² sn This marriage of Herod to his brother Philip’s wife was a violation of OT law (Lev 18:16; 20:21). In addition, both Herod Antipas and Herodias had each left marriages to enter into this union.

¹ tn Grk “what you hear in the ear,” an idiom meaning “say someth. into someone’s ear, i.e., secretly or in confidence, whisper” (BDAG 739 s.v. οὖς 1).

² tn Grk “Into whatever town or village you enter.” This acts as a distributive, meaning every town or village they enter; this is expressed more naturally in English as “whenever you enter a town or village.”

¹ sn The term Blessed introduces the first of several beatitudes promising blessing to those whom God cares for. They serve as an invitation to come into the grace God offers.

² tn Heb “I will make them into praise and a name, in all the earth, their shame.” The present translation assumes that “their shame” specifies “them” and that “name” stands here for a good reputation.

¹ sn As psychological warfare, warriors often wore uniforms colored blood-red, to strike fear into the hearts of their enemy (see Xenophon, Cyropaedia 6.4.1; Ezek 23:5-6).

¹⁰ tn Heb “he went down into it.” The verb יָרַד (yarad, “to go down”) is repeated for rhetorical effect in v. 3a, 3b, 5. See note on the word “traveled” in v. 3a.

¹ tn The words “I did this” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied for stylistic reasons. Verses 23-24 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text. The translation divides this sentence into two for stylistic reasons.

¹ tn The words “I did this” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied for stylistic reasons. Verses 15-16 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text. The translation divides this sentence into two for stylistic reasons.

² sn The worship of Tammuz included the observation of the annual death and descent into the netherworld of the god Dumuzi. The practice was observed by women in the ancient Near East over a period of centuries.

¹ tn The words “they will realize” are not in the Hebrew text; they are added here for stylistic reasons since this clause assumes the previous verb “to remember” or “to take into account.”

¹ tc This first sentence, which explains the meaning of the last sentence of the previous verse, does not appear in the LXX and may be an instance of a marginal explanatory note making its way into the text.

¹ tc The LXX omits v. 14 and may well be correct. The verse may be a later explanatory gloss of the end of v. 13 which was copied into the main text. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:46.

² tn Heb “They have become women.” The metaphor has been turned into a simile and the significance of the comparison drawn out for the sake of clarity. See 50:37 for the same figure.

³ tn Heb “Because it is the Lord’s vengeance.” The first person has again been used because the Lord is the speaker, and the nominal expression has been turned into a verbal one more in keeping with contemporary English style.

⁵ sn This refers to the fact that the idols that the Babylonians worshiped will not be able to protect them but will instead be carried off into exile with the Babylonians themselves (cf. Isa 46:1-2).

¹ tn Heb “Therefore his taste remains in him, and his aroma is not changed.” The metaphor is changed into a simile in an attempt to help the reader understand the figure in the context.

² tn Heb “in order to give us into the hands of the Chaldeans.” The substitution “he wants to” as the equivalent of the purpose clause has been chosen to shorten the sentence to better conform with contemporary English style.

² tn Heb “they had brought them into subjection for male and female slaves.” However, the qualification of “male and female” is already clear from the preceding and is unnecessary to the English sentence.

¹ tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation, which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.