11:17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather you from the peoples and assemble you from the lands where you have been dispersed, I will give you back the country of Israel.’
13:10 “‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” 25 when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, 26 they coat it with whitewash.
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 29 as fuel. 30 15:7 I will set 31 my face against them – although they have escaped from the fire, 32 the fire will still consume them! Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them.
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!
21:24 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up 46 your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. 47
23:35 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have forgotten me and completely disregarded me, 55 you must bear now the punishment 56 for your obscene conduct and prostitution.”
24:13 You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. 57
I tried to cleanse you, 58 but you are not clean.
You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness 59
until I have exhausted my anger on you.
24:14 “‘I the Lord have spoken; judgment 60 is coming and I will act! I will not relent, or show pity, or be sorry! 61 I will judge you 62 according to your conduct 63 and your deeds, declares the sovereign Lord.’”
“‘O Tyre, you have said, “I am perfectly beautiful.”
30:12 I will dry up the waterways
and hand the land over to 67 evil men.
I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
33:7 “As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman 71 for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them on my behalf.
35:5 “‘You have shown unrelenting hostility and poured the people of Israel onto the blades of a sword 75 at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment.
39:25 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore 79 the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name.
44:17 “‘When they enter the gates of the inner court, they must wear linen garments; they must not have any wool on them when they minister in the inner gates of the court and in the temple.
47:13 This is what the sovereign Lord says: “Here 85 are the borders 86 you will observe as you allot the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. (Joseph will have two portions.) 87
1 tn The Hebrew term translated “diamond” is parallel to “iron” in Jer 17:1. The Hebrew uses two terms which are both translated at times as “flint,” but here one is clearly harder than the other. The translation “diamond” attempts to reflect this distinction in English.
2 tn Heb “of their faces.”
3 tn The literal role of a watchman is described in 2 Sam 18:24; 2 Kgs 9:17.
4 tn Verses 17-19 are repeated in Ezek 33:7-9.
5 tn Heb “the righteous man.”
6 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.
7 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
8 tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.
9 sn The nations are subject to a natural law according to Gen 9; see also Amos 1:3-2:3; Jonah 1:2.
10 tn Heb “she defied my laws, becoming wicked more than the nations, and [she defied] my statutes [becoming wicked] more than the countries around her.”
11 sn One might conclude that the subject of the plural verbs is the nations/countries, but the context (vv. 5-6a) indicates that the people of Jerusalem are in view. The text shifts from using the feminine singular (referring to personified Jerusalem) to the plural (referring to Jerusalem’s residents). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:73.
12 tc This reading is supported by the versions and by the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QEzek). Most Masoretic Hebrew
13 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT. A related verb means “revile, taunt” (see Ps 44:16).
14 tn Heb “discipline and devastation.” These words are omitted in the Old Greek. The first term pictures Jerusalem as a recipient or example of divine discipline; the second depicts her as a desolate ruin (see Ezek 6:14).
15 tn Heb “in anger and in fury and in rebukes of fury.” The heaping up of synonyms emphasizes the degree of God’s anger.
16 tn Heb “will bereave you.”
17 tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.
18 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
19 tn Heb “placed.”
20 tn Heb “in its midst.”
21 tn Heb “she/it.” See v. 3.
22 tc Many of the versions read “I will bring you out” (active) rather than “he brought out” (the reading of MT).
23 sn The book of Ezekiel frequently refers to the Israelites as a rebellious house (Ezek 2:5, 6, 8; 3:9, 26-27; 12:2-3, 9, 25; 17:12; 24:3).
24 sn This verse is very similar to Isa 6:9-10.
25 tn Or “peace.”
26 tn The Hebrew word only occurs here in the Bible. According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:202-3) it is also used in the Mishnah of a wall of rough stones without mortar. This fits the context here comparing the false prophetic messages to a nice coat of whitewash on a structurally unstable wall.
27 tn Heb “the stumbling block of their iniquity.” This phrase is unique to the prophet Ezekiel.
28 tn Or “I will not reveal myself to them.” The Hebrew word is used in a technical sense here of seeking an oracle from a prophet (2 Kgs 1:16; 3:11; 8:8).
