Yehezkiel 7:13-14

7:13 The customer will no longer pay the seller ¹  while both parties are alive, for the vision against their whole crowd ²  will not be revoked. Each person, for his iniquity, ³  will fail to preserve his life.

7:14 “They have blown the trumpet and everyone is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my anger is against their whole crowd. ⁴ 

Yehezkiel 6:11-12

6:11 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and say, “Ah!” because of all the evil, abominable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine, and pestilence. ⁵  6:12 The one far away will die by pestilence, the one close by will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and has escaped these ⁶  will die by famine. I will fully vent my rage against them.

Yesaya 5:13-14

5:13 Therefore my ⁷  people will be deported ⁸ 

because of their lack of understanding.

Their ⁹  leaders will have nothing to eat, ¹⁰ 

their ¹¹  masses will have nothing to drink. ¹² 

5:14 So Death ¹³  will open up its throat,

and open wide its mouth; ¹⁴ 

Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it,

including those who revel and celebrate within her. ¹⁵ 

[7:13]  ¹ tc The translation follows the LXX for the first line of the verse, although the LXX has lost the second line due to homoioteleuton (similar endings of the clauses). The MT reads “The seller will not return to the sale.” This Hebrew reading has been construed as a reference to land redemption, the temporary sale of the use of property, with property rights returned to the seller in the year of Jubilee. But the context has no other indicator that land redemption is in view. If correct, the LXX evidence suggests that one of the cases of “the customer” has been replaced by “the seller” in the MT, perhaps due to hoimoioarcton (similar beginnings of the words).

[7:13]  ² tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.

[7:13]  ³ tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in v. 16; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”

[7:14]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.

[6:11]  ⁵ sn By the sword and by famine and by pestilence. A similar trilogy of punishments is mentioned in Lev 26:25-26. See also Jer 14:12; 21:9; 27:8, 13; 29:18).

[6:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one who is left, the one who is spared.”

[5:13]  ⁷ sn It is not certain if the prophet or the Lord is speaking at this point.

[5:13]  ⁸ tn The suffixed (perfect) form of the verb is used; in this way the coming event is described for rhetorical effect as occurring or as already completed.

[5:13]  ⁹ tn The third masculine singular suffix refers back to “my people.”

[5:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Their glory will be men of hunger.” כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) is in opposition to הָמוֹן (hamon, “masses”) and refers here to the rich and prominent members of the nation. Some prefer to repoint מְתֵי (mÿtey, “men of”) as מִתֵי (mitey, “dead ones of”).

[5:13]  ¹¹ tn The third masculine singular suffix refers back to “my people.”

[5:13]  ¹² tn Heb “and their masses will be parched [by] thirst.”

[5:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); the underworld, the land of the dead, according to the OT world view. Cf. NAB “the nether world”; TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NLT “the grave.”

[5:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “so Sheol will make wide its throat, and open its mouth without limit.”

[5:14]  sn Death is portrayed in both the OT (Prov 1:12; Hab 2:5) and Canaanite myth as voraciously swallowing up its prey. In the myths Death is portrayed as having “a lip to the earth, a lip to the heavens … and a tongue to the stars.” (G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 69, text 5 ii 2-3.) Death describes his own appetite as follows: “But my appetite is the appetite of lions in the waste…If it is in very truth my desire to consume ‘clay’ [a reference to his human victims], then in truth by the handfuls I must eat it, whether my seven portions [indicating fullness and completeness] are already in the bowl or whether Nahar [the god of the river responsible for ferrying victims from the land of the living to the land of the dead] has to mix the cup.” (Driver, 68-69, text 5 i 14-22).

[5:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and her splendor and her masses will go down, and her tumult and the one who exults in her.” The antecedent of the four feminine singular pronominal suffixes used in v. 14b is unclear. The likely referent is personified Zion/Jerusalem (see 3:25-26; 4:4-5).