Ezekiel 2:10--3:1

2:10 He unrolled it before me, and it had writing on the front ¹  and back; ²  written on it were laments, mourning, and woe.

3:1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you ³  – eat this scroll – and then go and speak to the house of Israel.”

Ezekiel 4:1

Ominous Object Lessons

4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick ⁴  and set it in front of you. Inscribe ⁵  a city on it – Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 4:12

4:12 And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” ⁶ 

Ezekiel 6:4-5

6:4 Your altars will be ruined and your incense altars will be broken. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. ⁷  6:5 I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, ⁸  and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

Ezekiel 23:41

23:41 You sat on a magnificent couch, with a table arranged in front of it where you placed my incense and my olive oil.

Ezekiel 40:12

40:12 There was a barrier in front of the alcoves, 1¾ feet ⁹  on either side; the alcoves were 10½ feet ¹⁰  on either side.

Ezekiel 40:26

40:26 There were seven steps going up to it; its porches were in front of them. It had decorative palm trees on its jambs, one on either side.

Ezekiel 40:47

40:47 He measured the court as a square 175 feet long and 175 feet wide; ¹¹  the altar was in front of the temple.

Ezekiel 42:4

42:4 In front of the chambers was a walkway on the inner side, 17½ feet ¹²  wide at a distance of 1¾ feet, ¹³  and their entrances were on the north.

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¹ tn Heb “on the face.”

² sn Written on the front and back. While it was common for papyrus scrolls to have writing on both sides the same was not true for leather scrolls.

³ tn Heb “eat what you find.”

⁴ sn Ancient Near Eastern bricks were 10 to 24 inches long and 6 to 13 1/2 inches wide.

⁵ tn Or perhaps “draw.”

⁶ sn Human waste was to remain outside the camp of the Israelites according to Deut 23:15.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tc This first sentence, which explains the meaning of the last sentence of the previous verse, does not appear in the LXX and may be an instance of a marginal explanatory note making its way into the text.

⁹ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).

¹⁰ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

¹¹ tn Heb “one hundred cubits long and one hundred cubits wide, a square” (i.e., 52.5 meters by 52.5 meters).

¹² tn Heb “ten cubits” (i.e., 5.25 meters).

¹³ tc Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm). The LXX and the Syriac read “one hundred cubits” (= 175 feet).