Discovery BoxEzekiel 2:6 
Context2:6 But you, son of man, do not fear them, and do not fear their words – even though briers 1 and thorns 2 surround you and you live among scorpions – do not fear their words and do not be terrified of the looks they give you, 3 for they are a rebellious house!
Ezekiel 4:3
Context4:3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan 4 and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign 5 for the house of Israel.
Ezekiel 8:11-12
Context8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel 6 (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant 7 vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.
8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? 8 For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”
Ezekiel 8:16-17
Context8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there 9 at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, 10 were about twenty-five 11 men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, 12 facing east – they were worshiping the sun 13 toward the east!
8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! 14
Ezekiel 9:9
Context9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, 15 for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ 16
Ezekiel 11:15
Context11:15 “Son of man, your brothers, 17 your relatives, 18 and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem 19 have said, ‘They have gone 20 far away from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.’
Ezekiel 12:3
Context12:3 “Therefore, son of man, pack up your belongings as if for exile. During the day, while they are watching, pretend to go into exile. Go from where you live to another place. Perhaps they will understand, 21 although they are a rebellious house.
Ezekiel 12:6
Context12:6 While they are watching, raise your baggage onto your shoulder and carry it out in the dark. 22 You must cover your face so that you cannot see the ground 23 because I have made you an object lesson 24 to the house of Israel.”
Ezekiel 13:9
Context13:9 My hand will be against the prophets who see delusion and announce lying omens. They will not be included in the council 25 of my people, nor be written in the registry 26 of the house of Israel, nor enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 14:4
Context14:4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When any one from the house of Israel erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally according to the enormity of his idolatry. 27
Ezekiel 14:7
Context14:7 For when anyone from the house of Israel, or the foreigner who lives in Israel, separates himself from me and erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet to seek something from me, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally.
Ezekiel 17:12
Context17:12 “Say to the rebellious house of Israel: 28 ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ 29 Say: ‘See here, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem 30 and took her king and her officials prisoner and brought them to himself in Babylon.
Ezekiel 20:5
Context20:5 and say to them:
“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day I chose Israel I swore 31 to the descendants 32 of the house of Jacob and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I swore 33 to them, “I am the Lord your God.”
Ezekiel 20:13
Context20:13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not follow my statutes and they rejected my regulations (the one who obeys them will live by them), and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I decided to pour out 34 my rage on them in the wilderness and destroy them. 35
Ezekiel 20:31
Context20:31 When you present your sacrifices 36 – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, 37 O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! 38
Ezekiel 20:39-40
Context20:39 “‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Each of you go and serve your idols, 39 if you will not listen to me. 40 But my holy name will not be profaned 41 again by your sacrifices 42 and your idols. 20:40 For there on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, all the house of Israel will serve me, all of them 43 in the land. I will accept them there, and there I will seek your contributions and your choice gifts, with all your holy things.
Ezekiel 24:21
Context24:21 Say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Realize I am about to desecrate my sanctuary – the source of your confident pride, 44 the object in which your eyes delight, 45 and your life’s passion. 46 Your very own sons and daughters whom you have left behind will die 47 by the sword.
Ezekiel 25:3
Context25:3 Say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: You said “Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile.
Ezekiel 28:25
Context28:25 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather the house of Israel from the peoples where they are dispersed, I will reveal my sovereign power 48 over them in the sight of the nations, and they will live in their land that I gave to my servant Jacob.
Ezekiel 33:10-11
Context33:10 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you have said: “Our rebellious acts and our sins have caught up with us, 49 and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ 33:11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior 50 and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! 51 Why should you die, O house of Israel?’
Ezekiel 35:15
Context35:15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I deal with you – you will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all of Edom – all of it! Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”
Ezekiel 37:16
Context37:16 “As for you, son of man, take one branch, and write on it, ‘For Judah, and for the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another branch and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the branch of Ephraim and all the house of Israel associated with him.’
Ezekiel 39:23
Context39:23 The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity, 52 for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword.
