Ezekiel 20-21

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 20:1 sn The date would be August 14th, 591 b.c. The seventh year is the seventh year of Jehoiachin’s exile.
2. Ezekiel 20:1 tn Heb “men from the elders.”
3. Ezekiel 20:1 tn See the note at 14:3.
4. Ezekiel 20:3 tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”
5. Ezekiel 20:4 tn Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment.
6. Ezekiel 20:5 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
7. Ezekiel 20:5 tn Heb “seed.”
8. Ezekiel 20:5 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
9. Ezekiel 20:6 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”
10. Ezekiel 20:6 tn Or “searched out.” The Hebrew word is used to describe the activity of the spies in “spying out” the land of Canaan (Num 13-14); cf. KJV “I had espied for them.”
11. Ezekiel 20:6 sn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a figure of speech describing the land’s abundant fertility, occurs in v. 15 as well as Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 26:9; 27:3; Josh 5:6; Jer 11:5; 32:23 (see also Deut 1:25; 8:7-9).
12. Ezekiel 20:7 tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of his eyes, throw away.” The Pentateuch does not refer to the Israelites worshiping idols in Egypt, but Josh 24:14 appears to suggest that they did so.
13. Ezekiel 20:8 tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of their eyes did not throw away.”
14. Ezekiel 20:8 tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”
15. Ezekiel 20:9 tn Heb “for the sake of my name.”
16. Ezekiel 20:9 tn Heb “before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were.”
17. Ezekiel 20:9 tn Heb “to whom I made myself known before their eyes to bring them out from the land of Egypt.” The translation understands the infinitive construct (“to bring them out”) as indicating manner. God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt was an act of self-revelation in that it displayed his power and his commitment to his promises.
18. Ezekiel 20:11 sn The laws were given at Mount Sinai.
19. Ezekiel 20:11 tn Heb “the man.”
20. Ezekiel 20:11 tn Heb “does.”
21. Ezekiel 20:11 tn The wording and the concept are contained in Lev 18:5 and Deut 30:15-19.
22. Ezekiel 20:12 sn Ezekiel’s contemporary, Jeremiah, also stressed the importance of obedience to the Sabbath law (Jer 17).
23. Ezekiel 20:12 tn Heb “to become a sign between me and them.”
24. Ezekiel 20:12 tn Or “set them apart.” The last phrase of verse 12 appears to be a citation of Exod 31:13.
25. Ezekiel 20:13 tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”
26. Ezekiel 20:13 tn Heb “to bring them to an end.”
27. Ezekiel 20:15 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
28. Ezekiel 20:16 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.
29. Ezekiel 20:16 tn Heb “for after their idols their heart was going.” The use of the active participle (“was going”) in the Hebrew text draws attention to the ongoing nature of their idolatrous behavior.
30. Ezekiel 20:17 tn Heb “my eye pitied.”
31. Ezekiel 20:18 tn Heb “sons,” reflecting the patriarchal idiom of the culture.
32. Ezekiel 20:18 tn Or “standard of justice.” See Ezek 7:27.
33. Ezekiel 20:20 tn Or “set apart my Sabbaths.”
34. Ezekiel 20:20 tn Heb “and they will become a sign between me and you.”
35. Ezekiel 20:21 tn Heb “sons.”
36. Ezekiel 20:21 tn Or “carries them out.”
37. Ezekiel 20:21 tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”
38. Ezekiel 20:22 tn Heb “drew my hand back.” This idiom also occurs in Lam 2:8 and Ps 74:11.
39. Ezekiel 20:23 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
40. Ezekiel 20:23 sn Though the Pentateuch does not seem to know of this episode, Ps 106:26-27 may speak of God’s oath to exile the people before they had entered Canaan.
41. Ezekiel 20:24 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.
42. Ezekiel 20:24 tn Or “they worshiped” (NCV, TEV, CEV); Heb “their eyes were on” or “were after” (cf. v. 16).
43. Ezekiel 20:25 tn Or “permitted.” sn The content of the verse is shocking: that God would “give” bad decrees. This probably does not refer to the Mosaic law but to the practices of the Canaanites who were left in the land in order to test Israel. See Judg 2:20-23, the note on “decrees” here in Ezek 20:25, and the note on “pass through the fire” in v. 26.
44. Ezekiel 20:25 tn The Hebrew term חֻקּוֹת (khuqqot; translated “statutes” elsewhere in this chapter) is normally feminine. Here Ezekiel changes the form to masculine: חֻקִּים (khuqqim). Further, they are not called “my decrees” as vv. 11 and 13 refer to “my statutes.” The change is a signal that Ezekiel is not talking about the same statutes in vv. 11 and 13, which lead to life.
