Yehezkiel 3:1--7:27
Konteks3:1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you 1 – eat this scroll – and then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 3:2 So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.
3:3 He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving to you.” So I ate it, 2 and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.
3:4 He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. 3:5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech 3 and difficult language, 4 but 5 to the house of Israel – 3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand 6 – surely if 7 I had sent you to them, they would listen to you! 3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, 8 because they are not willing to listen to me, 9 for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. 10
3:8 “I have made your face adamant 11 to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads. 3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! 12 Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, 13 for they are a rebellious house.”
3:10 And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully. 3:11 Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, 14 and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”
3:12 Then a wind lifted me up 15 and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me as the glory of the Lord rose from its place, 16 3:13 and the sound of the living beings’ wings brushing against each other, and the sound of the wheels alongside them, a great rumbling sound. 3:14 A wind lifted me up and carried me away. I went bitterly, 17 my spirit full of fury, and the hand of the Lord rested powerfully 18 on me. 3:15 I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, 19 who lived by the Kebar River. 20 I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days. 21
3:16 At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 22 3:17 “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman 23 for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me. 3:18 When I say to the wicked, “You will certainly die,” 24 and you do not warn him – you do not speak out to warn the wicked to turn from his wicked deed and wicked lifestyle so that he may live – that wicked person will die for his iniquity, 25 but I will hold you accountable for his death. 26 3:19 But as for you, if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wicked deed and from his wicked lifestyle, he will die for his iniquity but you will have saved your own life. 27
3:20 “When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle 28 before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death. 3:21 However, if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he 29 does not sin, he will certainly live because he was warned, and you will have saved your own life.”
3:22 The hand 30 of the Lord rested on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the valley, 31 and I will speak with you there.” 3:23 So I got up and went out to the valley, and the glory of the Lord was standing there, just like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, 32 and I threw myself face down.
3:24 Then a wind 33 came into me and stood me on my feet. The Lord 34 spoke to me and said, “Go shut yourself in your house. 3:25 As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and tie you up with them, so you cannot go out among them. 3:26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to reprove 35 them, for they are a rebellious house. 3:27 But when I speak with you, I will loosen your tongue 36 and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says.’ Those who listen will listen, but the indifferent will refuse, 37 for they are a rebellious house.
4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick 38 and set it in front of you. Inscribe 39 a city on it – Jerusalem. 4:2 Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp 40 against it! Post soldiers outside it 41 and station battering rams around it. 4:3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan 42 and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign 43 for the house of Israel.
4:4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity 44 of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 4:5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days 45 for you – 390 days. 46 So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 47
4:6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days 48 – I have assigned one day for each year. 4:7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 4:8 Look here, I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege. 49
4:9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, 50 put them in a single container, and make food 51 from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side – 390 days 52 – you will eat it. 4:10 The food you eat will be eight ounces 53 a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed 54 times. 4:11 And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half; 55 you must drink it at fixed times. 4:12 And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” 56 4:13 And the Lord said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations 57 where I will banish them.”
4:14 And I said, “Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat 58 has never entered my mouth.”
4:15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”
4:16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply 59 in Jerusalem. 60 They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 4:17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. 61
5:1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. 62 Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. 63 Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off. 5:2 Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them. 5:3 But take a few strands of hair 64 from those and tie them in the ends of your garment. 65 5:4 Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, 66 and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.
5:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her. 5:6 Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations 67 and the countries around her. 68 Indeed, they 69 have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.
5:7 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you are more arrogant 70 than the nations around you, 71 you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even 72 carried out the regulations of the nations around you!
5:8 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: I – even I – am against you, 73 and I will execute judgment 74 among you while the nations watch. 75 5:9 I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again because of all your abominable practices. 76 5:10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, 77 and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors 78 to the winds. 79
5:11 “Therefore, as surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare 80 you. 5:12 A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. 81 A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, 82 and a third I will scatter to the winds. I will unleash a sword behind them. 5:13 Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. 83 Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy 84 when I have fully vented my rage against them.
