Discovery BoxEzekiel 9:2 
Context9:2 Next, I noticed 1 six men 2 coming from the direction of the upper gate 3 which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit 4 at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.
Ezekiel 32:27
Context32:27 They do not lie with the fallen warriors of ancient times, 5 who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, having their swords placed under their heads and their shields on their bones, 6 when the terror of these warriors was in the land of the living.
Ezekiel 38:8
Context38:8 After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come to a land restored from the ravages of war, 7 with many peoples gathered on the mountains of Israel that had long been in ruins. Its people 8 were brought out from the peoples, and all of them will be living securely.
1 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
2 sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.
3 sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).
4 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.
5 tc Heb “of the uncircumcised.” The LXX reads, probably correctly, “from of old” rather than “of the uncircumcised.” The phrases are very similar in spelling. The warriors of Meshech-Tubal are described as uncircumcised, so it would be odd for them to not be buried with the uncircumcised. Verse 28 specifically says that they would lie with the uncircumcised.
6 tn Heb “and their iniquities were over their bones.” The meaning of this statement is unclear; in light of the parallelism (see “swords”) it is preferable to emend “their iniquities” to “their swords.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:135.
7 tn Heb “from the sword.”
8 tn Heb “it.”