45. Ezekiel 20:26 tn Or “gifts.”
46. Ezekiel 20:26 sn This act is prohibited in Deut 12:29-31 and Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35. See also 2 Kgs 21:6; 23:10. This custom indicates that the laws the Israelites were following were the disastrous laws of pagan nations (see Ezek 16:20-21).
47. Ezekiel 20:26 sn God sometimes punishes sin by inciting the sinner to sin even more, as the biblical examples of divine hardening and deceit make clear. See Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34; idem, “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 11-28. For other instances where the Lord causes individuals to act unwisely or even sinfully as punishment for sin, see 1 Sam 2:25; 2 Sam 17:14; 1 Kgs 12:15; 2 Chr 25:20.
48. Ezekiel 20:28 tn Heb “that I lifted up my hand.”
49. Ezekiel 20:29 tn The Hebrew word בָּמָה (bamah) means “high place.”
50. Ezekiel 20:30 tn Heb “in the way of your fathers.”
51. Ezekiel 20:31 tn Or “gifts.”
52. Ezekiel 20:31 tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”
53. Ezekiel 20:31 tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”
54. Ezekiel 20:32 tn Heb “what comes upon your mind.”
55. Ezekiel 20:32 tn The Hebrew could also read: “Let us be.”
56. Ezekiel 20:32 tn Heb “serving wood and stone.” sn This verse echoes the content of 1 Sam 8:20.
57. Ezekiel 20:33 sn This phrase occurs frequently in Deuteronomy (Deut 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 11:2; 26:8).
58. Ezekiel 20:37 tn This is the same Hebrew verb used to describe the passing of the children through the fire.
59. Ezekiel 20:37 sn The metaphor may be based in Lev 27:32 (see also Jer 33:13 and Matt 25:32-33). A shepherd would count his sheep as they passed beneath his staff.
60. Ezekiel 20:38 tn See the note at 2:3.
61. Ezekiel 20:39 sn Compare the irony here to Amos 4:4 and Jer 44:25.
62. Ezekiel 20:39 tn Heb “and after, if you will not listen to me.” The translation leaves out “and after” for smoothness. The text is difficult. M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:374) suggests that it may mean “but afterwards, if you will not listen to me…” with an unspoken threat.
63. Ezekiel 20:39 sn A similar concept may be found in Lev 18:21 and 20:3.
64. Ezekiel 20:39 tn Or “gifts.”
65. Ezekiel 20:40 tn Heb “all of it.”
66. Ezekiel 20:42 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
67. Ezekiel 20:43 tn Heb “ways.”
68. Ezekiel 20:43 tn Heb “loathe yourselves in your faces.”
69. Ezekiel 20:45 sn Beginning with 20:45, the verse numbers through 21:32 in the English Bible differ by five from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 20:45 ET = 21:1 HT, 20:46 ET = 21:2 HT, 21:1 ET = 21:6 HT etc., through 21:32 ET = 21:37 HT. Beginning with 22:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.
70. Ezekiel 20:46 tn Heb “set your face toward.” This expression occurs as well in Ezek 6:2 and 13:17.
71. Ezekiel 20:46 tn Or “the way toward the south,” or “the way toward Teman.” Teman is in the south and may be a location or the direction.
72. Ezekiel 20:46 tn Or “toward Darom.” Darom may mean the south or a region just north of the southern city of Beer Sheba. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:417-18.
73. Ezekiel 20:46 tn The Hebrew term can also mean “forest,” but a meaning of uncultivated wasteland fits the Negev region far better. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:418.
74. Ezekiel 20:47 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
75. Ezekiel 20:47 tn Fire also appears as a form of judgment in Ezek 15:4-7 and 19:12, 14.
76. Ezekiel 20:48 tn Heb “all flesh.”
77. Ezekiel 21:1 sn Ezek 21:1 in the English Bible is 21:6 in the Hebrew text (BHS). See the note at 20:45.
78. Ezekiel 21:2 tn Heb “set your face toward.”
79. Ezekiel 21:3 tn Heb “the land of Israel.”
80. Ezekiel 21:3 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something and has been translated here as a verb.
81. Ezekiel 21:3 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 ‘hinnenî ’êlékâ’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.
82. Ezekiel 21:3 sn This is the sword of judgment; see Isa 31:8; 34:6; 66:16.
83. Ezekiel 21:3 sn Ezekiel elsewhere pictures the Lord’s judgment as discriminating between the righteous and the wicked (9:4-6; 18:1-20; see as well Pss 1 and 11) and speaks of the preservation of a remnant (3:21; 6:8; 12:16). Perhaps here he exaggerates for rhetorical effect in an effort to subdue any false optimism. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:25-26; D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:669-70; and W. Zimmerli, Ezekiel (Hermeneia), 1:424-25. The words do not require all the people in each category to be cut off.