5:14 “I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 5:15 You will be 85 an object of scorn and taunting, 86 a prime example of destruction 87 among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. 88 I, the Lord, have spoken! 5:16 I will shoot against them deadly, 89 destructive 90 arrows of famine, 91 which I will shoot to destroy you. 92 I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. 93 5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. 94 Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, 95 and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
6:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 6:2 “Son of man, turn toward 96 the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them: 6:3 Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, 97 Hear the word of the sovereign Lord! 98 This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing 99 a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. 100 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. 101 6:5 I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, 102 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. 103 6:7 The slain will fall among you and then you will know that I am the Lord. 104
6:8 “‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. 105 6:9 Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize 106 how I was crushed by their unfaithful 107 heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves 108 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.’ 109
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. 110 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 111 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, 112 the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols. 6:14 I will stretch out my hand against them 113 and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, 114 in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”
7:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 7:2 “You, son of man – this is what the sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel: An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land! 115 7:3 The end is now upon you, and I will release my anger against you; I will judge 116 you according to your behavior, 117 I will hold you accountable for 118 all your abominable practices. 7:4 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare 119 you. 120 For I will hold you responsible for your behavior, 121 and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. 122 Then you will know that I am the Lord!
7:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: A disaster 123 – a one-of-a-kind 124 disaster – is coming! 7:6 An end comes 125 – the end comes! 126 It has awakened against you 127 – the end is upon you! Look, it is coming! 128 7:7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day 129 is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. 130 7:8 Soon now I will pour out my rage 131 on you; I will fully vent my anger against you. I will judge you according to your behavior. I will hold you accountable for all your abominable practices. 7:9 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare 132 you. For your behavior I will hold you accountable, 133 and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking you. 134
7:10 “Look, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out! The staff has budded, pride has blossomed! 7:11 Violence 135 has grown into a staff that supports wickedness. Not one of them will be left 136 – not from their crowd, not from their wealth, not from their prominence. 137 7:12 The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath 138 comes against their whole crowd. 7:13 The customer will no longer pay the seller 139 while both parties are alive, for the vision against their whole crowd 140 will not be revoked. Each person, for his iniquity, 141 will fail to preserve his life.
7:14 “They have blown the trumpet and everyone is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my anger is against their whole crowd. 142 7:15 The sword is outside; pestilence and famine are inside the house. Whoever is in the open field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume everyone in the city. 7:16 Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan – each one for his iniquity. 7:17 All of their hands will hang limp; their knees will be wet with urine. 143 7:18 They will wear sackcloth, terror will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and all of their heads will be shaved bald. 144 7:19 They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. 145 Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury. 146 They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth 147 was the obstacle leading to their iniquity. 148 7:20 They rendered the beauty of his ornaments into pride, 149 and with it they made their abominable images – their detestable idols. Therefore I will render it filthy to them. 7:21 I will give it to foreigners as loot, to the world’s wicked ones as plunder, and they will desecrate it. 7:22 I will turn my face away from them and they will desecrate my treasured place. 150 Vandals will enter it and desecrate it. 151 7:23 (Make the chain, 152 because the land is full of murder 153 and the city is full of violence.) 7:24 I will bring the most wicked of the nations and they will take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong, and their sanctuaries 154 will be desecrated. 7:25 Terror 155 is coming! They will seek peace, but find none. 7:26 Disaster after disaster will come, and one rumor after another. They will seek a vision from a prophet; priestly instruction will disappear, along with counsel from the elders. 7:27 The king will mourn and the prince will be clothed with shuddering; the hands of the people of the land will tremble. Based on their behavior I will deal with them, and by their standard of justice 156 I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”
[3:1] 1 tn Heb “eat what you find.”
[3:3] 2 tc Heb “I ate,” a first common singular preterite plus paragogic he (ה). The ancient versions read “I ate it,” which is certainly the meaning in the context, and indicates they read the he as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix. The Masoretes typically wrote a mappiq in the he for the pronominal suffix but apparently missed this one.
[3:3] sn I ate it. A similar idea of consuming God’s word is found in Jer 15:16 and Rev 10:10, where it is also compared to honey and may be specifically reminiscent of this text.
[3:5] 3 tn Heb “deep of lip” (in the sense of incomprehensible).
[3:5] 4 tn Heb “heavy of tongue.” Similar language occurs in Exod 4:10; Isa 33:19.
[3:5] 5 tn The conjunction “but” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied from the context.
[3:6] 7 tc The MT reads “if not” but most ancient versions translate only “if.” The expression occurs with this sense in Isa 5:9; 14:24. See also Ezek 34:8; 36:5; 38:19.
[3:7] 8 sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.
[3:7] 9 sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.
[3:7] 10 tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”
[3:8] 11 tn Heb “strong, resolute.”
[3:9] 12 tn The Hebrew term translated “diamond” is parallel to “iron” in Jer 17:1. The Hebrew uses two terms which are both translated at times as “flint,” but here one is clearly harder than the other. The translation “diamond” attempts to reflect this distinction in English.
