4:9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, 1 put them in a single container, and make food 2 from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side – 390 days 3 – you will eat it.
30:13 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
I will destroy the idols,
and put an end to the gods of Memphis.
There will no longer be a prince from the land of Egypt;
so I will make the land of Egypt fearful. 20
33:12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, 21 ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him if he rebels. 22 As for the wicked, his wickedness will not make him stumble if he turns from it. 23 The righteous will not be able to live by his righteousness 24 if he sins.’ 25
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 30 which I am going to make for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel! You will eat flesh and drink blood.
1 sn Wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. All these foods were common in Mesopotamia where Ezekiel was exiled.
2 tn Heb “bread.”
3 tc The LXX reads “190 days.”
4 sn The wristbands mentioned here probably represented magic bands or charms. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:413.
5 tn Heb “joints of the hands.” This may include the elbow and shoulder joints.
6 tn The Hebrew term occurs in the Bible only here and in v. 21. It has also been understood as a veil or type of head covering. D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:414) suggests that given the context of magical devices, the expected parallel to the magical arm bands, and the meaning of this Hebrew root (סָפַח [safakh, “to attach” or “join”]), it may refer to headbands or necklaces on which magical amulets were worn.
7 tn Heb “human lives” or “souls” (three times in v. 18 and twice in v. 19).
8 tn Or “gifts.”
9 tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”
10 tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”
11 tn Heb “you have brought near your days.” The expression “bring near your days” appears to be an adaptation of the idiom “days draw near,” which is used to indicate that an event, such as death, is imminent (see Gen 27:41; 47:29; Deut 31:14; 1 Kgs 2:1; Ezek 12:23). Here “your days” probably refers to the days of the personified city’s life, which was about to come to an end through God’s judgment.
12 tn Heb “and you have come to your years.” This appears to mean that she has arrived at the time when her years (i.e., life) would end, though it may mean that her years of punishment will begin. Because “day” and “time” are so closely associated in the immediate context (see 21:25, 29) some prefer to emend the text and read “you have brought near your time.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:31, as well as the translator’s note on verse 3.
13 tn The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.
14 tc The translation here follows the marginal reading (Qere) of the Hebrew text. The consonantal text (Kethib) is meaningless.
15 tn Heb “and I will cut off from her man and beast.”
16 tn Heb “fall.”
17 tn Heb “to the people of antiquity.”
18 tn Heb “like.” The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like”), to בְּ (bÿ, “in, among”).
19 tn Heb “and I will place beauty.” This reading makes little sense; many, following the lead of the LXX, emend the text to read “nor will you stand” with the negative particle before the preceding verb understood by ellipsis; see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:73. D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:47) offers another alternative, taking the apparent first person verb form as an archaic second feminine form and translating “nor radiate splendor.”
20 tn Heb “I will put fear in the land of Egypt.”
21 tn Heb “the sons of your people.”
22 tn Heb “in the day of his rebellion.” The statement envisions a godly person rejecting what is good and becoming sinful. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:247-48.
23 tn Heb “and the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble in it in the day of his turning from his wickedness.”
24 tn Heb “by it.”
25 tn Heb “in the day of his sin.”
26 tn Heb “I will place them on it, that is, on the stick of Judah.”
27 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.
28 tn Heb “they will not carry.”
29 tn Heb “loot their looters and plunder their plunderers.”
30 tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).