17:5 He took one of the seedlings 1 of the land,
placed it in a cultivated plot; 2
a shoot by abundant water,
like a willow he planted it.
19:10 “‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, 3 planted by water.
It was fruitful and full of branches because it was well-watered.
31:5 Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large and its branches grew long,
because of the plentiful water in its shoots. 4
1 tn Heb “took of the seed of the land.” For the vine imagery, “seedling” is a better translation, though in its subsequent interpretation the “seed” refers to Zedekiah through its common application to offspring.
2 tn Heb “a field for seed.”
3 tc The Hebrew text reads “in your blood,” but most emend to “in your vineyard,” assuming a ב-כ (beth-kaph) confusion. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. Another attractive emendation assumes a faulty word division and yields the reading “like a vine full of tendrils, which/because…”; see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:607, n. 68.
4 tn Heb “when it sends forth.” Repointing the consonants of the Masoretic text would render the proposed reading “shoots” (cf. NRSV).
5 sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.
6 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
7 sn This same title appears in 8:4; 9:3; 10:19; and 11:22.
8 sn Earlier Ezekiel had observed God leaving the temple to the east (11:23).
9 sn See Ezek 1:24; Rev 1:15; 14:2; 19:6.
10 tn Heb “shone from.”