3:1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you 5 – eat this scroll – and then go and speak to the house of Israel.”
3:10 And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully.
3:22 The hand 6 of the Lord rested on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the valley, 7 and I will speak with you there.”
4:15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”
8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed 8 women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 9
9:1 Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, 10 you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!”
9:5 While I listened, he said to the others, 11 “Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare 12 anyone!
9:7 He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courtyards with corpses. Go!” So they went out and struck people down throughout the city.
18:14 “But suppose he in turn has a son who notices all the sins his father commits, considers them, and does not follow his father’s example. 19 18:15 He does not eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains, does not pray to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife,
19:4 The nations heard about him; he was trapped in their pit.
They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. 20
19:7 He broke down 21 their strongholds 22 and devastated their cities.
The land and everything in it was frightened at the sound of his roaring.
20:49 Then I said, “O sovereign Lord! They are saying of me, ‘Does he not simply speak in eloquent figures of speech?’”
21:11 “‘He gave it to be polished,
to be grasped in the hand –
the sword is sharpened, it is polished –
giving it into the hand of the executioner.
40:17 Then he brought me to the outer court. I saw 30 chambers there, and a pavement made for the court all around; thirty chambers faced the pavement.
41:1 Then he brought me to the outer sanctuary, and measured the jambs; the jambs were 10½ feet 34 wide on each side.
41:5 Then he measured the wall of the temple 35 as 10½ feet, 36 and the width of the side chambers as 7 feet, 37 all around the temple.
41:13 Then he measured the temple as 175 feet 38 long, the courtyard of the temple and the building and its walls as 175 feet 39 long,
44:1 Then he brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces east, but it was shut.
46:13 “‘You 44 will provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering daily to the Lord; morning by morning he will provide it.
1 tc The phrase “as he spoke to me” is absent from the LXX.
2 tn Or “spirit.” NIV has “the Spirit,” but the absence of the article in the Hebrew text makes this unlikely. Elsewhere in Ezekiel the Lord’s Spirit is referred to as “the Spirit of the Lord” (11:5; 37:1), “the Spirit of God” (11:24), or “my (that is, the Lord’s) Spirit” (36:27; 37:14; 39:29). Some identify the “spirit” of 2:2 as the spirit that energized the living beings, however, that “spirit” is called “the spirit” (1:12, 20) or “the spirit of the living beings” (1:20-21; 10:17). Still others see the term as referring to an impersonal “spirit” of strength or courage, that is, the term may also be understood as a disposition or attitude. The Hebrew word often refers to a wind in Ezekiel (1:4; 5:10, 12; 12:4; 13:11, 13; 17:10, 21; 19:12; 27:26; 37:9). In 37:5-10 a “breath” originates in the “four winds” and is associated with the Lord’s life-giving breath (see v. 14). This breath enters into the dry bones and gives them life. In a similar fashion the breath of 2:2 (see also 3:24) energizes paralyzed Ezekiel. Breath and wind are related. On the one hand it is a more normal picture to think of breath rather than wind entering someone, but since wind represents an external force it seems more likely for wind rather than breath to stand someone up (unless we should understand it as a disposition). It may be that one should envision the breath of the speaker moving like a wind to revive Ezekiel, helping him to regain his breath and invigorating him to stand. A wind also transports the prophet from one place to another (3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 43:5).
3 tn Heb “on the face.”
4 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.
5 tn Heb “eat what you find.”
6 tn Or “power.”
sn Hand in the OT can refer metaphorically to power, authority, or influence. In Ezekiel God’s hand being on the prophet is regularly associated with communication or a vision from God (1:3; 3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).
7 sn Ezekiel had another vision at this location, recounted in Ezek 37.
8 tn Given the context this could be understood as a shock, e.g., idiomatically “Good grief! I saw….”
9 sn The worship of Tammuz included the observation of the annual death and descent into the netherworld of the god Dumuzi. The practice was observed by women in the ancient Near East over a period of centuries.
10 tc Heb “they approached.” Reading the imperative assumes the same consonantal text but different vowels.
11 tn Heb “to these he said in my ears.”
12 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
13 tn The name (“El Shaddai”) has often been translated “God Almighty,” primarily because Jerome translated it omnipotens (“all powerful”) in the Latin Vulgate. There has been much debate over the meaning of the name. For discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names Shaddai and Abram,” JBL 54 (1935): 173-210; R. Gordis, “The Biblical Root sdy-sd,” JTS 41 (1940): 34-43; and especially T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 69-72.
14 tc The MT reads לַעֲשׂוֹת אֱמֶת (la’asot ’emet, “to do with integrity”), while the LXX reads “to do them,” presupposing לַעֲשׂוֹת אֹתָם (la’asot ’otam). The ם (mem) and ת (tav) have been reversed in the MT. The LXX refelcts the original, supported by similar phrasing in Ezekiel 11:20; 20:19.
15 tn Heb “he.”
16 tn Heb “living, he will live.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
17 tn Heb “and he all of these did not do.” The parenthetical note refers back to the father described in the preceding verses.
18 sn See note on “mountains” in v. 6.
19 tn Heb “and he sees and does not do likewise.”
20 sn The description applies to king Jehoahaz (2 Kgs 23:31-34; Jer 22:10-12).
21 tc The Hebrew text reads “knew,” but is apparently the result of a ר-ד (dalet-resh) confusion. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. However, Allen retains the reading “widows” as the object of the verb, which he understands in the sense of “do harm to,” and translates the line: “He did harm to women by making them widows” (p. 282). The line also appears to be lacking a beat for the meter of the poem.
22 tc The Hebrew text reads “widows” instead of “strongholds,” apparently due to a confusion of ר (resh) and ל (lamed). L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284) favors the traditional text, understanding “widows” in the sense of “women made widows.” D. I. Block, (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:602) also defends the Hebrew text, arguing that the image is that of a dominant male lion who takes over the pride and by copulating with the females lays claim to his predecessor’s “widows.”
23 tn Heb “and he made me pass over them, around, around.”
24 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and is here translated as “I realized” because it results from Ezekiel’s recognition of the situation around him. In Hebrew, the exclamation is repeated in the following sentence.
25 tn Heb “eight cubits” (i.e., 4.2 meters).
26 tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).
27 tn Heb “ten cubits” (i.e., 5.25 meters).
28 tn Heb “thirteen cubits” (i.e., 6.825 meters).
29 tn Heb “twenty-five cubits” (i.e., 13.125 meters).
30 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
31 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
32 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
33 tn Heb “one hundred cubits long and one hundred cubits wide, a square” (i.e., 52.5 meters by 52.5 meters).
34 tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).
35 tn Heb “house” throughout Ezek 41.
36 tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).
37 tn Heb “four cubits” (2.1 meters).
38 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
39 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
40 tc Heb “I.” The reading is due to the confusion of yod (י, indicating a first person pronoun) and vav (ו, indicating a third person pronoun). A few medieval Hebrew
41 tn Heb “a hin of oil.” A hin was about 1/16 of a bath. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:266, and O. R. Sellers, “Weights,” IDB 4:835 g.
42 tn Heb “ephah.” The words “of grain” are supplied in the translation as a clarification.
43 tn The phrase “he will offer” is not in the Hebrew text but is warranted from the context.
44 tc A few Hebrew