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, 1 and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.
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.
15:6 “Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest which I have provided as fuel for the fire – so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem 13 as fuel. 14
16:15 “‘But you trusted in your beauty and capitalized on your fame by becoming a prostitute. You offered your sexual favors to every man who passed by so that your beauty 15 became his.
17:6 It sprouted and became a vine,
spreading low to the ground; 16
its branches turning toward him, 17 its roots were under itself. 18
So it became a vine; it produced shoots and sent out branches.
19:9 They put him in a collar with hooks; 19
they brought him to the king of Babylon;
they brought him to prison 20
so that his voice would not be heard
any longer on the mountains of Israel.
21:15 So hearts melt with fear and many stumble.
At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter.
Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!
22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. 24 22:31 So I have poured my anger on them, and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done, 25 declares the sovereign Lord.”
28:16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, 36 and you sinned;
so I defiled you and banished you 37 from the mountain of God –
the guardian cherub expelled you 38 from the midst of the stones of fire.
34:25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely 43 in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. 44
1 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.
2 tn Or “canal.”
3 tn Heb “you will not be to them a reprover.” In Isa 29:21 and Amos 5:10 “a reprover” issued rebuke at the city gate.
4 tn Heb “I have assigned for you that the years of their iniquity be the number of days.” Num 14:33-34 is an example of the reverse, where the days were converted into years, the number of days spying out the land becoming the number of years of the wilderness wanderings.
5 tc The LXX reads “190 days.”
sn The significance of the number 390 is not clear. The best explanation is that “days” are used figuratively for years and the number refers to the years of the sinfulness of Israel during the period of the First Temple. Some understand the number to refer to the length of the division of the northern and southern kingdoms down to the fall of Jerusalem (931-586
6 tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.
7 tn Heb “lift your eyes (to) the way of.”
8 tn Or “pattern.”
9 tn Heb “detestable.” The word is often used to describe the figures of foreign gods.
10 sn These engravings were prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut 4:16-18).
11 tn Or “within it,” referring to the city of Jerusalem.
12 sn I will be their God. See Exod 6:7; Lev 26:12; Jer 7:23; 11:4.
13 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
14 tn The words “as fuel” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
15 tn Heb “it” (so KJV, ASV); the referent (the beauty in which the prostitute trusted, see the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn Heb “short of stature.”
17 tn That is, the eagle.
18 tn Or “him,” i.e., the eagle.
19 tn Or “They put him in a neck stock with hooks.” The noun סּוּגַר (sugar), translated “collar,” occurs only here in the Bible. L. C. Allen and D. I. Block point out a Babylonian cognate that refers to a device for transporting prisoners of war that held them by their necks (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:597, n. 35; L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284). Based on the Hebrew root, the traditional rendering had been “cage” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
20 tc The term in the MT occurs only here and in Eccl 9:12 where it refers to a net for catching fish. The LXX translates this as “prison,” which assumes a confusion of dalet and resh took place in the MT.
21 tn Heb “for the sake of my name.”
22 tn Heb “before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were.”
23 tn Heb “to whom I made myself known before their eyes to bring them out from the land of Egypt.” The translation understands the infinitive construct (“to bring them out”) as indicating manner. God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt was an act of self-revelation in that it displayed his power and his commitment to his promises.
24 tn Heb “I did not find.”
25 tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”
26 tn Heb “I will cause your obscene conduct to cease from you and your harlotry from the land of Egypt.”
27 tn Heb “lift your eyes to them.”
28 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates being aware of or taking notice of something and has been translated here with a verb (so also throughout the chapter).
29 tn Heb “Look I am about to give you for a possession to.”
30 tn Heb “sons.”
31 tn Heb “shoulder.”
32 tn Heb “from the cities.” The verb “eliminating” has been added in the translation to reflect the privative use of the preposition (see BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7.b).
33 tn Heb “from its cities, from its end.”
34 tn In Hebrew the verb “and I will cut off” sounds like its object, “the Cherethites,” and draws attention to the statement.
35 sn This is a name for the Philistines, many of whom migrated to Palestine from Crete.
36 tn Heb “they filled your midst with violence.”
37 tn Heb “I defiled you.” The presence of the preposition “from” following the verb indicates that a verb of motion is implied as well. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.
38 tn Heb “and I expelled you, O guardian cherub.” The Hebrew text takes the verb as first person and understands “guardian cherub” as a vocative, in apposition to the pronominal suffix on the verb. However, if the emendation in verse 14a is accepted (see the note above), then one may follow the LXX here as well and emend the verb to a third person perfect. In this case the subject of the verb is the guardian cherub. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.
39 sn The expression “breaking the arm” indicates the removal of power (Ps 10:15; 37:17; Job 38:15; Jer 48:25).
40 sn This may refer to the event recorded in Jer 37:5.
41 tn Heb “his blood will be on him.”
42 sn The imagery may reflect the overthrow of the Israelites by the Babylonians in 587/6
43 tn The phrase “live securely” occurs in Ezek 28:26; 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 as an expression of freedom from fear. It is a promised blessing resulting from obedience (see Lev 26:5-6).
44 sn The woods were typically considered to be places of danger (Ps 104:20-21; Jer 5:6).
45 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
46 tn Heb has in addition “from your contributions,” a repetition unnecessary in English.