Yehezkiel 12:10-22

12:10 Say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem, ¹  and all the house of Israel within it.’ ²  12:11 Say, ‘I am an object lesson for you. Just as I have done, it will be done to them; they will go into exile and captivity.’

12:12 “The prince ³  who is among them will raise his belongings ⁴  onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He ⁵  will dig a hole in the wall to leave through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes. 12:13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans ⁶  (but he will not see it), ⁷  and there he will die. ⁸  12:14 All his retinue – his attendants and his troops – I will scatter to every wind; I will unleash a sword behind them.

12:15 “Then they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries. 12:16 But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

12:17 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:18 “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, ⁹  and drink your water with anxious shaking. 12:19 Then say to the people of the land, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says about the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel: They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in fright, for their land will be stripped bare of all it contains because of the violence of all who live in it. 12:20 The inhabited towns will be left in ruins and the land will be devastated. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

12:21 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:22 “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, ‘The days pass slowly, and every vision fails’?

Yehezkiel 17:15-21

17:15 But this one from Israel’s royal family ¹⁰  rebelled against the king of Babylon ¹¹  by sending his emissaries to Egypt to obtain horses and a large army. Will he prosper? Will the one doing these things escape? Can he break the covenant and escape?

17:16 “‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, surely in the city ¹²  of the king who crowned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke – in the middle of Babylon he will die! 17:17 Pharaoh with his great army and mighty horde will not help ¹³  him in battle, when siege ramps are erected and siege-walls are built to kill many people. 17:18 He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Take note ¹⁴  – he gave his promise ¹⁵  and did all these things – he will not escape!

17:19 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will certainly repay him ¹⁶  for despising my oath and breaking my covenant! 17:20 I will throw my net over him and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylon and judge him there because of the unfaithfulness he committed against me. 17:21 All the choice men ¹⁷  among his troops will die ¹⁸  by the sword and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken!

Yehezkiel 21:25

21:25 “‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, ¹⁹ 

whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

[12:10]  ¹ tc The nearly incoherent Hebrew reads “The prince is this burden (prophetic oracle?) in Jerusalem.” The Targum, which may only be trying to make sense of a very difficult text, says “Concerning the prince is this oracle,” assuming the addition of a preposition. This would be the only case where Ezekiel uses this term for a prophetic oracle. The LXX reads the word for “burden” as a synonym for leader, as both words are built on the same root (נָשִׂיא, nasi’), but the verse is still incoherent because it is only a phrase with no verb. The current translation assumes that the verb יִשָּׂא (yisa’) from the root נָשִׂיא has dropped out due to homoioteleuton. If indeed the verb has dropped out (the syntax of the verbless clause being the problem), then context clearly suggests that it be a form of נָשִׂיא (see vv. 7 and 12). Placing the verb between the subject and object would result in three consecutive words based on the root נָשִׂיא and an environment conducive to an omission in copying: הַנָּשִׂיא יִשָּׁא הַמַּשָּׂא הַזֶּה (hannasi’ yisha’ hammasa’ hazzeh, “the Prince will raise this burden”).

[12:10]  sn The prince in Jerusalem refers to King Zedekiah.

[12:10]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[12:10]  ² tc The MT reads “within them.” Possibly a scribe copied this form from the following verse “among them,” but only “within it” makes sense in this context.

[12:12]  ³ sn The prince is a reference to Zedekiah.

[12:12]  ⁴ tn The words “his belongings” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied.

[12:12]  ⁵ tc The MT reads “they”; the LXX and Syriac read “he.”

[12:13]  ⁶ tn Or “Babylonians” (NCV, NLT).

[12:13]  sn The Chaldeans were a group of people in the country south of Babylon from which Nebuchadnezzar came. The Chaldean dynasty his father established became the name by which the Babylonians are regularly referred to in the book of Jeremiah, while Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel, uses both terms.

[12:13]  ⁷ sn He will not see it. This prediction was fulfilled in 2 Kgs 25:7 and Jer 52:11, which recount how Zedekiah was blinded before being deported to Babylon.

[12:13]  ⁸ sn There he will die. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah died in exile (Jer 52:11).

[12:18]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term normally refers to an earthquake (see 1 Kgs 19:11; Amos 1:1).

[17:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the member of the royal family, v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:16]  ¹² tn Heb “place.”

[17:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “deal with” or “work with.”

[17:18]  ¹⁴ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates being aware of or taking notice of something.

[17:18]  ¹⁵ sn Heb “hand.” “Giving one’s hand” is a gesture of promise (2 Kgs 10:15).

[17:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “place it on his head.”

[17:21]  ¹⁷ tc Some manuscripts and versions read “choice men,” while most manuscripts read “fugitives”; the difference arises from the reversal, or metathesis, of two letters, מִבְרָחָיו (mivrakhyv) for מִבְחָריו (mivkharyv).

[17:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fall.”

[21:25]  ¹⁹ tn This probably refers to King Zedekiah.