Yehezkiel 5:17

5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ²  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Yehezkiel 6:14

6:14 I will stretch out my hand against them ³  and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, ⁴  in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”

Yehezkiel 14:9

14:9 “‘As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word – I, the Lord, have made a fool of ⁵  that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.

Yehezkiel 14:13

14:13 “Son of man, suppose a country sins against me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it, cut off its bread supply, ⁶  cause famine to come on it, and kill both people and animals.

Yehezkiel 16:27

16:27 So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct.

Yehezkiel 25:16

25:16 So this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note, I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines. I will kill ⁷  the Cherethites ⁸  and destroy those who remain on the seacoast.

Yehezkiel 26:7

26:7 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note that ⁹  I am about to bring King Nebuchadrezzar ¹⁰  of Babylon, king of kings, against Tyre from the north, with horses, chariots, and horsemen, an army and hordes of people.

Yehezkiel 35:3

35:3 Say to it, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Look, I am against you, Mount Seir;

I will stretch out my hand against you

and turn you into a desolate ruin.

Yehezkiel 38:11

38:11 You will say, “I will invade ¹¹  a land of unwalled towns; I will advance against ¹²  those living quietly in security – all of them living without walls and barred gates –

Yehezkiel 38:17

38:17 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by my servants ¹³  the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days ¹⁴  that I would bring you against them?

Yehezkiel 44:12

44:12 Because they used to minister to them before their idols, and became a sinful obstacle ¹⁵  to the house of Israel, consequently I have made a vow ¹⁶  concerning them, declares the sovereign Lord, that they will be responsible ¹⁷  for their sin.

[5:17]  ¹ tn Heb “will bereave you.”

[5:17]  ² tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.

[6:14]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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).

[14:9]  ⁵ tn The translation is uncertain due to difficulty both in determining the meaning of the verb’s stem and its conjugation in this context. In the Qal stem the basic meaning of the verbal root פָּתַה (patah) is “to be gullible, foolish.” The doubling stems (the Pual and Piel used in this verse) typically give such stative verbs a factitive sense, hence either “make gullible” (i.e., “entice”) or “make into a fool” (i.e., “to show to be a fool”). The latter represents the probable meaning of the term in Jer 20:7, 10 and is followed here (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:193; R. Mosis “Ez 14, 1-11 - ein Ruf zur Umkehr,” BZ 19 [1975]: 166-69 and ThWAT 4:829-31). In this view, if a prophet speaks when not prompted by God, he will be shown to be a fool, but this does not reflect negatively on the Lord because it is God who shows him to be a fool. Secondly, the verb is in the perfect conjugation and may be translated “I have made a fool of him” or “I have enticed him,” or to show determination (see IBHS 439-41 §27.2f and g), or in certain syntactical constructions as future. Any of these may be plausible if the doubling stems used are understood in the sense of “making a fool of.” But if understood as “to make gullible,” more factors come into play. As the Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, it is often translated as present perfect: “I have enticed.” In this case the Lord states that he himself enticed the prophet to cooperate with the idolaters. Such enticement to sin would seem to be a violation of God’s moral character, but sometimes he does use such deception and enticement to sin as a form of punishment against those who have blatantly violated his moral will (see, e.g., 2 Sam 24). If one follows this line of interpretation in Ezek 14:9, one would have to assume that the prophet had already turned from God in his heart. However, the context gives no indication of this. Therefore, it is better to take the perfect as indicating certitude and to translate it with the future tense: “I will entice.” In this case the Lord announces that he will judge the prophet appropriately. If a prophet allows himself to be influenced by idolaters, then the Lord will use deception as a form of punishment against that deceived prophet. A comparison with the preceding oracles also favors this view. In 14:4 the perfect of certitude is used for emphasis (see “I will answer”), though in v. 7 a participle is employed. For a fuller discussion of this text, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 23-25.

[14:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “break its staff of bread.”

[25:16]  ⁷ tn In Hebrew the verb “and I will cut off” sounds like its object, “the Cherethites,” and draws attention to the statement.

[25:16]  ⁸ sn This is a name for the Philistines, many of whom migrated to Palestine from Crete.

[26:7]  ⁹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something.

[26:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an an “r” rather than an “n.”

[38:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “go up against.”

[38:11]  ¹² tn Heb “come (to).”

[38:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “by the hand of my servants.”

[38:17]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds “years” here, but this is probably a scribal gloss on the preceding phrase. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:201.

[44:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a stumbling block of iniquity.” This is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (cf. also Ezek 7:19; 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30).

[44:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

[44:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “will bear.”