13:8 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have spoken false words and forecast delusion, look, 1 I am against you, 2 declares the sovereign Lord.
21:32 You will become fuel for the fire –
your blood will stain the middle of the land; 3
you will no longer be remembered,
for I, the Lord, have spoken.’”
28:10 You will die the death of the uncircumcised 9 by the hand of foreigners;
for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.’”
1 tn The word h!nn@h indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
2 tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.
3 tn Heb “your blood will be in the middle of the land.”
4 tn Heb “stand.” The heart here stands for the emotions; Jerusalem would panic in the face of God’s judgment.
5 tn Heb “in the days when I act against you.”
6 tn Heb “You will drink it and drain (it).”
7 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.
8 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).
9 sn The Phoenicians practiced circumcision, so the language here must be figurative, indicating that they would be treated in a disgraceful manner. Uncircumcised peoples were viewed as inferior, unclean, and perhaps even sub-human. See 31:18 and 32:17-32, as well as the discussion in D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:99.
10 sn The messianic king (“David”) is called both “king” and “prince” in 37:24-25. The use of the term “prince” for this king facilitates the contrast between this ideal ruler and the Davidic “princes” denounced in earlier prophecies (see 7:27; 12:10, 12; 19:1; 21:25; 22:6, 25).
11 tn Or “high places.”