Yehezkiel 28:2

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ¹  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ²  and you said, “I am a god; ³ 

I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas” –

yet you are a man and not a god,

though you think you are godlike. ⁴ 

Yehezkiel 28:16

28:16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, ⁵  and you sinned;

so I defiled you and banished you ⁶  from the mountain of God –

the guardian cherub expelled you ⁷  from the midst of the stones of fire.

Yehezkiel 20:40

20:40 For there on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, all the house of Israel will serve me, all of them ⁸  in the land. I will accept them there, and there I will seek your contributions and your choice gifts, with all your holy things.

Yesaya 14:12-15

14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,

O shining one, son of the dawn! ⁹ 

You have been cut down to the ground,

O conqueror ¹⁰  of the nations! ¹¹ 

14:13 You said to yourself, ¹² 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ¹³ 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ¹⁴ 

14:14 I will climb up to the tops ¹⁵  of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High!” ¹⁶ 

14:15 But you were brought down ¹⁷  to Sheol,

to the remote slopes of the pit. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 14:2

14:2 Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. ¹⁹  They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.

Yesaya 2:4

2:4 He will judge disputes between nations;

he will settle cases for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares, ²⁰ 

and their spears into pruning hooks. ²¹ 

Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

[28:2]  ¹ tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

[28:2]  ² tn Heb “lifted up.”

[28:2]  sn See Prov 16:5.

[28:2]  ³ tn Or “I am divine.”

[28:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”

[28:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “they filled your midst with violence.”

[28:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “I defiled you.” The presence of the preposition “from” following the verb indicates that a verb of motion is implied as well. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.

[28:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I expelled you, O guardian cherub.” The Hebrew text takes the verb as first person and understands “guardian cherub” as a vocative, in apposition to the pronominal suffix on the verb. However, if the emendation in verse 14a is accepted (see the note above), then one may follow the LXX here as well and emend the verb to a third person perfect. In this case the subject of the verb is the guardian cherub. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.

[20:40]  ⁸ tn Heb “all of it.”

[14:12]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text has הֵילֵל בֶּן־שָׁחַר (helel ben-shakhar, “Helel son of Shachar”), which is probably a name for the morning star (Venus) or the crescent moon. See HALOT 245 s.v. הֵילֵל.

[14:12]  sn What is the background for the imagery in vv. 12-15? This whole section (vv. 4b-21) is directed to the king of Babylon, who is clearly depicted as a human ruler. Other kings of the earth address him in vv. 9ff., he is called “the man” in v. 16, and, according to vv. 19-20, he possesses a physical body. Nevertheless the language of vv. 12-15 has led some to see a dual referent in the taunt song. These verses, which appear to be spoken by other pagan kings to a pagan king (cf. vv. 9-11), contain several titles and motifs that resemble those of Canaanite mythology, including references to Helel son of Shachar, the stars of El, the mountain of assembly, the recesses of Zaphon, and the divine title Most High. Apparently these verses allude to a mythological story about a minor god (Helel son of Shachar) who tried to take over Zaphon, the mountain of the gods. His attempted coup failed and he was hurled down to the underworld. The king of Babylon is taunted for having similar unrealized delusions of grandeur. Some Christians have seen an allusion to the fall of Satan here, but this seems contextually unwarranted (see J. Martin, “Isaiah,” BKCOT, 1061).

[14:12]  ¹⁰ tn Some understand the verb to from חָלַשׁ (khalash, “to weaken”), but HALOT 324 s.v. II חלשׁ proposes a homonym here, meaning “to defeat.”

[14:12]  ¹¹ sn In this line the taunting kings hint at the literal identity of the king, after likening him to the god Helel and a tree. The verb גָדַע (gada’, “cut down”) is used of chopping down trees in 9:10 and 10:33.

[14:13]  ¹² tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ¹³ sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ¹⁴ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.

[14:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the high places.” This word often refers to the high places where pagan worship was conducted, but here it probably refers to the “backs” or tops of the clouds. See HALOT 136 s.v. בָּמָה.

[14:14]  ¹⁶ sn Normally in the OT the title “Most High” belongs to the God of Israel, but in this context, where the mythological overtones are so strong, it probably refers to the Canaanite high god El.

[14:15]  ¹⁷ tn The prefixed verb form is taken as a preterite. Note the use of perfects in v. 12 to describe the king’s downfall.

[14:15]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term בּוּר (bor, “cistern”) is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to the place of the dead or the entrance to the underworld.

[14:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and the house of Jacob will take possession of them [i.e., the nations], on the land of the Lord, as male servants and female servants.”

[2:4]  ²⁰ sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.

[2:4]  ²¹ sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:93; M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle. Breaking weapons and fashioning agricultural implements indicates a transition from fear and stress to peace and security.