Yehezkiel 1:1

A Vision of God’s Glory

1:1 In the thirtieth year, ¹  on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles ²  at the Kebar River, ³  the heavens opened ⁴  and I saw a divine vision. ⁵ 

Yehezkiel 8:1

A Desecrated Temple

8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, ⁶  as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting in front of me, the hand ⁷  of the sovereign Lord seized me. ⁸ 

Yehezkiel 12:12

12:12 “The prince ⁹  who is among them will raise his belongings ¹⁰  onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He ¹¹  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.

Yehezkiel 12:16

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 20:15

20:15 I also swore ¹²  to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them to the land I had given them – a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

Yehezkiel 20:41

20:41 When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, I will accept you along with your soothing aroma. I will display my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

Yehezkiel 28:18

28:18 By the multitude of your iniquities, through the sinfulness of your trade,

you desecrated your sanctuaries.

So I drew fire out from within you;

it consumed you,

and I turned you to ashes on the earth

before the eyes of all who saw you.

Yehezkiel 31:15-16

31:15 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it ¹³  went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. ¹⁴  I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. 31:16 I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I threw it down to Sheol, along with those who descend to the pit. ¹⁵  Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all that were well-watered, were comforted in the earth below.

Yehezkiel 32:32

32:32 Indeed, I terrified him in the land of the living, yet he will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Yehezkiel 34:27

34:27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

Yehezkiel 37:14

37:14 I will place my breath ¹⁶  in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’”

Yehezkiel 39:17

39:17 “As for you, son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Tell every kind of bird and every wild beast: ‘Assemble and come! Gather from all around to my slaughter ¹⁷  which I am going to make for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel! You will eat flesh and drink blood.

Yehezkiel 41:7-8

41:7 The side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story; ¹⁸  for the structure ¹⁹  surrounding the temple went up story by story all around the temple. For this reason the width of the temple increased as it went up, and one went up from the lowest story to the highest by the way of the middle story.

41:8 I saw that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full measuring stick ²⁰  of 10½ feet ²¹  high.

Yehezkiel 43:14

43:14 From the base of the ground to the lower edge is 3½ feet, ²²  and the width 1¾ feet; ²³  and from the smaller ledge to the larger edge, 7 feet, ²⁴  and the width 1¾ feet;

[1:1]  ¹ sn The meaning of the thirtieth year is problematic. Some take it to mean the age of Ezekiel when he prophesied (e.g., Origen). The Aramaic Targum explains the thirtieth year as the thirtieth year dated from the recovery of the book of the Torah in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 22:3-9). The number seems somehow to be equated with the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile in 1:2, i.e., 593 b.c.

[1:1]  ² sn The Assyrians started the tactic of deportation, the large-scale forced displacement of conquered populations, in order to stifle rebellions. The task of uniting groups of deportees, gaining freedom from one’s overlords and returning to retake one’s own country would be considerably more complicated than living in one’s homeland and waiting for an opportune moment to drive out the enemy’s soldiers. The Babylonians adopted this practice also, after defeating the Assyrians. The Babylonians deported Judeans on three occasions. The practice of deportation was reversed by the Persian conquerors of Babylon, who gained favor from their subjects for allowing them to return to their homeland and, as polytheists, sought the favor of the gods of the various countries which had come under their control.

[1:1]  ³ sn The Kebar River is mentioned in Babylonian texts from the city of Nippur in the fifth century b.c. It provided artificial irrigation from the Euphrates.

[1:1]  ⁴ sn For the concept of the heavens opened in later literature, see 3 Macc 6:18; 2 Bar. 22:1; T. Levi 5:1; Matt 3:16; Acts 7:56; Rev 19:11.

[1:1]  ⁵ tn Or “saw visions from God.” References to divine visions occur also in Ezek 8:3; 40:2

[8:1]  ⁶ tc The LXX reads “In the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth of the month.”

[8:1]  sn In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month would be September 17, 592 b.c., about fourteen months after the initial vision.

[8:1]  ⁷ tn Or “power.”

[8:1]  sn Hand in the OT can refer metaphorically to power, authority, or influence. In Ezekiel God’s hand being on the prophet is regularly associated with communication or a vision from God (3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).

[8:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “fell upon me there,” that is, God’s influence came over him.

[12:12]  ⁹ sn The prince is a reference to Zedekiah.

[12:12]  ¹⁰ tn The words “his belongings” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied.

[12:12]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads “they”; the LXX and Syriac read “he.”

[20:15]  ¹² tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

[31:15]  ¹³ tn Or “he.”

[31:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I caused lamentation.” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:194-95) proposes an alternative root which would give the meaning “I gated back the waters,” i.e., shut off the water supply.

[31:16]  ¹⁵ sn For the expression “going down to the pit,” see Ezek 26:20; 32:18, 24, 29.

[37:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or “spirit.” This is likely an allusion to Gen 2 and God’s breath which creates life.

[39:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).

[41:7]  ¹⁸ tc The Hebrew is difficult here. The Targum envisions a winding ramp or set of stairs, which entails reading the first word as a noun rather than a verb and reading the second word also not as a verb, supposing that an initial mem has been read as vav and nun. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:549.

[41:7]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

[41:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “reed.”

[41:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[43:14]  ²² tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).

[43:14]  ²³ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm; the phrase occurs again later in this verse).

[43:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “four cubits” (i.e., 2.1 meters; the phrase also occurs in the next verse).