[3:9] 13 tn Heb “of their faces.”
[3:11] 14 tn Heb “to the sons of your people.”
[3:12] 15 sn See note on “wind” in 2:2.
[3:12] 16 tc This translation accepts the emendation suggested in BHS of בְּרוּם (bÿrum) for בָּרוּךְ (barukh). The letters mem (מ) and kaph (כ) were easily confused in the old script while בָּרוּךְ (“blessed be”) both implies a quotation which is out of place here and also does not fit the later phrase, “from its place,” which requires a verb of motion.
[3:14] 17 tn The traditional interpretation is that Ezekiel embarked on his mission with bitterness and anger, either reflecting God’s attitude toward the sinful people or his own feelings about having to carry out such an unpleasant task. L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:13) takes “bitterly” as a misplaced marginal note and understands the following word, normally translated “anger,” in the sense of fervor or passion. He translates, “I was passionately moved” (p. 4). Another option is to take the word translated “bitterly” as a verb meaning “strengthened” (attested in Ugaritic). See G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 152.
[3:14] 18 tn Heb “the hand of the Lord was on me heavily.” The “hand of the Lord” is a metaphor for his power or influence; the modifier conveys intensity.
[3:14] sn In Ezekiel God’s “hand” being on the prophet is regularly associated with communication or a vision from God (1:3; 3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).
[3:15] 19 sn The name “Tel Abib” is a transliteration of an Akkadian term meaning “mound of the flood,” i.e., an ancient mound. It is not to be confused with the modern city of Tel Aviv in Israel.
[3:15] 21 sn A similar response to a divine encounter is found in Acts 9:8-9.
[3:16] 22 sn This phrase occurs about fifty times in the book of Ezekiel.
[3:17] 23 tn The literal role of a watchman is described in 2 Sam 18:24; 2 Kgs 9:17.
[3:18] 24 sn Even though the infinitive absolute is used to emphasize the warning, the warning is still implicitly conditional, as the following context makes clear.
[3:18] 25 tn Or “in his punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and v. 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”
[3:18] 26 tn Heb “his blood I will seek from your hand.” The expression “seek blood from the hand” is equivalent to requiring the death penalty (2 Sam 4:11-12).
[3:19] 27 tn Verses 17-19 are repeated in Ezek 33:7-9.
[3:20] 28 tn Or “stumbling block.” The Hebrew term refers to an obstacle in the road in Lev 19:14.
[3:21] 29 tn Heb “the righteous man.”
[3:22] 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 (1:3; 3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).
[3:22] 31 sn Ezekiel had another vision at this location, recounted in Ezek 37.
[3:24] 33 tn See the note on “wind” in 2:2.
[3:26] 35 tn Heb “you will not be to them a reprover.” In Isa 29:21 and Amos 5:10 “a reprover” issued rebuke at the city gate.
[3:27] 36 tn Heb “open your mouth.”
[3:27] 37 tn Heb “the listener will listen, the refuser will refuse.” Because the word for listening can also mean obeying, the nuance may be that the obedient will listen, or that the one who listens will obey. Also, although the verbs are not jussive as pointed in the MT, some translate them with a volitive sense: “the one who listens – let that one listen, the one who refuses – let that one refuse.”
[4:1] 38 sn Ancient Near Eastern bricks were 10 to 24 inches long and 6 to 13 1/2 inches wide.
[4:1] 39 tn Or perhaps “draw.”
[4:2] 41 tn Heb “set camps against it.”
[4:3] 42 tn Or “a griddle,” that is, some sort of plate for cooking.
[4:3] 43 tn That is, a symbolic object lesson.
[4:4] 44 tn Or “punishment” (also in vv. 5, 6).
[4:5] 45 tn Heb “I have assigned for you that the years of their iniquity be the number of days.” Num 14:33-34 is an example of the reverse, where the days were converted into years, the number of days spying out the land becoming the number of years of the wilderness wanderings.
[4:5] 46 tc The LXX reads “190 days.”
[4:5] sn The significance of the number 390 is not clear. The best explanation is that “days” are used figuratively for years and the number refers to the years of the sinfulness of Israel during the period of the First Temple. Some understand the number to refer to the length of the division of the northern and southern kingdoms down to the fall of Jerusalem (931-586
[4:5] 47 tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.
[4:6] 48 sn The number 40 may refer in general to the period of Judah’s exile using the number of years Israel was punished in the wilderness. In this case, however, one would need to translate, “you will bear the punishment of the house of Judah.”
