“‘Look, I am against you, 1 Sidon,
and I will magnify myself in your midst.
Then they will know that I am the Lord
when I execute judgments on her
and reveal my sovereign power 2 in her.
28:23 I will send a plague into the city 3 and bloodshed into its streets;
the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it 4 from every side.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.
28:24 “‘No longer will Israel suffer from the sharp briers 5 or painful thorns of all who surround and scorn them. 6 Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.
28:25 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather the house of Israel from the peoples where they are dispersed, I will reveal my sovereign power 7 over them in the sight of the nations, and they will live in their land that I gave to my servant Jacob. 28:26 They will live securely in it; they will build houses and plant vineyards. They will live securely 8 when I execute my judgments on all those who scorn them and surround them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.’”
1 tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.
2 tn Or “reveal my holiness.” God’s “holiness” is fundamentally his transcendence as sovereign ruler of the world. The revelation of his authority and power through judgment is in view in this context.
3 tn Heb “into it”; the referent of the feminine pronoun has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “by a sword against it.”
5 sn Similar language is used in reference to Israel’s adversaries in Num 33:55; Josh 23:13.
6 tn Heb “and there will not be for the house of Israel a brier that pricks and a thorn that inflicts pain from all the ones who surround them, the ones who scorn them.”
7 tn Or “reveal my holiness.” See verse 22.
8 sn This promise was given in Lev 25:18-19.