16:8 “‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing 7 that you had reached the age for love. 8 I spread my cloak 9 over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.
17:22 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘I will take a sprig 11 from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it. 12
I will pluck from the top one of its tender twigs;
I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
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.
31:15 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it 20 went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. 21 I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it.
1 sn Reference to the glowing substance and the brilliant light and storm phenomena in vv. 27-28a echoes in reverse order the occurrence of these phenomena in v. 4.
2 tn The vision closes with the repetition of the verb “I saw” from the beginning of the vision in 1:4.
3 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
4 tn Heb “According to your behavior I will place on you.”
5 tn The MT lacks “you.” It has been added for clarification.
6 tn Heb “and by their judgments.”
7 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a participle.
8 tn See similar use of this term in Ezek 23:17; Prov 7:16; Song of Songs 4:10; 7:13.
9 tn Heb “wing” or “skirt.” The gesture symbolized acquiring a woman in early Arabia (similarly, see Deut 22:30; Ruth 3:9).
10 sn Harlots suffered degradation when their nakedness was exposed (Jer 13:22, 26; Hos 2:12; Nah 3:5).
11 sn The language is analogous to messianic imagery in Isa 11:1; Zech 3:8; 6:4 although the technical terminology is not the same.
12 tc The LXX lacks “and plant it.”
13 tn Or “gifts.”
14 tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”
15 tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”
16 tn See the note at 2:3.
17 tn Heb “and I will cut off from her man and beast.”
18 tn Heb “fall.”
19 tn Or “reveal my holiness.” See verse 22.
20 tn Or “he.”
21 tn Heb “I caused lamentation.” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:194-95) proposes an alternative root which would give the meaning “I gated back the waters,” i.e., shut off the water supply.
22 sn These verbs occur together in Gen 1:22, 28; 9:1.
23 tn Heb “your beginning.”
24 tn Or “sanctify,” Heb “make holy.”
25 tc Heb “their dwellings.” The text as it stands does not make sense. Based on the LXX, a slight emendation of two vowels, including a mater, yields the reading “from their turning,” a reference here to their turning from God and deviating from his commandments. See BDB 1000 s.v. מְשׁוּבָה, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:407.