[4:8] 49 sn The action surely refers to a series of daily acts rather than to a continuous period.
[4:9] 50 sn Wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. All these foods were common in Mesopotamia where Ezekiel was exiled.
[4:9] 52 tc The LXX reads “190 days.”
[4:10] 53 sn Eight ounces (Heb “twenty shekels”). The standards for weighing money varied considerably in the ancient Near East, but the generally accepted weight for the shekel is 11.5 grams (0.4 ounce). This makes the weight of grain about 230 grams here (8 ounces).
[4:10] 54 tn Heb “from time to time.”
[4:11] 55 sn A pint and a half [Heb “one-sixth of a hin”]. One-sixth of a hin was a quantity of liquid equal to about 1.3 pints or 0.6 liters.
[4:12] 56 sn Human waste was to remain outside the camp of the Israelites according to Deut 23:15.
[4:13] 57 sn Unclean food among the nations. Lands outside of Israel were considered unclean (Josh 22:19; Amos 7:17).
[4:14] 58 tn The Hebrew term refers to sacrificial meat not eaten by the appropriate time (Lev 7:18; 19:7).
[4:16] 59 tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support.
[4:16] 60 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[4:17] 61 tn Or “in their punishment.” Ezek 4:16-17 alludes to Lev 26:26, 39. The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here, 3:18, 19; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”
[5:1] 62 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
[5:1] 63 tn Heb, “pass (it) over your head and your beard.”
[5:3] 64 tn Heb “from there a few in number.” The word “strands” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
[5:3] 65 sn Objects could be carried in the end of a garment (Hag 2:12).
[5:4] 66 tn Heb “into the midst of” (so KJV, ASV). This phrase has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.
[5:6] 67 sn The nations are subject to a natural law according to Gen 9; see also Amos 1:3-2:3; Jonah 1:2.
[5:6] 68 tn Heb “she defied my laws, becoming wicked more than the nations, and [she defied] my statutes [becoming wicked] more than the countries around her.”
[5:6] 69 sn One might conclude that the subject of the plural verbs is the nations/countries, but the context (vv. 5-6a) indicates that the people of Jerusalem are in view. The text shifts from using the feminine singular (referring to personified Jerusalem) to the plural (referring to Jerusalem’s residents). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:73.
[5:7] 70 tn Traditionally this difficult form has been derived from a hypothetical root הָמוֹן (hamon), supposedly meaning “be in tumult/uproar,” but such a verb occurs nowhere else. It is more likely that it is to be derived from a root מָנוֹן (manon), meaning “disdain” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:52). A derivative from this root is used in Prov 29:21 of a rebellious servant. See HALOT 600 s.v. מָנוֹן.
[5:7] 71 sn You are more arrogant than the nations around you. Israel is accused of being worse than the nations in Ezek 16:27; 2 Kgs 21:11; Jer 2:11.
[5:7] 72 tc Some Hebrew
[5:8] 73 tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8. The Hebrew text switches to a second feminine singular form here, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed (see vv. 5-6a). The address to Jerusalem continues through v. 15. In vv. 16-17 the second masculine plural is used, as the people are addressed.
[5:8] 74 tn The Hebrew text uses wordplay here to bring out the appropriate nature of God’s judgment. “Execute” translates the same Hebrew verb translated “carried out” (literally meaning “do”) in v. 7, while “judgment” in v. 8 and “regulations” in v. 7 translate the same Hebrew noun (meaning “regulations” or in some cases “judgments” executed on those who break laws). The point seems to be this: God would “carry out judgments” against those who refused to “carry out” his “laws.”
[5:8] 75 tn Heb “in the sight of the nations.”
[5:8] sn This is one of the ironies of the passage. The Lord set Israel among the nations for honor and praise as they would be holy and obey God’s law as told in Ezek 5:5 and Deut 26:16-19. The practice of these laws and statutes would make the peoples consider Israel wise. (See Deut 4:5-8, where the words for laws and statutes are the same as those used here). Since Israel did not obey, they are made a different kind of object lesson to the nations, not by their obedience but in their punishment as told in Ezek 5:8 and Deut 29:24-29. Yet Deut 30 goes on to say that when they remember the cursings and blessings of the covenant and repent, God will restore them from the nations to which they have been scattered.
[5:9] 76 tn Or “abominable idols.”
[5:10] 77 tn In context “you” refers to the city of Jerusalem. To make this clear for the modern reader, “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation in apposition to “you.”
