Discovery BoxEzekiel 4:4-6 
Context4:4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity 1 of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 4:5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days 2 for you – 390 days. 3 So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 4
4:6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days 5 – I have assigned one day for each year.
Ezekiel 18:13
Context18:13 engages in usury and charges interest. Will he live? He will not! Because he has done all these abominable deeds he will certainly die. 6 He will bear the responsibility for his own death. 7
Ezekiel 23:35
Context23:35 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have forgotten me and completely disregarded me, 8 you must bear now the punishment 9 for your obscene conduct and prostitution.”
Ezekiel 34:29
Context34:29 I will prepare for them a healthy 10 planting. They will no longer be victims 11 of famine in the land and will no longer bear the insults of the nations.
Ezekiel 36:15
Context36:15 I will no longer subject you to 12 the nations’ insults; no longer will you bear the shame of the peoples, and no longer will you bereave 13 your nation, declares the sovereign Lord.’”
Ezekiel 44:13
Context44:13 They will not come near me to serve me as priest, nor will they come near any of my holy things, the things which are most sacred. They will bear the shame of the abominable deeds they have committed.
1 tn Or “punishment” (also in vv. 5, 6).
2 tn Heb “I have assigned for you that the years of their iniquity be the number of days.” Num 14:33-34 is an example of the reverse, where the days were converted into years, the number of days spying out the land becoming the number of years of the wilderness wanderings.
3 tc The LXX reads “190 days.”
sn The significance of the number 390 is not clear. The best explanation is that “days” are used figuratively for years and the number refers to the years of the sinfulness of Israel during the period of the First Temple. Some understand the number to refer to the length of the division of the northern and southern kingdoms down to the fall of Jerusalem (931-586
4 tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.
5 sn The number 40 may refer in general to the period of Judah’s exile using the number of years Israel was punished in the wilderness. In this case, however, one would need to translate, “you will bear the punishment of the house of Judah.”
6 tn Heb “be put to death.” The translation follows an alternative reading that appears in several ancient textual witnesses.
7 tn Heb “his blood will be upon him.”
8 tn Heb “and you cast me behind your back.” The expression pictures her rejection of the Lord (see 1 Kgs 14:9).
9 tn The word “punishment” is not in the Hebrew text but is demanded by the context.
10 tc The MT reads לְשֵׁם (lÿshem, “for a name”), meaning perhaps a renowned planting (place). The translation takes this to be a metathesis of שָׁלֹם (shalom) as was read by the LXX.
11 tn Heb “those gathered” for famine.
12 tn Heb “cause you to hear.”
13 tc The MT reads תַכְשִׁלִי (takhshiliy), a metathesis for תַשְׁכִלִי (tashkhiliy) from the root שָׁכַל (shakhal) which is used in each of the previous verses.
