3:12 Then a wind lifted me up 2 and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me as the glory of the Lord rose from its place, 3
14:15 “Suppose I were to send wild animals through the land and kill its children, leaving it desolate, without travelers due to the wild animals.
17:4 He plucked off its topmost shoot;
he brought it to a land of merchants
and planted it in a city of traders.
31:3 Consider Assyria, 7 a cedar in Lebanon, 8
with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,
and extremely tall;
its top reached into the clouds.
32:7 When I extinguish you, I will cover the sky;
I will darken its stars.
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
and the moon will not shine. 9
32:13 I will destroy all its cattle beside the plentiful waters;
and no human foot will disturb 10 the waters 11 again,
nor will the hooves of cattle disturb them.
41:13 Then he measured the temple as 175 feet 18 long, the courtyard of the temple and the building and its walls as 175 feet 19 long,
1 tc Heb “each had two wings covering and each had two wings covering,” a case of dittography. On the analogy of v. 11 and the support of the LXX, which reads the same for v. 11 and this verse, one should perhaps read “each had two wings touching another being and each had two wings covering.”
2 sn See note on “wind” in 2:2.
3 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.
4 tn Heb “You will drink it and drain (it).”
5 tn D. I. Block compares this to the idiom of “licking the plate” (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:754, n. 137). The text is difficult as the word translated “gnaw” is rare. The noun is used of the shattered pieces of pottery and so could envision a broken cup. But the Piel verb form is used in only one other place (Num 24:8), where it is a denominative from the noun “bone” and seems to mean to “break (bones).” Why it would be collocated with “sherds” is not clear. For this reason some emend the phrase to read “consume its dregs” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 2:44) or emend the verb to read “swallow,” as if the intoxicated Oholibah breaks the cup and then eats the very sherds in an effort to get every last drop of the beverage that dampens them.
6 sn The severe action is more extreme than beating the breasts in anguish (Isa 32:12; Nah 2:7). It is also ironic for these are the very breasts she so blatantly offered to her lovers (vv. 3, 21).
7 sn Either Egypt, or the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria, which is described in vv. 3-17 through the metaphor of a majestic tree. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:185. Like Egypt, Assyria had been a great world power, but in time God brought the Assyrians down. Egypt should learn from history the lesson that no nation, no matter how powerful, can withstand the judgment of God. Rather than following the text here, some prefer to emend the proper name Assyria to a similar sounding common noun meaning “boxwood” (see Ezek 27:6), which would make a fitting parallel to “cedar of Lebanon” in the following line. In this case vv. 3-18 in their entirety refer to Egypt, not Assyria. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:121-27.
8 sn Lebanon was know for its cedar trees (Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 4:33; 5:6; 2 Kgs 14:9; Ezra 3:7; Pss 29:5; 92:12; 104:16).
9 tn Heb “will not shine its light.” For similar features of cosmic eschatology, see Joel 2:10; 4:15; Amos 5:18-20; Zeph 1:5.
10 tn Heb “muddy.”
11 tn Heb “them,” that is, the waters mentioned in the previous line. The translation clarifies the referent.
12 tn The Hebrew text adds “the one threshold 10½ feet deep.” This is probably an accidental duplication of what precedes. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:517.
13 tn Heb “eight cubits” (i.e., 4.2 meters).
14 tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).
15 tn Heb “as these windows.”
16 tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).
17 tn Heb “twenty-five cubits” (i.e., 13.125 meters).
18 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
19 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
20 tn Heb “five hundred cubits” (i.e., 262.5 meters); the phrase occurs twice in this verse.
21 tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).