Yehezkiel 1:1

A Vision of God’s Glory

1:1 In the thirtieth year, ¹  on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles ²  at the Kebar River, ³  the heavens opened ⁴  and I saw a divine vision. ⁵ 

Yehezkiel 8:17

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! ⁶ 

Yehezkiel 10:19

10:19 The cherubim spread ⁷  their wings, and they rose up from the earth ⁸  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.

Yehezkiel 11:1

The Fall of Jerusalem

11:1 A wind ⁹  lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Lord’s temple that faces the east. There, at the entrance of the gate, I noticed twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, officials of the people. ¹⁰ 

Yehezkiel 13:20

13:20 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note ¹¹  that I am against your wristbands with which you entrap people’s lives ¹²  like birds. I will tear them from your arms and will release the people’s lives, which you hunt like birds.

Yehezkiel 20:8

20:8 But they rebelled against me, and refused to listen to me; no one got rid of their detestable idols, ¹³  nor did they abandon the idols of Egypt. Then I decided to pour out ¹⁴  my rage on them and fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

Yehezkiel 20:41

20:41 When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, I will accept you along with your soothing aroma. I will display my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

Yehezkiel 21:29

21:29 while seeing false visions for you

and reading lying omens for you ¹⁵  –

to place that sword ¹⁶  on the necks of the profane wicked, ¹⁷ 

whose day has come,

the time of final punishment.

Yehezkiel 22:28

22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ¹⁸  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

Yehezkiel 25:3

25:3 Say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: You said “Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile.

Yehezkiel 28:25

28:25 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather the house of Israel from the peoples where they are dispersed, I will reveal my sovereign power ¹⁹  over them in the sight of the nations, and they will live in their land that I gave to my servant Jacob.

Yehezkiel 35:15

35:15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I deal with you – you will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all of Edom – all of it! Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”

Yehezkiel 38:20

38:20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the wild beasts, all the things that creep on the ground, and all people who live on the face of the earth will shake ²⁰  at my presence. The mountains will topple, the cliffs ²¹  will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.

Yehezkiel 39:23

39:23 The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity, ²²  for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword.

Yehezkiel 40:5

40:5 I saw ²³  a wall all around the outside of the temple. ²⁴  In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet ²⁵  long. He measured the thickness of the wall ²⁶  as 10½ feet, ²⁷  and its height as 10½ feet.

Yehezkiel 46:19

46:19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests which faced north. There I saw ²⁸  a place at the extreme western end.

Yehezkiel 47:1

Water from the Temple

47:1 Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple. I noticed ²⁹  that water was flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from under the right side of the temple, from south of the altar.

[1:1]  ¹ sn The meaning of the thirtieth year is problematic. Some take it to mean the age of Ezekiel when he prophesied (e.g., Origen). The Aramaic Targum explains the thirtieth year as the thirtieth year dated from the recovery of the book of the Torah in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 22:3-9). The number seems somehow to be equated with the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile in 1:2, i.e., 593 b.c.

[1:1]  ² sn The Assyrians started the tactic of deportation, the large-scale forced displacement of conquered populations, in order to stifle rebellions. The task of uniting groups of deportees, gaining freedom from one’s overlords and returning to retake one’s own country would be considerably more complicated than living in one’s homeland and waiting for an opportune moment to drive out the enemy’s soldiers. The Babylonians adopted this practice also, after defeating the Assyrians. The Babylonians deported Judeans on three occasions. The practice of deportation was reversed by the Persian conquerors of Babylon, who gained favor from their subjects for allowing them to return to their homeland and, as polytheists, sought the favor of the gods of the various countries which had come under their control.

[1:1]  ³ sn The Kebar River is mentioned in Babylonian texts from the city of Nippur in the fifth century b.c. It provided artificial irrigation from the Euphrates.

[1:1]  ⁴ sn For the concept of the heavens opened in later literature, see 3 Macc 6:18; 2 Bar. 22:1; T. Levi 5:1; Matt 3:16; Acts 7:56; Rev 19:11.

[1:1]  ⁵ tn Or “saw visions from God.” References to divine visions occur also in Ezek 8:3; 40:2

[8:17]  ⁶ 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.”

[10:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “lifted.”

[10:19]  ⁸ tn Or “the ground” (NIV, NCV).

[11:1]  ⁹ tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.

[11:1]  ¹⁰ sn The phrase officials of the people occurs in Neh 11:1; 1 Chr 21:2; 2 Chr 24:23.

[13:20]  ¹¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[13:20]  ¹² tn Heb “human lives” or “souls.”

[20:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of their eyes did not throw away.”

[20:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”

[21:29]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the seeing concerning you falsehood, in divining concerning you a lie.” This probably refers to the attempts of the Ammonites to ward off judgment through prophetic visions and divination.

[21:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you”; the referent (the sword mentioned in v. 28) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:29]  ¹⁷ sn The second half of the verse appears to state that the sword of judgment would fall upon the wicked, despite their efforts to prevent it.

[22:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[28:25]  ¹⁹ tn Or “reveal my holiness.” See verse 22.

[38:20]  ²⁰ tn Or “tremble.”

[38:20]  ²¹ tn The term occurs only here and in Song of Songs 2:14.

[39:23]  ²² tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.

[40:5]  ²³ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[40:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[40:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “a measuring stick of six cubits, [each] a cubit and a handbreadth.” The measuring units here and in the remainder of this section are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Therefore the measuring stick in the man’s hand was 10.5 feet (3.15 meters) long. Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard feet and inches, with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes.

[40:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “building.”

[40:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “one rod [or “reed”]” (also a second time in this verse, twice in v. 6, three times in v. 7, and once in v. 8).

[46:19]  ²⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[47:1]  ²⁹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.