29 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
30 tn The words “as fuel” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
31 tn The word translated “set” is the same Hebrew word translated as “provide” in the previous verse.
32 sn This escape refers to the exile of Ezekiel and others in 597
33 tc So MT, LXX, and Vulgate; many Hebrew
34 tc Some manuscripts and versions read “choice men,” while most manuscripts read “fugitives”; the difference arises from the reversal, or metathesis, of two letters, מִבְרָחָיו (mivrakhyv) for מִבְחָריו (mivkharyv).
35 tn Heb “fall.”
36 tn Heb, “on the mountains he does not eat.” The mountains are often mentioned as the place where idolatrous sacrifices were eaten (Ezek 20:28; 22:9; 34:6).
37 tn Heb, “does not lift up his eyes.” This refers to looking to idols for help.
38 tn Heb, “does not draw near to.” “Draw near” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse (Lev 18:14; Deut 22:14; Isa 8:3).
39 tn Heb “ways.”
40 tn Heb “loathe yourselves in your faces.”
41 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people in Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
42 sn When the people of Judah realized the Babylonians’ intentions, they would object on grounds that they had made a treaty with the Babylonian king (see 17:13).
43 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
44 tn Or “iniquity.”
45 tn Heb “and he will remind of guilt for the purpose of being captured.” The king would counter their objections by pointing out that they had violated their treaty with him (see 17:18).
46 tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”
47 tn Heb “Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt when your transgressions are uncovered so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds – because you are remembered, by the hand you will be seized.”
48 tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.
49 sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.
50 tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.
51 tn Heb “I will cause your obscene conduct to cease from you and your harlotry from the land of Egypt.”
52 tn Heb “lift your eyes to them.”
53 tn The Hebrew term means “labor,” but by extension it can also refer to that for which one works.
54 tn Heb “The nakedness of your prostitution will be exposed, and your obscene conduct and your harlotry.”
55 tn Heb “and you cast me behind your back.” The expression pictures her rejection of the Lord (see 1 Kgs 14:9).
56 tn The word “punishment” is not in the Hebrew text but is demanded by the context.
57 tn Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”
58 tn Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.
59 tn The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”
60 tn Heb “it”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
61 tn Or perhaps, “change my mind.”
62 tc Some medieval Hebrew
63 tn Heb “ways.”
64 sn This prophecy was fulfilled by Alexander the Great in 332
65 tn Heb “entrances.” The plural noun may reflect the fact that Tyre had two main harbors.
66 sn Rome, another economic power, is described in a similar way in Rev 17:1.
67 tn Heb “and I will sell the land into the hand of.”
68 sn The expression “breaking the arm” indicates the removal of power (Ps 10:15; 37:17; Job 38:15; Jer 48:25).
69 sn This may refer to the event recorded in Jer 37:5.
70 tn Heb “his blood will be on him.”
71 sn Jeremiah (Jer 6:17) and Habakkuk (Hab 2:1) also served in the role of a watchman.
72 tn Heb “from his way to turn from it.”
73 tn Heb “and he does not turn from his way.”
74 sn The imagery may reflect the overthrow of the Israelites by the Babylonians in 587/6
75 tn Or “gave over…to the power of the sword.” This phrase also occurs in Jer 18:21 and Ps 63:10.
76 tn Or “spirit.” This is likely an allusion to Gen 2 and God’s breath which creates life.
77 tn Heb “as the scouts scout.”
78 tn That is, the aforementioned bone.
79 tn Heb “cause to return.”
80 tn Heb “to desecrate.”
81 tc The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions read “you.” The Masoretic text reads “they.”
82 tn Heb “a stumbling block of iniquity.” This is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (cf. also Ezek 7:19; 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30).
83 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
84 tn Heb “will bear.”
85 tc This translation follows the reading זֶה (zeh) instead of גֵּה (geh), a nonexistent word, as supported by the LXX.
86 tn Or “territory”; see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:715.
87 tc The grammar is awkward, though the presence of these words is supported by the versions. L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 2:274) suggests that it is an explanatory gloss.
sn One portion for Ephraim, the other for Manasseh (Gen 48:17-20).
88 tn Heb “two hundred fifty cubits” (i.e., 131.25 meters); the phrase occurs three more times in this verse.