20:32 “‘What you plan 13 will never happen. You say, “We will be 14 like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone.” 15
37:1 The hand 16 of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed 17 me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.
44:4 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. As I watched, I noticed 19 the glory of the Lord filling the Lord’s temple, and I threw myself face down.
1 sn The prophet’s name, Ezekiel, means in Hebrew “May God strengthen.”
2 tn Or “to Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest.”
3 tn Heb “Chaldeans.” The name of the tribal group ruling Babylon, “Chaldeans” is used as metonymy for the whole empire of Babylon. The Babylonians worked with the Medes to destroy the Assyrian Empire near the end of the 7th century
4 tn Or “power.”
sn Hand in the OT can refer metaphorically to power, authority, or influence. In Ezekiel God’s “hand” being on the prophet is regularly associated with communication or a vision from God (3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).
5 tn Thirty-nine of the forty-eight biblical occurrences of this Hebrew word are found in the book of Ezekiel.
sn This verse is probably based on Lev 26:30 in which God forecasts that he will destroy their high places, cut off their incense altars, and set their corpses by the corpses of their idols.
6 tc The MT reads “he set up the beauty of his ornament as pride.” The verb may be repointed as plural without changing the consonantal text. The Syriac reads “their ornaments” (plural), implying עֶדְיָם (’edyam) rather than עֶדְיוֹ (’edyo) and meaning “they were proud of their beautiful ornaments.” This understands “ornaments” in the common sense of women’s jewelry, which then were used to make idols. The singular suffix “his ornaments” would refer to using items from the temple treasury to make idols. D. I. Block points out the foreshadowing of Ezek 16:17 which, with Rashi and the Targum, supports the understanding that this is a reference to temple items. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:265.
7 sn The same description of a false prophet is found in Micah 2:11.
8 sn The
9 tn Or “confirmed”; NIV “to be fulfilled”; TEV “to come true.”
10 tn Or “gifts.”
11 sn This act is prohibited in Deut 12:29-31 and Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35. See also 2 Kgs 21:6; 23:10. This custom indicates that the laws the Israelites were following were the disastrous laws of pagan nations (see Ezek 16:20-21).
12 sn God sometimes punishes sin by inciting the sinner to sin even more, as the biblical examples of divine hardening and deceit make clear. See Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34; idem, “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 11-28. For other instances where the Lord causes individuals to act unwisely or even sinfully as punishment for sin, see 1 Sam 2:25; 2 Sam 17:14; 1 Kgs 12:15; 2 Chr 25:20.
13 tn Heb “what comes upon your mind.”
14 tn The Hebrew could also read: “Let us be.”
15 tn Heb “serving wood and stone.”
sn This verse echoes the content of 1 Sam 8:20.
16 tn Or “power.”
sn Hand in the OT can refer metaphorically to power, authority, or influence. In Ezekiel God’s hand being on the prophet is regularly associated with communication or a vision from God (3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).
17 tn Heb “caused me to rest.”
18 sn It is likely that salt was used with sacrificial meals (Num 18:19; 2 Chr 13:5).
19 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.