2:1 He said to me, “Son of man, 1 stand on your feet and I will speak with you.”
2:9 Then I looked and realized a hand was stretched out to me, and in it was a written scroll.
3:8 “I have made your face adamant 2 to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads.
6:8 “‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. 3
16:9 “‘Then I bathed you in water, washed the blood off you, and anointed you with fragrant oil.
18:3 “As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, 5 you will not quote this proverb in Israel anymore!
21:30 Return it to its sheath! 9
In the place where you were created, 10
in your native land, I will judge you.
31:9 I made it beautiful with its many branches;
all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it.
32:5 I will put your flesh on the mountains,
and fill the valleys with your maggot-infested carcass. 15
32:14 Then I will make their waters calm, 16
and will make their streams flow like olive oil, declares the sovereign Lord.
34:11 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.
1 sn The phrase son of man occurs ninety-three times in the book of Ezekiel. It simply means “human one,” and distinguishes the prophet from the nonhuman beings that are present in the world of his vision.
2 tn Heb “strong, resolute.”
3 tn Heb “when you have fugitives from the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the lands.”
4 tn Heb “not in vain did I speak to do to them this catastrophe.” The wording of the last half of v. 10 parallels God’s declaration after the sin of the golden calf (Exod 32:14).
5 tn This expression occurs often in Ezekiel (5:11; 14:16, 18, 20; 16:48; 17:16, 19; 20:3, 31, 33; 33:11, 27; 34:8; 35:6, 11).
6 tn Heb “the death of the one dying.”
7 tn Or “permitted.”
sn The content of the verse is shocking: that God would “give” bad decrees. This probably does not refer to the Mosaic law but to the practices of the Canaanites who were left in the land in order to test Israel. See Judg 2:20-23, the note on “decrees” in v. 25, and the note on “pass through the fire” in v. 26.
8 tn The Hebrew term חֻקּוֹת (khuqot; translated “statutes” elsewhere in this chapter) is normally feminine. Here Ezekiel changes the form to masculine: חֻקִּים (khuqim). Further, they are not called “my decrees” as vv. 11 and 13 refer to “my statutes.” The change is a signal that Ezekiel is not talking about the same statutes in vv. 11 and 13, which lead to life.
9 sn Once the Babylonian king’s sword (vv. 19-20) has carried out its assigned task, the Lord commands it to halt and announces that Babylon itself will also experience his judgment. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:28.
10 tn In the Hebrew text of vv. 30-32 the second person verbal and pronominal forms are feminine singular. This may indicate that the personified Babylonian sword is being addressed. The Hebrew word for “sword” (see v. 28) is feminine. However, it may refer to the Ammonites.
11 tn The infinitive absolute continues the sequence begun in v. 28: “Look here, I am about to deliver you.” See Joüon 2:430 §123.w.
12 tn Heb “her cup.” A cup of intoxicating strong drink is used, here and elsewhere, as a metaphor for judgment because both leave one confused and reeling. (See Jer 25:15, 17, 28; Hab 2:16.) The cup of wrath is a theme also found in the NT (Mark 14:36).
13 tn See v. 17.
14 tn Heb “cause to end.”
15 tc The Hebrew text is difficult here, apparently meaning “your height.” Following Symmachus and the Syriac, it is preferable to emend the text to read “your maggots.” See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:203.
16 tn Heb “sink,” that is, to settle and become clear, not muddied.
17 tn Heb “your mouth.”
18 tn Heb “and you multiplied against me your words.” The Hebrew verb occurs only here and in Prov 27:6, where it refers to the “excessive” kisses of an enemy. The basic idea of the verb appears to be “to be abundant.” Here it occurs in the causative (Hiphil) stem.
19 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
20 tn Heb “name.”
21 sn The sanctuary of Israel becomes the main focus of Ezek 40-48.