8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed 5 women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 6
28:14 I placed you there with an anointed 8 guardian 9 cherub; 10
you were on the holy mountain of God;
you walked about amidst fiery stones.
35:10 “‘You said, “These two nations, these two lands 11 will be mine, and we will possess them,” 12 – although the Lord was there –
37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow 18 my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. 19
40:17 Then he brought me to the outer court. I saw 25 chambers there, and a pavement made for the court all around; thirty chambers faced the pavement.
1 sn The name “Tel Abib” is a transliteration of an Akkadian term meaning “mound of the flood,” i.e., an ancient mound. It is not to be confused with the modern city of Tel Aviv in Israel.
2 tn Or “canal.”
3 sn A similar response to a divine encounter is found in Acts 9:8-9.
4 tn Heb “into the midst of” (so KJV, ASV). This phrase has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Given the context this could be understood as a shock, e.g., idiomatically “Good grief! I saw….”
6 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.
7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
8 tn Or “winged”; see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.
9 tn The meaning of this phrase in Hebrew is uncertain. The word translated here “guards” occurs in Exod 25:20 in reference to the cherubim “covering” the ark.
10 tn Heb “you (were) an anointed cherub that covers and I placed you.” In the Hebrew text the ruler of Tyre is equated with a cherub, and the verb “I placed you” is taken with what follows (“on the holy mountain of God”). However, this reading is problematic. The pronoun “you” at the beginning of verse 14 is feminine singular in the Hebrew text; elsewhere in this passage the ruler of Tyre is addressed with masculine singular forms. It is possible that the pronoun is a rare (see Deut 5:24; Num 11:15) or defectively written (see 1 Sam 24:19; Neh 9:6; Job 1:10; Ps 6:3; Eccl 7:22) masculine form, but it is more likely that the form should be repointed as the preposition “with” (see the LXX). In this case the ruler of Tyre is compared to the first man, not to a cherub. If this emendation is accepted, then the verb “I placed you” belongs with what precedes and concludes the first sentence in the verse. It is noteworthy that the verbs in the second and third lines of the verse also appear at the end of the sentence in the Hebrew text. The presence of a conjunction at the beginning of “I placed you” is problematic for the proposal, but it may reflect a later misunderstanding of the syntax of the verse. For a defense of the proposed emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.
11 sn The reference is to Israel and Judah.
12 tn Heb “it.”
13 tn Heb “and he made me pass over them, around, around.”
14 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.
15 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
16 tn Heb “came up.”
17 tn Or “spirit.”
18 tn Heb “walk [in].”
19 tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”
20 sn The phrase “in the fire of my fury” occurs in Ezek 21:31; 22:21, 31.
21 tn Or “shaking.”
22 sn The three alcoves are parallel to the city gates found at Megiddo, Hazor, and Gezer.
23 tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).
24 tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).
25 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
26 tn Heb “as these windows.”
27 tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).
28 tn Heb “twenty-five cubits” (i.e., 13.125 meters).
29 tc This reading is supported by the Aramaic Targum. The LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac read “shelves” or some type of projection.
30 tn Heb “one handbreadth” (7.5 cm).
31 tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).
32 tn Heb “eleven cubits” (i.e., 5.775 meters).
33 tc The LXX reads “ten steps.”
34 tn Heb “eighteen thousand cubits” (i.e., 9.45 kilometers).
35 sn See Rev 21:12-21.