Ezekiel 5:6-7
Context5:6 Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations 1 and the countries around her. 2 Indeed, they 3 have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.
5:7 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you are more arrogant 4 than the nations around you, 5 you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even 6 carried out the regulations of the nations around you!
1 sn The nations are subject to a natural law according to Gen 9; see also Amos 1:3-2:3; Jonah 1:2.
2 tn Heb “she defied my laws, becoming wicked more than the nations, and [she defied] my statutes [becoming wicked] more than the countries around her.”
3 sn One might conclude that the subject of the plural verbs is the nations/countries, but the context (vv. 5-6a) indicates that the people of Jerusalem are in view. The text shifts from using the feminine singular (referring to personified Jerusalem) to the plural (referring to Jerusalem’s residents). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:73.
4 tn Traditionally this difficult form has been derived from a hypothetical root הָמוֹן (hamon), supposedly meaning “be in tumult/uproar,” but such a verb occurs nowhere else. It is more likely that it is to be derived from a root מָנוֹן (manon), meaning “disdain” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:52). A derivative from this root is used in Prov 29:21 of a rebellious servant. See HALOT 600 s.v. מָנוֹן.
5 sn You are more arrogant than the nations around you. Israel is accused of being worse than the nations in Ezek 16:27; 2 Kgs 21:11; Jer 2:11.
6 tc Some Hebrew