Yehezkiel 12:12-16

12:12 “The prince ¹  who is among them will raise his belongings ²  onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He ³  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 ⁴  (but he will not see it), ⁵  and there he will die. ⁶  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.”

Yehezkiel 17:11-21

17:11 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 17:12 “Say to the rebellious house of Israel: ⁷  ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ ⁸  Say: ‘See here, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem ⁹  and took her king and her officials prisoner and brought them to himself in Babylon. 17:13 He took one from the royal family, ¹⁰  made a treaty with him, and put him under oath. ¹¹  He then took the leaders of the land 17:14 so it would be a lowly kingdom which could not rise on its own but must keep its treaty with him in order to stand. 17:15 But this one from Israel’s royal family ¹²  rebelled against the king of Babylon ¹³  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 ¹⁴  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 ¹⁵  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 ¹⁶  – he gave his promise ¹⁷  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 ¹⁸  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 ¹⁹  among his troops will die ²⁰  by the sword and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken!

[12:12]  ¹ sn The prince is a reference to Zedekiah.

[12:12]  ² tn The words “his belongings” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied.

[12:12]  ³ tc The MT reads “they”; the LXX and Syriac read “he.”

[12:13]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ sn There he will die. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah died in exile (Jer 52:11).

[17:12]  ⁷ tn The words “of Israel” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation as a clarification of the referent.

[17:12]  sn The book of Ezekiel frequently refers to the Israelites as a rebellious house (Ezek 2:5, 6, 8; 3:9, 26-27; 12:2-3, 9, 25; 17:12; 24:3).

[17:12]  ⁸ sn The narrative description of this interpretation of the riddle is given in 2 Kgs 24:11-15.

[17:12]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[17:13]  ¹⁰ tn Or “descendants”; Heb “seed” (cf. v. 5).

[17:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “caused him to enter into an oath.”

[17:15]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the member of the royal family, v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “place.”

[17:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “deal with” or “work with.”

[17:18]  ¹⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates being aware of or taking notice of something.

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

[17:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “place it on his head.”

[17:21]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fall.”