Ezekiel 40:4
Context40:4 The man said to me, “Son of man, watch closely, listen carefully, and pay attention 53 to everything I show you, for you have been brought here so that I can show it to you. 54 Tell the house of Israel everything you see.”
Ezekiel 44:5
Context44:5 The Lord said to me: “Son of man, pay attention, 55 watch closely and listen carefully to 56 everything I tell you concerning all the statutes of the Lord’s house and all its laws. Pay attention to the entrances 57 to the temple with all the exits of the sanctuary.
1 tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.
2 tn The Hebrew term is found elsewhere in the OT only in Ezek 28:24.
sn Here thorns may be a figure for hostility (Ezek 28:24; Mic 7:4).
3 tn Heb “of their faces.”
4 tn Or “a griddle,” that is, some sort of plate for cooking.
5 tn That is, a symbolic object lesson.
6 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).
7 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
8 tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
sn This type of image is explicitly prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 26:1).
9 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.
10 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).
11 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.”
12 sn The temple faced east.
13 tn Or “the sun god.”
sn The worship of astral entities may have begun during the reign of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:5).
14 tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”
15 tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”
16 sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.
17 tc The MT reads “your brothers, your brothers” either for empahsis (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:341, n. 1; 346) or as a result of dittography.
18 tc The MT reads גְאֻלָּתֶךָ (gÿ’ullatekha, “your redemption-men”), referring to the relatives responsible for deliverance in times of hardship (see Lev 25:25-55). The LXX and Syriac read “your fellow exiles,” assuming an underlying Hebrew text of גָלוּתֶךָ (galutekha) or having read the א (aleph) as an internal mater lectionis for holem.
19 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
20 tc The MT has an imperative form (“go far!”), but it may be read with different vowels as a perfect verb (“they have gone far”).
21 tn Heb “see.” This plays on the uses of “see” in v. 2. They will see his actions with their eyes and perhaps they will “see” with their mind, that is, understand or grasp the point.
22 tn Apart from this context the Hebrew term occurs only in Gen 15:17 in reference to the darkness after sunset. It may mean twilight.
23 tn Or “land” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
24 sn See also Ezek 12:11, 24:24, 27.
25 tn The Hebrew term may refer to the secret council of the
26 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).
27 tn Heb “in accordance with the multitude of his idols.”
28 tn The words “of Israel” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation as a clarification of the referent.
sn The book of Ezekiel frequently refers to the Israelites as a rebellious house (Ezek 2:5, 6, 8; 3:9, 26-27; 12:2-3, 9, 25; 17:12; 24:3).
29 sn The narrative description of this interpretation of the riddle is given in 2 Kgs 24:11-15.
30 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
31 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
32 tn Heb “seed.”
33 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
34 tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”
35 tn Heb “to bring them to an end.”
36 tn Or “gifts.”
37 tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”
38 tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”
39 sn Compare the irony here to Amos 4:4 and Jer 44:25.
40 tn Heb “and after, if you will not listen to me.” The translation leaves out “and after” for smoothness. The text is difficult. M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:374) suggests that it may mean “but afterwards, if you will not listen to me…” with an unspoken threat.
41 sn A similar concept may be found in Lev 18:21; 20:3.
42 tn Or “gifts.”
43 tn Heb “all of it.”
44 tn Heb “the pride of your strength” means “your strong pride.”
45 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.
46 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.”
47 tn Heb “fall.”
48 tn Or “reveal my holiness.” See verse 22.
49 tn Heb “(are) upon us.”
50 tn Heb “turn from his way.”
51 tn Heb “ways.” This same word is translated “behavior” earlier in the verse.
52 tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.
53 tn Heb “look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and set your mind on.”
54 tn Heb “in order to show (it) to you.”
55 tn Heb “set your heart” (so also in the latter part of the verse).
56 tn Heb “Set your mind, look with your eyes, and with your ears hear.”
57 tc The Syriac, Vulgate, and Targum read the plural. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:618.
