3:4 He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them.
32:22 “Assyria is there with all her assembly around her grave, 9 all of them struck down by the sword. 10
34:11 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.
38:7 “‘Be ready and stay ready, you and all your companies assembled around you, and be a guard for them. 15
1 tn Heb “from there a few in number.” The word “strands” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
2 sn Objects could be carried in the end of a garment (Hag 2:12).
3 tn Heb “not in vain did I speak to do to them this catastrophe.” The wording of the last half of v. 10 parallels God’s declaration after the sin of the golden calf (Exod 32:14).
4 tn Or “like a wheel at right angles to another wheel.” Some envision concentric wheels here, while others propose “a globe-like structure in which two wheels stand at right angles” (L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:33-34). See also 1:16.
5 tn Or “permitted.”
sn The content of the verse is shocking: that God would “give” bad decrees. This probably does not refer to the Mosaic law but to the practices of the Canaanites who were left in the land in order to test Israel. See Judg 2:20-23, the note on “decrees” in v. 25, and the note on “pass through the fire” in v. 26.
6 tn The Hebrew term חֻקּוֹת (khuqot; translated “statutes” elsewhere in this chapter) is normally feminine. Here Ezekiel changes the form to masculine: חֻקִּים (khuqim). Further, they are not called “my decrees” as vv. 11 and 13 refer to “my statutes.” The change is a signal that Ezekiel is not talking about the same statutes in vv. 11 and 13, which lead to life.
7 tc The LXX places this verse after v. 21.
tn The words “say to them” are added in the translation for clarity to indicate the shift in addressee from the prophet to Egypt.
8 tn Heb “pleasantness.”
9 tn Heb “around him his graves.” The masculine pronominal suffixes are problematic; the expression is best emended to correspond to the phrase “around her grave” in v. 23. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:219.
10 tn Heb “all of them slain, the ones felled by the sword.” See as well vv. 23-24.
11 tn Heb “behold it is coming.”
12 tn Heb “your mouth.”
13 tn Heb “and you multiplied against me your words.” The Hebrew verb occurs only here and in Prov 27:6, where it refers to the “excessive” kisses of an enemy. The basic idea of the verb appears to be “to be abundant.” Here it occurs in the causative (Hiphil) stem.
14 sn The sanctuary of Israel becomes the main focus of Ezek 40-48.
15 tn The second person singular verbal and pronominal forms in the Hebrew text indicate that Gog is addressed here.