4] 1 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[1:4] 2 sn Storms are often associated with appearances of God (see Nah 1:3; Ps 18:12). In some passages, the “storm” (סְעָרָה, sÿ’arah) may be a whirlwind (Job 38:1, 2 Kgs 2:1).
[1:4] 3 tn Heb “fire taking hold of itself,” perhaps repeatedly. The phrase occurs elsewhere only in Exod 9:24 in association with a hailstorm. The LXX interprets the phrase as fire flashing like lightning, but it is possibly a self-sustaining blaze of divine origin. The LXX also reverses the order of the descriptors, i.e., “light went around it and fire flashed like lightning within it.”
[1:4] 4 tn Or “radiance.” The term also occurs in 1:27b.
[1:4] 5 tc Or “was in it”; cf. LXX ἐν τῷ μέσῳ αὐτοῦ (en tw mesw autou, “in its midst”).
[1:4] 6 tn The LXX translates חַשְׁמַל (khashmal) with the word ἤλεκτρον (hlektron, “electrum”; so NAB), an alloy of silver and gold, perhaps envisioning a comparison to the glow of molten metal.
[1:5] 7 tc Heb “from its midst” (מִתּוֹכָהּ, mitokhah). The LXX reads ἐν τῷ μέσῳ (en tw mesw, “in the midst of it”). The LXX also reads ἐν for מִתּוֹךְ (mitokh) in v. 4. The translator of the LXX of Ezekiel either read בְּתוֹךְ (bÿtokh, “within”) in his Hebrew exemplar or could not imagine how מִתּוֹךְ could make sense and so chose to use ἐν. The Hebrew would be understood by adding “from its midst emerged the forms of four living beings.”
[1:5] 8 tn Heb “form, figure, appearance.”
[1:5] 9 tn The Hebrew term is feminine plural yet thirty-three of the forty-five pronominal suffixes and verbal references which refer to the living beings in the chapter are masculine plural. The grammatical vacillation between masculine and feminine plurals suggests the difficulty Ezekiel had in penning these words as he was overcome by the vision of God. In ancient Near Eastern sculpture very similar images of part-human, part-animal creatures serve as throne and sky bearers. For a discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:26-31. Ezekiel’s vision is an example of contextualization, where God accommodates his self-revelation to cultural expectations and norms.
[1:5] 10 sn They had human form may mean they stood erect.
[1:7] 11 sn The Hebrew verb translated gleamed occurs only here in the OT.
[1:8] 12 tc The MT reads “his hand” while many Hebrew
[1:9] 13 tn Heb “They each went in the direction of one of his faces.”
[1:10] 14 tc The MT has an additional word at the beginning of v. 11, וּפְנֵיהֶם (ufÿnehem, “and their faces”), which is missing from the LXX. As the rest of the verse only applies to wings, “their faces” would have to somehow be understood in the previous clause. But this would be very awkward and is doubly problematic since “their faces” are already introduced as the topic at the beginning of v. 10. The Hebrew scribe appears to have copied the phrase “and their faces and their wings” from v. 8, where it introduces the content of 9-11. Only “and (as for) their wings” belongs here.
[1:12] 15 tn See the note on “straight ahead” in v. 9.
[1:13] 17 tc The MT reads “and the form of the creatures” (וּדְמוּת הַחַיּוֹת, udÿmut hakhayyot). The LXX reads “and in the midst of the creatures,” suggesting an underlying Hebrew text of וּמִתּוֹךְ הַחַיּוֹת (umittokh hakhayyot). The subsequent description of something moving among the creatures supports the LXX.
[1:13] 18 tc The MT reads “and the form of the creatures – their appearance was like burning coals of fire.” The LXX reads “in the midst of the creatures was a sight like burning coals of fire.” The MT may have adjusted “appearance” to “their appearance” to fit their reading of the beginning of the verse (see the tc note on “in the middle”). See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:46.
[1:13] 19 sn Burning coals of fire are also a part of David’s poetic description of God’s appearance (see 2 Sam 22:9, 13; Ps 18:8).
[1:14] 20 tc The LXX omits v. 14 and may well be correct. The verse may be a later explanatory gloss of the end of v. 13 which was copied into the main text. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:46.
