Ezekiel 8:11

8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel ¹  (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant ²  vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.

Ezekiel 8:16

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ³  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ⁴  were about twenty-five ⁵  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ⁶  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ⁷  toward the east!

Ezekiel 9:2

9:2 Next, I noticed ⁸  six men ⁹  coming from the direction of the upper gate ¹⁰  which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit ¹¹  at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

Ezekiel 11:1

The Fall of Jerusalem

11:1 A wind ¹²  lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Lord’s temple that faces the east. There, at the entrance of the gate, I noticed twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, officials of the people. ¹³ 

Ezekiel 27:27

27:27 Your wealth, products, and merchandise, your sailors and captains,

your ship’s carpenters, ¹⁴  your merchants,

and all your fighting men within you,

along with all your crew who are in you,

will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your downfall.

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¹ sn Note the contrast between these seventy men who represented Israel and the seventy elders who ate the covenant meal before God, inaugurating the covenant relationship (Exod 24:1, 9).

² tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

³ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.

⁴ sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).

⁵ tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.

tn Or “exactly twenty-five.”

⁶ sn The temple faced east.

⁷ tn Or “the sun god.”

sn The worship of astral entities may have begun during the reign of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:5).

⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

⁹ sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.

¹⁰ sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).

¹¹ tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.

¹² tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.

¹³ sn The phrase officials of the people occurs in Neh 11:1; 1 Chr 21:2; 2 Chr 24:23.

¹⁴ tn Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.