19:10 “‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, 4 planted by water.
It was fruitful and full of branches because it was well-watered.
32:6 I will drench the land with the flow
of your blood up to the mountains,
and the ravines will be full of your blood. 5
41:8 I saw that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full measuring stick 8 of 10½ feet 9 high.
1 tn The traditional interpretation is that Ezekiel embarked on his mission with bitterness and anger, either reflecting God’s attitude toward the sinful people or his own feelings about having to carry out such an unpleasant task. L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:13) takes “bitterly” as a misplaced marginal note and understands the following word, normally translated “anger,” in the sense of fervor or passion. He translates, “I was passionately moved” (p. 4). Another option is to take the word translated “bitterly” as a verb meaning “strengthened” (attested in Ugaritic). See G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 152.
2 tn Heb “the hand of the Lord was on me heavily.” The “hand of the Lord” is a metaphor for his power or influence; the modifier conveys intensity.
sn 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).
3 tc The phrase “along with their entire bodies” is absent from the LXX and may be a gloss explaining the following words.
4 tc The Hebrew text reads “in your blood,” but most emend to “in your vineyard,” assuming a ב-כ (beth-kaph) confusion. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. Another attractive emendation assumes a faulty word division and yields the reading “like a vine full of tendrils, which/because…”; see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:607, n. 68.
5 tn Heb “from you.”
6 sn Eating the fat and drinking blood were God’s exclusive rights in Israelite sacrifices (Lev 3:17).
7 tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).
8 tn Heb “reed.”
9 tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).