“‘You were like a lion 2 among the nations,
but you are a monster in the seas;
you thrash about in your streams,
stir up the water with your feet,
and muddy your 3 streams.
40:48 Then he brought me to the porch of the temple and measured the jambs of the porch as 8¾ feet 7 on either side, and the width of the gate was 24½ feet 8 and the sides 9 were 5¼ feet 10 on each side.
1 tn Heb “because you have interceded for your sisters with your sins.”
2 tn The lion was a figure of royalty (Ezek 19:1-9).
3 tc The Hebrew reads “their streams”; the LXX reads “your streams.”
4 tn Heb “from the sword.”
5 tn Heb “it.”
6 tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.
7 tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).
8 tn The LXX reads “fourteen cubits” (i.e., 7.35 meters). See following note.
9 tc The translation follows the LXX. The MT reads “the width of the gate was three cubits,” the omission due to haplography.
tn Or “sidewalls.”
10 tn Heb “three cubits” (i.e., 1.575 meters).
11 tc The Hebrew is difficult here. The Targum envisions a winding ramp or set of stairs, which entails reading the first word as a noun rather than a verb and reading the second word also not as a verb, supposing that an initial mem has been read as vav and nun. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:549.
12 tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.
13 sn For a similar concept of the transmitting of holiness, see Exod 19:12-14; Lev 10:1-2; 2 Sam 6:7. Similar laws concerning the priest are found in Lev 10 and 21.