84. Ezekiel 21:4 tn Heb “all flesh” (also in the following verse).
85. Ezekiel 21:4 tn Heb “Negev.” The Negev is the south country.
86. Ezekiel 21:6 tn Heb “breaking loins.”
87. Ezekiel 21:7 tn Heb “every spirit will be dim.”
88. Ezekiel 21:7 sn This expression depicts in a very vivid way how they will be overcome with fear. See the note on the same phrase in 7:17.
89. Ezekiel 21:10 tn Heb “Or shall we rejoice, scepter of my son? It despises every tree.” The translation understands the subject of the verb “despises,” which is a feminine form in the Hebrew text, to be the sword (which is a feminine noun) mentioned just before this. Alternatively, the line may be understood as “Let us not rejoice, O tribe of my son; it despises every tree.” The same word in Hebrew may be either “rod,” “scepter,” or “tribe.” The word sometimes translated as “or” or taken as an interrogative particle may be a negative particle. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:672, n. 79.sn The people of Judah should not place false hope in their king, symbolized by his royal scepter, for God’s judgment (symbolized by fire and then a sword) would destroy every tree (see 20:47), symbolizing the righteous and wicked (see 21:3-4).
90. Ezekiel 21:12 sn This physical action was part of an expression of grief. Cf. Jer 31:19.
91. Ezekiel 21:13 tn Heb “For testing (will come), and what if also a scepter it despises will not be?” The translation understands the subject of the verb “despises,” which is a feminine form in the Hebrew text, to be the sword (which is a feminine noun) mentioned in the previous verses. The text is very difficult, and any rendering is uncertain.
92. Ezekiel 21:16 tn Heb “Put to.”
93. Ezekiel 21:16 tn Heb “face.”
94. Ezekiel 21:20 tc The MT reads “Judah in fortified Jerusalem,” a geographic impossibility. The translation follows the LXX, which assumes בְּתוֹכָהּ (b^etokhah, “in it”) for בְּצוּרָה (b^etsurah, “fortified”). sn As the Babylonians approached from the north, one road would branch off to the left and lead down the east side of the Jordan River to Ammon. The other road would veer to the right and lead down west of the Jordan to Jerusalem.
95. Ezekiel 21:21 tn Heb “mother.”
96. Ezekiel 21:21 sn Mesopotamian kings believed that the gods revealed the future through omens. They employed various divination techniques, some of which are included in the list that follows. A particularly popular technique was the examination and interpretation of the livers of animals. See R. R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 90-110.
97. Ezekiel 21:21 tn This word refers to personal idols that were apparently used for divination purposes (Gen 31:19; 1 Sam 19:13, 16).
98. Ezekiel 21:21 tn Heb “sees.”
99. Ezekiel 21:21 tn Heb “the liver.”
100. Ezekiel 21:22 tn Or “on the right side,” i.e., the omen mark on the right side of the liver.
101. Ezekiel 21:22 tn Heb “to open the mouth” for slaughter.
102. Ezekiel 21:22 tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”
103. Ezekiel 21:23 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people in Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
104. Ezekiel 21:23 sn When the people of Judah realized the Babylonians’ intentions, they would object on grounds that they had made a treaty with the Babylonian king (see 17:13).
105. Ezekiel 21:23 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
106. Ezekiel 21:23 tn Or “iniquity.”
107. Ezekiel 21:23 tn Heb “and he will remind of guilt to be captured.” The king would counter their objections by pointing out that they had violated their treaty with him (see 17:18), thus justifying their capture.
108. Ezekiel 21:24 tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”
109. Ezekiel 21:24 tn Heb “Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt when your transgressions are uncovered so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds—because you are remembered, by the hand you will be seized.”
110. Ezekiel 21:25 tn This probably refers to King Zedekiah.
111. Ezekiel 21:26 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.
112. Ezekiel 21:26 tn Heb “This not this.”
113. Ezekiel 21:26 tn Heb “the high one.”
114. Ezekiel 21:27 tn Heb “A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I will make it.” The threefold repetition of the noun “ruin” is for emphasis and draws attention to the degree of ruin that would take place. See IBHS 233 §12.5a and GKC 431-32 §133.k. The pronominal suffix (translated “it”) on the verb “make” is feminine in Hebrew. The probable antecedent is the “turban/crown” (both nouns are feminine in form) mentioned in verse 26. The point is that the king’s royal splendor would be completely devastated as judgment overtook his realm and brought his reign to a violent end.
