Ezekiel 4:1

Ominous Object Lessons

4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick 1  and set it in front of you. Inscribe 2  a city on it – Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 5:5

5:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her.

Ezekiel 12:10

12:10 Say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem, 3  and all the house of Israel within it.’ 4 

Ezekiel 13:16

13:16 those prophets of Israel who would prophesy about Jerusalem 5  and would see visions of peace for it, when there was no peace,” declares the sovereign Lord.’

Ezekiel 22:19

22:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you 6  have become slag, look out! – I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem. 7 

Ezekiel 24:2

24:2 “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege 8  to Jerusalem 9  this very day.

1 sn Ancient Near Eastern bricks were 10 to 24 inches long and 6 to 13 1/2 inches wide.

2 tn Or perhaps “draw.”

3 tc The nearly incoherent Hebrew reads “The prince is this burden (prophetic oracle?) in Jerusalem.” The Targum, which may only be trying to make sense of a very difficult text, says “Concerning the prince is this oracle,” assuming the addition of a preposition. This would be the only case where Ezekiel uses this term for a prophetic oracle. The LXX reads the word for “burden” as a synonym for leader, as both words are built on the same root (נָשִׂיא, nasi’), but the verse is still incoherent because it is only a phrase with no verb. The current translation assumes that the verb יִשָּׂא (yisa’) from the root נָשִׂיא has dropped out due to homoioteleuton. If indeed the verb has dropped out (the syntax of the verbless clause being the problem), then context clearly suggests that it be a form of נָשִׂיא (see vv. 7 and 12). Placing the verb between the subject and object would result in three consecutive words based on the root נָשִׂיא and an environment conducive to an omission in copying: הַנָּשִׂיא יִשָּׁא הַמַּשָּׂא הַזֶּה (hannasi’ yisha’ hammasa’ hazzeh, “the Prince will raise this burden”).

sn The prince in Jerusalem refers to King Zedekiah.

map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

4 tc The MT reads “within them.” Possibly a scribe copied this form from the following verse “among them,” but only “within it” makes sense in this context.

5 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

6 tn The Hebrew second person pronoun is masculine plural here and in vv. 19b-21, indicating that the people are being addressed.

7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

8 tn Heb “lean on, put pressure on.”

9 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.