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! ¹ 

Yehezkiel 28:2

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ²  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ³  and you said, “I am a god; ⁴ 

I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas” –

yet you are a man and not a god,

though you think you are godlike. ⁵ 

Yehezkiel 34:18

34:18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must trample the rest of your pastures with your feet? When you drink clean water, must you muddy the rest of the water by trampling it with your feet?

[8:17]  ¹ 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.”

[28:2]  ² tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

[28:2]  ³ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[28:2]  sn See Prov 16:5.

[28:2]  ⁴ tn Or “I am divine.”

[28:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”