4:16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply 3 in Jerusalem. 4 They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror
13:10 “‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” 12 when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, 13 they coat it with whitewash.
27:11 The Arvadites 25 joined your army on your walls all around,
and the Gammadites 26 were in your towers.
They hung their quivers 27 on your walls all around;
they perfected your beauty.
28:7 I am about to bring foreigners 28 against you, the most terrifying of nations.
They will draw their swords against the grandeur made by your wisdom, 29
and they will defile your splendor.
32:16 This is a lament; they will chant it.
The daughters of the nations will chant it.
They will chant it over Egypt and over all her hordes,
declares the sovereign Lord.”
32:29 “Edom is there with her kings and all her princes. Despite their might they are laid with those killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and those who descend to the pit.
43:22 “On the second day, you will offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. They will purify the altar just as they purified it with the bull.
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 Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support.
4 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
5 sn The nations are subject to a natural law according to Gen 9; see also Amos 1:3-2:3; Jonah 1:2.
6 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.”
7 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.
8 sn I will stretch out my hand against them is a common expression in the book of Ezekiel (14:9, 13; 16:27; 25:7; 35:3).
9 tc The Vulgate reads the name as “Riblah,” a city north of Damascus. The MT reads Diblah, a city otherwise unknown. The letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) may have been confused in the Hebrew text. The town of Riblah was in the land of Hamath (2 Kgs 23:33) which represented the northern border of Israel (Ezek 47:14).
10 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).
11 sn This verse is very similar to Isa 6:9-10.
12 tn Or “peace.”
13 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.
14 tn Or “gifts.”
15 sn This act is prohibited in Deut 12:29-31 and Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35. See also 2 Kgs 21:6; 23:10. This custom indicates that the laws the Israelites were following were the disastrous laws of pagan nations (see Ezek 16:20-21).
16 sn God sometimes punishes sin by inciting the sinner to sin even more, as the biblical examples of divine hardening and deceit make clear. See Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34; idem, “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 11-28. For other instances where the Lord causes individuals to act unwisely or even sinfully as punishment for sin, see 1 Sam 2:25; 2 Sam 17:14; 1 Kgs 12:15; 2 Chr 25:20.
17 tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”
18 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).
19 tn Heb “Look I am about to give you for a possession to.”
20 tn Heb “sons.”
21 tn Heb “know.”
22 tn Heb “desirable.”
23 tn Heb “set.”
24 tn Heb “into the midst of the water.”
25 tn Heb “sons of Arvad.”
26 sn The identity of the Gammadites is uncertain.
27 tn See note on “quivers” in Jer 51:11 on the meaning of Hebrew שֶׁלֶט (shelet) and also M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:553.
28 sn This is probably a reference to the Babylonians.
29 tn Heb “they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom.”
30 tn Heb “reminding of iniquity when they turned after them.”
31 tn Heb “good.”
32 tn Heb “men of perpetuity.”
33 tn Heb “and bury the travelers and those who remain on the surface of the ground.” The reference to “travelers” seems odd and is omitted in the LXX. It is probably an accidental duplication (see v. 11).
34 tn Heb “one and a half cubits” (i.e., 78.75 cm).
35 tn Heb “one and a half cubits” (i.e., 78.75 cm).
36 tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).
37 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).
38 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
39 tn Heb “will bear.”
40 tn Heb “from the offspring of the house of Israel.”
41 sn The Great Sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea (also in vv. 15, 19, 20).