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 17:20-21

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 ⁷  among his troops will die ⁸  by the sword and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken!

Yehezkiel 21:25-26

21:25 “‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, ⁹ 

whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

21:26 this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Tear off the turban, ¹⁰ 

take off the crown!

Things must change! ¹¹ 

Exalt the lowly,

bring down the proud! ¹² 

[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).

[17:21]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “fall.”

[21:25]  ⁹ tn This probably refers to King Zedekiah.

[21:26]  ¹⁰ 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.

[21:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “This not this.”

[21:26]  ¹² tn Heb “the high one.”