19:14 A fire has gone out from its branch; it has consumed its shoot and its fruit. 10
No strong branch was left in it, nor a scepter to rule.’
This is a lament song, and has become a lament song.”
22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. 11
24:6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:
Woe to the city of bloodshed,
the pot whose rot 12 is in it,
whose rot has not been removed 13 from it!
Empty it piece by piece.
No lot has fallen on it. 14
28:24 “‘No longer will Israel suffer from the sharp briers 16 or painful thorns of all who surround and scorn them. 17 Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.
31:8 The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it,
nor could the fir trees 18 match its boughs;
the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches;
no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.
1 tc The translation follows the LXX for the first line of the verse, although the LXX has lost the second line due to homoioteleuton (similar endings of the clauses). The MT reads “The seller will not return to the sale.” This Hebrew reading has been construed as a reference to land redemption, the temporary sale of the use of property, with property rights returned to the seller in the year of Jubilee. But the context has no other indicator that land redemption is in view. If correct, the LXX evidence suggests that one of the cases of “the customer” has been replaced by “the seller” in the MT, perhaps due to hoimoioarcton (similar beginnings of the words).
2 tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.
3 tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in v. 16; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”
4 tn Heb “from your hand(s).” This refers to their power over the people.
5 sn I will be their God. See Exod 6:7; Lev 26:12; Jer 7:23; 11:4.
6 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws one’s attention to something. Sometimes it may be translated as a verb of perception; here it is treated as a particle that fits the context (so also in v. 5, but with a different English word).
7 sn These verbs, “pity” and “spare,” echo the judgment oracles in 5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:18; 9:5, 10.
8 sn A similar concept is found in Deut 32:10.
9 tn The words “to your clients” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied.
10 tn The verse describes the similar situation recorded in Judg 9:20.
11 tn Heb “I did not find.”
12 tn Or “rust.”
13 tn Heb “has not gone out.”
14 tn Here “lot” may refer to the decision made by casting lots; it is not chosen at all.
15 tn Heb “your mouth will open.”
16 sn Similar language is used in reference to Israel’s adversaries in Num 33:55; Josh 23:13.
17 tn Heb “and there will not be for the house of Israel a brier that pricks and a thorn that inflicts pain from all the ones who surround them, the ones who scorn them.”
18 tn Or “cypress trees” (cf. NASB, NLT); NIV “pine trees.”
19 tn Heb “the wicked one.”
20 tn Heb “and in the statutes of life he walks.”
21 tn The phrase “upper chambers” is not in the Hebrew text but is supplied from the context.
22 sn Tobiah, an Ammonite (Neh 13:8), was dismissed from the temple.