Ezekiel 3:6

3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand ¹  – surely if ²  I had sent you to them, they would listen to you!

Ezekiel 4:12

4:12 And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” ³ 

Ezekiel 14:14

14:14 Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, ⁴  and Job, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, declares the sovereign Lord.

Ezekiel 17:14

17:14 so it would be a lowly kingdom which could not rise on its own but must keep its treaty with him in order to stand.

Ezekiel 20:12

20:12 I also gave them my Sabbaths ⁵  as a reminder of our relationship, ⁶  so that they would know that I, the Lord, sanctify them. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 20:14

20:14 I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

Ezekiel 20:23

20:23 I also swore ⁸  to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands. ⁹ 

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¹ tn Heb “hear.”

² tc The MT reads “if not” but most ancient versions translate only “if.” The expression occurs with this sense in Isa 5:9; 14:24. See also Ezek 34:8; 36:5; 38:19.

³ sn Human waste was to remain outside the camp of the Israelites according to Deut 23:15.

⁴ sn Traditionally this has been understood as a reference to the biblical Daniel, though he was still quite young when Ezekiel prophesied. One wonders if he had developed a reputation as an intercessor by this point. For this reason some prefer to see a reference to a ruler named Danel, known in Canaanite legend for his justice and wisdom. In this case all three of the individuals named would be non-Israelites, however the Ugaritic Danel is not known to have qualities of faith in the Lord that would place him in the company of the other men. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:447-50.

⁵ sn Ezekiel’s contemporary, Jeremiah, also stressed the importance of obedience to the Sabbath law (Jer 17).

⁶ tn Heb “to become a sign between me and them.”

⁷ tn Or “set them apart.” The last phrase of verse 12 appears to be a citation of Exod 31:13.

⁸ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

⁹ sn Though the Pentateuch does not seem to know of this episode, Ps 106:26-27 may speak of God’s oath to exile the people before they had entered Canaan.