2:3 He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the house 1 of Israel, to rebellious nations 2 who have rebelled against me; both they and their fathers have revolted 3 against me to this very day.
3:3 He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving to you.” So I ate it, 4 and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.
4:16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply 5 in Jerusalem. 6 They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror
8:5 He said to me, “Son of man, look up toward 7 the north.” So I looked up toward the north, and I noticed to the north of the altar gate was this statue of jealousy at the entrance.
8:6 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing – the great abominations that the people 8 of Israel are practicing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see greater abominations than these!”
9:3 Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub where it had rested to the threshold of the temple. 9 He called to the man dressed in linen who had the writing kit at his side.
18:19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not suffer 15 for his father’s iniquity?’ When the son does what is just and right, and observes all my statutes and carries them out, he will surely live.
Because he said, “The Nile is mine and I made it,”
30:11 He and his people with him,
the most terrifying of the nations, 19
will be brought there to destroy the land.
They will draw their swords against Egypt,
and fill the land with corpses.
37:1 The hand 23 of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed 24 me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.
37:11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
40:5 I saw 27 a wall all around the outside of the temple. 28 In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet 29 long. He measured the thickness of the wall 30 as 10½ feet, 31 and its height as 10½ feet.
41:3 Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance as 3½ feet, 38 the entrance as 10½ feet, 39 and the width of the entrance as 12¼ feet 40
41:15 Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, with its galleries on either side as 175 feet. 41
The interior of the outer sanctuary and the porch of the court, 42
42:1 Then he led me out to the outer court, toward the north, and brought me to the chamber which was opposite the courtyard and opposite the building on the north.
44:4 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. As I watched, I noticed 47 the glory of the Lord filling the Lord’s temple, and I threw myself face down.
46:19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests which faced north. There I saw 52 a place at the extreme western end.
46:21 Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me past the four corners of the court, and I noticed 53 that in every corner of the court there was a court.
1 tc The Hebrew reads “sons of,” while the LXX reads “house,” implying the more common phrase in Ezekiel. Either could be abbreviated with the first letter ב (bet). In preparation for the characterization “house of rebellion,” in vv. 5, 6, and 8, “house” is preferred (L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:10 and W. Zimmerli, Ezekiel [Hermeneia], 2:564-65).
2 tc Heb “to the rebellious nations.” The phrase “to the rebellious nations” is omitted in the LXX. Elsewhere in Ezekiel the singular word “nation” is used for Israel (36:13-15; 37:22). Here “nations” may have the meaning of “tribes” or refer to the two nations of Israel and Judah.
3 tc This word is omitted from the LXX.
tn The Hebrew term used here is the strongest word available for expressing a covenant violation. The word is used in the diplomatic arena to express a treaty violation (2 Kgs 1:1; 3:5, 7).
4 tc Heb “I ate,” a first common singular preterite plus paragogic he (ה). The ancient versions read “I ate it,” which is certainly the meaning in the context, and indicates they read the he as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix. The Masoretes typically wrote a mappiq in the he for the pronominal suffix but apparently missed this one.
sn I ate it. A similar idea of consuming God’s word is found in Jer 15:16 and Rev 10:10, where it is also compared to honey and may be specifically reminiscent of this text.
5 tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support.
6 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
7 tn Heb “lift your eyes (to) the way of.”
8 tn Heb “house.”
9 tn Heb “house.”
10 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the
11 tn The Hebrew term often refers to chariot wheels (Isa 28:28; Ezek 23:24; 26:10).
12 tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and Targum
13 tn Heb “the cherub.”
14 tn The Hebrew text adds, “from among the cherubim.”
15 tn Heb “lift up, bear.”
16 tn Heb “desirable.”
17 tn Heb “set.”
18 tn Heb “into the midst of the water.”
19 tn The Babylonians were known for their cruelty (2 Kgs 25:7).
20 tn Heb “him”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Heb “his blood will be on his own head.”
22 sn The imagery may reflect the overthrow of the Israelites by the Babylonians in 587/6
23 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 (3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).
24 tn Heb “caused me to rest.”
25 tn The expression introduces the three major visions of Ezekiel (1:1; 8:3; 40:2).
26 tn The reference to a very high mountain is harmonious with Isa 2:2.
27 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
28 tn Heb “house.”
29 tn Heb “a measuring stick of six cubits, [each] a cubit and a handbreadth.” The measuring units here and in the remainder of this section are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Therefore the measuring stick in the man’s hand was 10.5 feet (3.15 meters) long. Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard feet and inches, with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes.
30 tn Heb “building.”
31 tn Heb “one rod [or “reed”]” (also a second time in this verse, twice in v. 6, three times in v. 7, and once in v. 8).
32 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
33 tn Heb “ten cubits” (i.e., 5.25 meters).
34 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.”
35 tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).
36 tn Heb “forty cubits” (i.e., 21 meters).
37 tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).
38 tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).
39 tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).
40 tn Heb “seven cubits” (i.e., 3.675 meters).
41 tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).
42 tc Some Hebrew
43 tn Heb “three cubits” (i.e., 1.575 meters).
44 tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).
45 tc So the Masoretic text. The LXX reads “base.”
46 tn Heb “to eat bread.”
47 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
48 sn That is, the Feast of Temporary Shelters, traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles (Exod 23:16; 34:22; Deut 16:16).
49 tn Or “as much as he wishes.” Heb “a gift of his hand.”
50 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.
51 sn That is, the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:8-15).
52 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
53 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
54 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
55 tn Heb “the sea,” referring to the Dead Sea. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.
56 tn Heb “to the sea, those which are brought out.” The reading makes no sense. The text is best emended to read “filthy” (i.e., stagnant). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:273.
57 tn Heb “the waters become healed.”