115. Ezekiel 21:27 tn The pronoun “this” is feminine, while the following negated verb (“will not be”) is masculine. Some emend the verb to a feminine form (see BHS), In this case the statement refers to the destiny of the king's turban crown (symbolizing his reign). See the previous note. It ultimately denotes kingship in Israel, as with “not this” in v. 26.
116. Ezekiel 21:27 tn Horace D. Hummel, Ezekiel (Concordia Commentary), 2:642, states that the suffixed object of the Hebrew verb for “give” (נָתַן, natan) can be indirect: “to him,” while the direct object (“it”) is understood from the preceding “right.” However, a more likely candidate for the understood object would be “this,” the turban/crown and the kingship it implies. The one who comes already has the “right.”
117. Ezekiel 21:27 tn Hummel, Ezekiel, 2:658, states that “very early” interpreters saw similarity between this verse and Gen 49:10. Early Christian scholars like Jerome interpreted Ezek 21:27 of Jesus Christ, as did the majority of Christian scholars until rather recent times. The phrase “until he comes to whom it belongs” in Gen 49:10 resembles the words here. “Until” and “comes” are the same in both verses. In both verses there follows a relative pronoun like “who,” the preposition “to,” a prepositional object “him,” and an understood linking verb “is.” An allusion would favor those Hebrew words having the same meaning in both verses, with “right, legal claim” as the sense for מִשְׁפָּט, (mishpat) rather than “judgment,” since it is more compatible with an allusion. sn A popular alternative view of this verse takes “right” as “judgment,” views the one who comes as Nebuchadnezzar, and translates “until” (עַד, ‘ad) as “when.” The basis for this unique translation of עַד (which rarely can mean “while”) is that here it would refer to the period during which the devastation is realized rather than to its termination point. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:19, 21. Ezekiel often has מִשְׁפָּט as “judgment” and does not use it elsewhere as “right.” God promises to “give” “judgment” to the Babylonians in 23:24, as he would here. However, “right” is a normal sense for מִשְׁפָּט, and even most who see Nebuchadnezzar as the one who comes find an allusion to Gen 49:10 here, though inverted. However, this verse can alter the idea of Gen 49:10 even without Allen’s view, since Gen 49:10 promises that the scepter will not depart from Judah until the Messiah comes, while Ezek 21:27 promises that the royal turban/crown will be a ruin until Messiah comes. Robert W. Jenson, Ezekiel (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible), 173, favors the traditional view “because of the eschatological rhetoric of the whole poem,” adding that “ending merely with Nebuchadnezzar would be a poetically disastrous anticlimax.” For Ezek 34:23-24 and 37:22, 24-25 promise the restoration of Davidic kingship in the Messiah.
118. Ezekiel 21:28 tn Heb “their reproach.”
119. Ezekiel 21:28 tn Heb “to contain, endure,” from כוּל (khul). Since that sense is difficult here, most take the text to read either “to consume” or “for destruction.” GKC 186 §68.i suggests that the form represents the Hiphil of אָכַל (’akhal, “consume”). The ’alef (א) would have dropped out, as it sometimes does and might do with אָכַל in Ezek 42:5. D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:693) prefers seeing כוּל as a byform of כָּלָה (kalah, “be complete”), with a meaning like “consume” in the Hiphil. The weakness of Block’s suggestion is that כָּלָה does not elsewhere exhibit a Hiphil.
120. Ezekiel 21:29 tn Heb “in the seeing concerning you falsehood, in divining concerning you a lie.” This probably refers to the attempts of the Ammonites to ward off judgment through prophetic visions and divination.
121. Ezekiel 21:29 tn The antecedent for you is the sword mentioned in v. 28.
122. Ezekiel 21:29 sn The second half of the verse appears to state that the sword of judgment would fall upon the wicked Ammonites, despite their efforts to prevent it.
123. Ezekiel 21:30 sn Once the Babylonian king’s sword (vv. 19-20) has carried out its assigned task, the Lord commands a halt. The resheathed sword will return to the land where it was created, and there itself face judgment. The pronouns continue to be second person feminine singular. The sword figuratively represents the Babylonian nation, whose land is the locus of judgment.
124. Ezekiel 21:30 tn In the Hebrew text of vv. 30-32 the second person verbal and pronominal forms are generally feminine singular. This continues the address of the personified Babylonian sword from verse 29 (the Hebrew word for “sword” is feminine). “Return” is masculine, either due to the Hebrew preference for the masculine gender, or to the fact that soldiers were men.
125. Ezekiel 21:31 sn The imagery of blowing on the sword with fire and putting it in the hands of skillful men can evoke the work of smithies.
126. Ezekiel 21:32 tn Heb “your blood will be in the middle of the land.” sn This can be the blood that covered the sword in its great slaughter (v. 14), figuratively representing the end of Babylon. The pronouns are still second person feminine singular.