Discovery BoxEzekiel 5:8 
Context5:8 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: I – even I – am against you, 1 and I will execute judgment 2 among you while the nations watch. 3
Ezekiel 11:10
Context11:10 You will die by the sword; I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 21:26
Context21:26 this is what the sovereign Lord says:
Tear off the turban, 4
take off the crown!
Things must change! 5
Exalt the lowly,
bring down the proud! 6
Ezekiel 23:28
Context23:28 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, 7 I am about to deliver you over to 8 those whom you hate, to those with whom you were disgusted.
Ezekiel 25:5
Context25:5 I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon 9 a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 28:23
Context28:23 I will send a plague into the city 10 and bloodshed into its streets;
the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it 11 from every side.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 33:20
Context33:20 Yet you say, ‘The behavior of the Lord is not right.’ House of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his behavior.” 12
1 tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8. The Hebrew text switches to a second feminine singular form here, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed (see vv. 5-6a). The address to Jerusalem continues through v. 15. In vv. 16-17 the second masculine plural is used, as the people are addressed.
2 tn The Hebrew text uses wordplay here to bring out the appropriate nature of God’s judgment. “Execute” translates the same Hebrew verb translated “carried out” (literally meaning “do”) in v. 7, while “judgment” in v. 8 and “regulations” in v. 7 translate the same Hebrew noun (meaning “regulations” or in some cases “judgments” executed on those who break laws). The point seems to be this: God would “carry out judgments” against those who refused to “carry out” his “laws.”
3 tn Heb “in the sight of the nations.”
sn This is one of the ironies of the passage. The Lord set Israel among the nations for honor and praise as they would be holy and obey God’s law as told in Ezek 5:5 and Deut 26:16-19. The practice of these laws and statutes would make the peoples consider Israel wise. (See Deut 4:5-8, where the words for laws and statutes are the same as those used here). Since Israel did not obey, they are made a different kind of object lesson to the nations, not by their obedience but in their punishment as told in Ezek 5:8 and Deut 29:24-29. Yet Deut 30 goes on to say that when they remember the cursings and blessings of the covenant and repent, God will restore them from the nations to which they have been scattered.
4 tn Elsewhere in the Bible the turban is worn by priests (Exod 28:4, 37, 39; 29:6; 39:28, 31; Lev 8:9; 16:4), but here a royal crown is in view.
5 tn Heb “This not this.”
6 tn Heb “the high one.”
7 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
8 tn Heb “I am giving you into the hand of.”
9 tn Heb “the sons of Ammon.”
10 tn Heb “into it”; the referent of the feminine pronoun has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “by a sword against it.”
12 tn Heb “ways.”