[5:10] sn This cannibalism would occur as a result of starvation due to the city being besieged. It is one of the judgments threatened for a covenant law violation (Lev 26:29; see also Deut 28:53; Jer 19:9; Lam 2:20; Zech 11:9).
[5:10] 78 tn Heb “all of your survivors.”
[5:10] 79 tn Heb “to every wind.”
[5:11] 80 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.
[5:12] 81 sn The judgment of plague and famine comes from the covenant curse (Lev 26:25-26). As in v. 10, the city of Jerusalem is figuratively addressed here.
[5:12] 82 sn Judgment by plague, famine, and sword occurs in Jer 21:9; 27:13; Ezek 6:11, 12; 7:15.
[5:13] 83 tn Or “calm myself.”
[5:13] 84 tn The Hebrew noun translated “jealousy” is used in the human realm to describe suspicion of adultery (Num 5:14ff.; Prov 6:34). Since Israel’s relationship with God was often compared to a marriage this term is appropriate here. The term occurs elsewhere in Ezekiel in 8:3, 5; 16:38, 42; 23:25.
[5:15] 85 tc This reading is supported by the versions and by the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QEzek). Most Masoretic Hebrew
[5:15] 86 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT. A related verb means “revile, taunt” (see Ps 44:16).
[5:15] 87 tn Heb “discipline and devastation.” These words are omitted in the Old Greek. The first term pictures Jerusalem as a recipient or example of divine discipline; the second depicts her as a desolate ruin (see Ezek 6:14).
[5:15] 88 tn Heb “in anger and in fury and in rebukes of fury.” The heaping up of synonyms emphasizes the degree of God’s anger.
[5:16] 89 tn The Hebrew word carries the basic idea of “bad, displeasing, injurious,” but when used of weapons has the nuance “deadly” (see Ps 144:10).
[5:16] 90 tn Heb “which are/were to destroy.”
[5:16] 91 tn The language of this verse may have been influenced by Deut 32:23.
[5:16] 92 tn Or “which were to destroy those whom I will send to destroy you” (cf. NASB).
[5:16] 93 tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support. See 4:16, as well as the covenant curse in Lev 26:26.
[5:17] 94 tn Heb “will bereave you.”
[5:17] 95 tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.
[6:2] 96 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] 97 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] 98 tn The introductory formula “Hear the word of the sovereign
[6:3] 99 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] 100 tn The Hebrew term refers to elevated platforms where pagan sacrifices were performed.
[6:4] 101 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] 102 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] 103 tn The Hebrew verb translated “wiped out” is used to describe the judgment of the Flood (Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23).
[6:7] 104 sn The phrase you will know that I am the
[6:8] 105 tn Heb “when you have fugitives from the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the lands.”
[6:9] 106 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] 107 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] 108 tn Heb adds “in their faces.”
[6:10] 109 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] 110 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] 111 tn Heb “the one who is left, the one who is spared.”
[6:13] 112 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] 113 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] 114 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).
[7:2] 115 tn Or “earth.” Elsewhere the expression “four corners of the earth” figuratively refers to the whole earth (Isa 11:12).
[7:3] 116 tn Or “punish” (cf. BDB 1047 s.v. שָׁפַט 3.c).
[7:3] 118 tn Heb “I will place on you.”
[7:4] 119 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.
[7:4] 120 tn The pronoun “you” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.
[7:4] 121 tn “I will set your behavior on your head.”
[7:4] 122 tn Heb “and your abominable practices will be among you.”
[7:5] 123 tn The Hebrew term often refers to moral evil (see Ezek 6:10; 14:22), but in many contexts it refers to calamity or disaster, sometimes as punishment for evil behavior.
[7:5] 124 tc So most Hebrew
[7:6] 127 tc With different vowels the verb rendered “it has awakened” would be the noun “the end,” as in “the end is upon you.” The verb would represent a phonetic wordplay. The noun by virtue of repetition would continue to reinforce the idea of the end. Whether verb or noun, this is the only instance to occur with this preposition.
[7:6] 128 tc For this entire verse, the LXX has only “the end is come.”
[7:6] tn In each of the three cases of the verb translated with forms of “to come,” the form may either be a participle (“comes/is coming”) or a perfect (“has come”). Either form would indicate that the end is soon to arrive. This last form appears also to be feminine, although “end” is masculine. This shift may be looking ahead to the next verse, whose first noun (“Doom”) is feminine.