[1:14] tn Lit., “like the appearance of lightning.” The Hebrew term translated “lightning” occurs only here in the OT. In postbiblical Hebrew the term refers to a lightning flash.
[8:2] 21 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] 22 tc The MT reads “fire” rather than “man,” the reading of the LXX. The nouns are very similar in Hebrew.
[8:2] 23 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] 24 tc The LXX omits “like a brightness.”
[8:3] 26 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] 27 tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.
[8:3] 28 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] 30 tn Heb “lift your eyes (to) the way of.”
[8:10] 33 tn Heb “detestable.” The word is often used to describe the figures of foreign gods.
[8:10] 34 sn These engravings were prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut 4:16-18).
[8:11] 35 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] 36 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
[8:12] 37 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] 38 tn Given the context this could be understood as a shock, e.g., idiomatically “Good grief! I saw….”
[8:14] 39 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.
[10:1] 40 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[10:1] 41 tn Or “like a dome.” See 1:22-26.
[10:2] 42 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the
[10:2] 43 tn The Hebrew term often refers to chariot wheels (Isa 28:28; Ezek 23:24; 26:10).
[10:2] 44 tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and Targum
[10:3] 45 tn Heb “right side.”
[10:5] 46 tn The name (“El Shaddai”) has often been translated “God Almighty,” primarily because Jerome translated it omnipotens (“all powerful”) in the Latin Vulgate. There has been much debate over the meaning of the name. For discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names Shaddai and Abram,” JBL 54 (1935): 173-210; R. Gordis, “The Biblical Root sdy-sd,” JTS 41 (1940): 34-43; and especially T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 69-72.
[10:6] 47 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
[10:6] 48 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man dressed in linen) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:7] 50 tn Heb “the cherub.”
[10:7] 51 tn The Hebrew text adds, “from among the cherubim.”
[10:8] 52 tn The Hebrew term is normally used as an architectural term in describing the plan or pattern of the tabernacle or temple or a representation of it (see Exod 25:8; 1 Chr 28:11).
[10:9] 53 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[10:9] 54 tn The MT repeats this phrase, a clear case of dittography.
[10:9] 55 tn Heb “Tarshish stone.” The meaning is uncertain. The term has also been translated “topaz” (NEB), “beryl” (KJV, NASB, NRSV), and “chrysolite” (RSV, NIV).
[10:10] 56 tn Or “like a wheel at right angles to another wheel.” Some envision concentric wheels here, while others propose “a globe-like structure in which two wheels stand at right angles” (L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:33-34). See also 1:16.
[10:11] 57 sn That is, the cherubim.
[10:11] 58 tn Many interpreters assume that the human face of each cherub was the one that looked forward.
[10:12] 59 tc The phrase “along with their entire bodies” is absent from the LXX and may be a gloss explaining the following words.
[10:13] 60 tn Or “the whirling wheels.”
[10:14] 61 tn Heb “each one”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:14] 62 sn The living creature described here is thus slightly different from the one described in Ezek 1:10, where a bull’s face appeared instead of a cherub’s. Note that some English versions harmonize the two descriptions and read the same here as in 1:10 (cf. NAB, NLT “an ox”; TEV, CEV “a bull”). This may be justified based on v. 22, which states the creatures’ appearance was the same.
[10:15] 63 tn Heb “it was the living creature.”
[10:17] 65 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:17] 66 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:17] 67 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:17] 69 tn Heb “living creature.”
[10:17] 70 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:19] 72 tn Or “the ground” (NIV, NCV).
[10:20] 73 tn Heb “That was the living creature.”
[11:24] 74 tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.
[11:24] 75 tn Heb “to Chaldea.”
[11:25] 76 tn Heb “all the words of.”
[37:1] 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).
[37:1] 78 tn Heb “caused me to rest.”
[37:2] 79 tn Heb “and he made me pass over them, around, around.”
[37:2] 80 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and is here translated as “I realized” because it results from Ezekiel’s recognition of the situation around him. In Hebrew, the exclamation is repeated in the following sentence.
[37:5] 81 tn Heb “I am about to bring a spirit.”
[37:6] 82 tn The exact physiological meaning of the term is uncertain. In addition to v. 8, the term occurs only in Gen 32:33; Job 10:11; 40:17; and Jer 48:4.
[37:7] 84 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[37:8] 85 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
