Yehezkiel 5:1-4

5:1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. ¹  Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. ²  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 ³  from those and tie them in the ends of your garment. ⁴  5:4 Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, ⁵  and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

Yehezkiel 16:16-18

16:16 You took some of your clothing and made for yourself decorated high places; you engaged in prostitution on them. You went to him to become his. ⁶  16:17 You also took your beautiful jewelry, made of my gold and my silver I had given to you, and made for yourself male images and engaged in prostitution ⁷  with them. 16:18 You took your embroidered clothing and used it to cover them; you offered my olive oil and my incense to them.

Yehezkiel 16:20-21

16:20 “‘You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them ⁸  as food for the idols to eat. As if your prostitution not enough, 16:21 you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ⁹ 

Yehezkiel 43:20-21

43:20 You will take some of its blood, and place it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around; you will cleanse it and make atonement for it. ¹⁰  43:21 You will also take the bull for the sin offering, and it will be burned in the appointed place in the temple, outside the sanctuary.

[5:1]  ¹ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[5:1]  ² tn Heb, “pass (it) over your head and your beard.”

[5:3]  ³ tn Heb “from there a few in number.” The word “strands” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ⁴ sn Objects could be carried in the end of a garment (Hag 2:12).

[5:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “into the midst of” (so KJV, ASV). This phrase has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[16:16]  ⁶ tc The text as written in the MT is incomprehensible (“not coming [plural] and he will not”). Driver has suggested a copying error of similar-sounding words, specifically לֹא (lo’) for לוֹ (lo). The feminine participle בָאוֹת (va’ot) has also been read as the feminine perfect בָאת (va’t). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:228, n. 15.b, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:486, n. 137.

[16:17]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps “and worshiped them,” if the word “prostitution” is understood in a figurative rather than a literal sense (cf. CEV, NLT).

[16:20]  ⁸ sn The sacrifice of children was prohibited in Lev 18:21; 20:2; Deut 12:31; 18:10.

[16:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you gave them, by passing them through to them.” Some believe this alludes to the pagan practice of making children pass through the fire.

[43:20]  ¹⁰ sn Note the similar language in Lev 16:18.