[7:7] 129 sn The day refers to the day of the Lord, a concept which, beginning in Amos 5:18-20, became a common theme in the OT prophetic books. It refers to a time when the Lord intervenes in human affairs as warrior and judge.
[7:7] 130 tc The LXX reads “neither tumult nor birth pains.” The LXX varies at many points from the MT in this chapter. The context suggests that one or both of these would be present on a day of judgment, thus favoring the MT. Perhaps more significant is the absence of “the mountains” in the LXX. If the ר (resh) in הָרִים (harim, “the mountains” not “on the mountains”) were a ד (dalet), which is a common letter confusion, then it could be from the same root as the previous word, הֵד (hed), meaning “the day is near – with destruction, not joyful shouting.”
[7:8] 131 tn The expression “to pour out rage” also occurs in Ezek 9:8; 14:19; 20:8, 13, 21; 22:31; 30:15; 36:18.
[7:9] 132 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.
[7:9] 133 tn Heb “According to your behavior I will place on you.”
[7:9] 134 tn The MT lacks “you.” It has been added for clarification.
[7:11] 135 tn Heb “the violence.”
[7:11] 136 tc The LXX reads “he will crush the wicked rod without confusion or haste.”
[7:11] tn The verb has been supplied for the Hebrew text to clarify the sense.
[7:11] 137 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
[7:12] 138 tn Heb “wrath.” Context clarifies that God’s wrath is in view.
[7:13] 139 tc The translation follows the LXX for the first line of the verse, although the LXX has lost the second line due to homoioteleuton (similar endings of the clauses). The MT reads “The seller will not return to the sale.” This Hebrew reading has been construed as a reference to land redemption, the temporary sale of the use of property, with property rights returned to the seller in the year of Jubilee. But the context has no other indicator that land redemption is in view. If correct, the LXX evidence suggests that one of the cases of “the customer” has been replaced by “the seller” in the MT, perhaps due to hoimoioarcton (similar beginnings of the words).
[7:13] 140 tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.
[7:13] 141 tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in v. 16; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”
[7:14] 142 tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.
[7:17] 143 tn Heb “their knees will run with water.” The expression probably refers to urination caused by fright, which is how the LXX renders the phrase. More colloquial English would simply be “they will wet their pants,” but as D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:261, n. 98) notes, the men likely wore skirts which were short enough to expose urine on the knees.
[7:18] 144 tn Heb “baldness will be on their heads.”
[7:19] 145 tn The Hebrew term can refer to menstrual impurity. The term also occurs at the end of v. 20.
[7:19] 146 sn Compare Zeph 1:18.
[7:19] 147 tn Heb “it.” Apparently the subject is the silver and gold mentioned earlier (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:102).
[7:19] 148 tn The “stumbling block of their iniquity” is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12).
[7:20] 149 tc The MT reads “he set up the beauty of his ornament as pride.” The verb may be repointed as plural without changing the consonantal text. The Syriac reads “their ornaments” (plural), implying עֶדְיָם (’edyam) rather than עֶדְיוֹ (’edyo) and meaning “they were proud of their beautiful ornaments.” This understands “ornaments” in the common sense of women’s jewelry, which then were used to make idols. The singular suffix “his ornaments” would refer to using items from the temple treasury to make idols. D. I. Block points out the foreshadowing of Ezek 16:17 which, with Rashi and the Targum, supports the understanding that this is a reference to temple items. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:265.
[7:22] 150 sn My treasured place probably refers to the temple (however, cf. NLT “my treasured land”).
[7:22] 151 sn Since the pronouns “it” are both feminine, they do not refer to the masculine “my treasured place”; instead they probably refer to Jerusalem or the land, both of which are feminine in Hebrew.
[7:23] 152 tc The Hebrew word “the chain” occurs only here in the OT. The reading of the LXX (“and they will make carnage”) seems to imply a Hebrew text of ַהבַּתּוֹק (habbattoq, “disorder, slaughter”) instead of הָרַתּוֹק (haratoq, “the chain”). The LXX is also translating the verb as a third person plural future and taking this as the end of the preceding verse. As M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:154) notes, this may refer to a chain for a train of exiles but “the context does not speak of exile but of the city’s fall. The versions guess desperately and we can do little better.”
[7:23] 153 tn Heb “judgment for blood,” i.e., indictment or accountability for bloodshed. The word for “judgment” does not appear in the similar phrase in 9:9.
[7:24] 154 sn Or “their holy places” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV).
[7:25] 155 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT. It is interpreted based on a Syriac cognate meaning “to bristle or stiffen (in terror).”
