4:14 And I said, “Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat 1 has never entered my mouth.”
5:7 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you are more arrogant 2 than the nations around you, 3 you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even 4 carried out the regulations of the nations around you!
13:20 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note 7 that I am against your wristbands with which you entrap people’s lives 8 like birds. I will tear them from your arms and will release the people’s lives, which you hunt like birds.
17:9 “‘Say to them: This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘Will it prosper?
Will he not rip out its roots
and cause its fruit to rot 9 and wither?
All its foliage 10 will wither.
No strong arm or large army
will be needed to pull it out by its roots. 11
21:24 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up 15 your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. 16
“‘Look, I am against 21 you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great monster 22 lying in the midst of its waterways,
who has said, “My Nile is my own, I made it for myself.” 23
31:15 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it 24 went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. 25 I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it.
36:22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake that I am about to act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation 29 which you profaned among the nations where you went.
39:17 “As for you, son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Tell every kind of bird and every wild beast: ‘Assemble and come! Gather from all around to my slaughter 32 which I am going to make for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel! You will eat flesh and drink blood.
44:15 “‘But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok 33 who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the sovereign Lord.
1 tn The Hebrew term refers to sacrificial meat not eaten by the appropriate time (Lev 7:18; 19:7).
2 tn Traditionally this difficult form has been derived from a hypothetical root הָמוֹן (hamon), supposedly meaning “be in tumult/uproar,” but such a verb occurs nowhere else. It is more likely that it is to be derived from a root מָנוֹן (manon), meaning “disdain” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:52). A derivative from this root is used in Prov 29:21 of a rebellious servant. See HALOT 600 s.v. מָנוֹן.
3 sn You are more arrogant than the nations around you. Israel is accused of being worse than the nations in Ezek 16:27; 2 Kgs 21:11; Jer 2:11.
4 tc Some Hebrew
5 tn The Hebrew term may refer to the secret council of the
6 tn The reference here is probably to a civil list (as in Ezra 2:16; Neh 7:64) rather than to a “book of life” (Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Ps 69:29; Dan 12:1). This registry may have been established at the making of David’s census (2 Sam 24:2, 9).
7 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
8 tn Heb “human lives” or “souls.”
9 tn The Hebrew root occurs only here in the OT and appears to have the meaning of “strip off.” In application to fruit the meaning may be “cause to rot.”
10 tn Heb “all the טַרְפֵּי (tarpey) of branches.” The word טַרְפֵּי occurs only here in the Bible; its precise meaning is uncertain.
11 tn Or “there will be no strong arm or large army when it is pulled up by the roots.”
12 tn Heb “all of it.”
13 tn Heb “every spirit will be dim.”
14 sn This expression depicts in a very vivid way how they will be overcome with fear. See the note on the same phrase in 7:17.
15 tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”
16 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.”
17 tn Heb “the pride of your strength” means “your strong pride.”
18 sn Heb “the delight of your eyes.” Just as Ezekiel was deprived of his beloved wife (v. 16, the “desire” of his “eyes”) so the Lord would be forced to remove the object of his devotion, the temple, which symbolized his close relationship to his covenant people.
19 tn Heb “the object of compassion of your soul.” The accentuation in the traditional Hebrew text indicates that the descriptive phrases (“the source of your confident pride, the object in which your eyes delight, and your life’s passion”) modify the preceding “my sanctuary.”
20 tn Heb “fall.”
21 tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.
22 tn Heb “jackals,” but many medieval Hebrew
23 sn In Egyptian theology Pharaoh owned and controlled the Nile. See J. D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 240-44.
24 tn Or “he.”
25 tn Heb “I caused lamentation.” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:194-95) proposes an alternative root which would give the meaning “I gated back the waters,” i.e., shut off the water supply.
26 tn Heb “turn from his way.”
27 tn Heb “ways.” This same word is translated “behavior” earlier in the verse.
28 tn Heb “lip of the tongue.”
29 sn In Ezek 20:22 God refrained from punishment for the sake of his holy name. Here God’s reputation is the basis for Israel’s restoration.
30 tn Heb “I will place them on it, that is, on the stick of Judah.”
31 sn The reunification of Israel and Judah is envisioned as well in Ezek 33:23, 29; Jer 3:18; 23:5-6; Hos 1:11; Amos 9:11.
32 tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).
33 sn Zadok was a descendant of Aaron through Eleazar (1 Chr 6:50-53), who served as a priest during David’s reign (2 Sam 8:17).