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 5:15

5:15 You will be ⁶  an object of scorn and taunting, ⁷  a prime example of destruction ⁸  among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. ⁹  I, the Lord, have spoken!

Yehezkiel 5:17

5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹⁰  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ¹¹  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Yehezkiel 6:3

6:3 Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, ¹²  Hear the word of the sovereign Lord! ¹³  This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing ¹⁴  a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ¹⁵ 

Yehezkiel 13:19-20

13:19 You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. You have put to death people ¹⁶  who should not die and kept alive those who should not live by your lies to my people, who listen to lies!

13:20 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note ¹⁷  that I am against your wristbands with which you entrap people’s lives ¹⁸  like birds. I will tear them from your arms and will release the people’s lives, which you hunt like birds.

Yehezkiel 16:27

16:27 So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct.

Yehezkiel 17:3

17:3 Say to them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: ¹⁹ 

“‘A great eagle ²⁰  with broad wings, long feathers, ²¹ 

with full plumage which was multi-hued, ²² 

came to Lebanon ²³  and took the top of the cedar.

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 21:24

21:24 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up ²⁴  your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. ²⁵ 

Yehezkiel 23:23

23:23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, ²⁶  Shoa, ²⁷  and Koa, ²⁸  and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, all of them governors and officials, officers and nobles, all of them riding on horses.

Yehezkiel 25:9

25:9 So look, I am about to open up Moab’s flank, ²⁹  eliminating the cities, ³⁰  including its frontier cities, ³¹  the beauty of the land – Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim.

Yehezkiel 29:3

29:3 Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Look, I am against ³²  you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great monster ³³  lying in the midst of its waterways,

who has said, “My Nile is my own, I made it for myself.” ³⁴ 

Yehezkiel 30:6

30:6 “‘This is what the Lord says:

Egypt’s supporters will fall;

her confident pride will crumble. ³⁵ 

From Migdol to Syene ³⁶  they will die by the sword within her,

declares the sovereign Lord.

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 40:4

40:4 The man said to me, “Son of man, watch closely, listen carefully, and pay attention ³⁷  to everything I show you, for you have been brought here so that I can show it to you. ³⁸  Tell the house of Israel everything you see.”

Yehezkiel 46:18-19

46:18 The prince will not take away any of the people’s inheritance by oppressively removing them from their property. He will give his sons an inheritance from his own possessions so that my people will not be scattered, each from his own property.’”

46:19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests which faced north. There I saw ³⁹  a place at the extreme western end.

Yehezkiel 47:10

47:10 Fishermen will stand beside it; from Engedi to En-eglaim they will spread nets. They will catch many kinds of fish, like the fish of the Great Sea. ⁴⁰ 

Yehezkiel 48:1

The Tribal Portions

48:1 “These are the names of the tribes: From the northern end beside the road of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan (which is on the border of Damascus, toward the north beside Hamath), extending from the east side to the west, Dan will have one portion.

[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

[5:15]  ⁶ tc This reading is supported by the versions and by the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QEzek). Most Masoretic Hebrew mss read “it will be,” but if the final he (ה) is read as a mater lectionis, as it can be with the second masculine singular perfect, then they are in agreement. In either case the subject refers to Jerusalem.

[5:15]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT. A related verb means “revile, taunt” (see Ps 44:16).

[5:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “discipline and devastation.” These words are omitted in the Old Greek. The first term pictures Jerusalem as a recipient or example of divine discipline; the second depicts her as a desolate ruin (see Ezek 6:14).

[5:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “in anger and in fury and in rebukes of fury.” The heaping up of synonyms emphasizes the degree of God’s anger.

[5:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will bereave you.”

[5:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.

[6:3]  ¹² tn The phrase “mountains of Israel” occurs only in the book of Ezekiel (6:2, 3; 19:9; 33:28; 34:13, 14; 35:12; 36:1, 4, 8; 37:22; 38:8; 39:2, 4, 17). The expression refers to the whole land of Israel.

[6:3]  sn The mountainous terrain of Israel would contrast with the exiles’ habitat in the river valley of Babylonia.

[6:3]  ¹³ tn The introductory formula “Hear the word of the sovereign Lord” parallels a pronouncement delivered by the herald of a king (2 Kgs 18:28).

[6:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Look I, I am bringing.” The repetition of the pronoun draws attention to the speaker. The construction also indicates that the action is soon to come; the Lord is “about to bring a sword against” them.

[6:3]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term refers to elevated platforms where pagan sacrifices were performed.

[13:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “human lives” or “souls.”

[13:20]  ¹⁷ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[13:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “human lives” or “souls.”

[17:3]  ¹⁹ tn The parable assumes the defection of Zedekiah to Egypt and his rejection of Babylonian lordship.

[17:3]  ²⁰ sn The great eagle symbolizes Nebuchadnezzar (17:12).

[17:3]  ²¹ tn Hebrew has two words for wings; it is unknown whether they are fully synonymous or whether one term distinguishes a particular part of the wing such as the wing coverts (nearest the shoulder), secondaries (mid-feathers of the wing) or primaries (last and longest section of the wing).

[17:3]  ²² tn This term was used in 16:10, 13, and 18 of embroidered cloth.

[17:3]  ²³ sn In the parable Lebanon apparently refers to Jerusalem (17:12).

[21:24]  ²⁴ tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”

[21:24]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt when your transgressions are uncovered so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds – because you are remembered, by the hand you will be seized.”

[23:23]  ²⁶ sn Pekod was the name of an Aramean tribe (known as Puqudu in Mesopotamian texts) that lived in the region of the Tigris River.

[23:23]  ²⁷ sn Shoa was the name of a nomadic people (the Sutu) that lived in Mesopotamia.

[23:23]  ²⁸ sn Koa was the name of another Mesopotamian people group (the Qutu).

[25:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “shoulder.”

[25:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “from the cities.” The verb “eliminating” has been added in the translation to reflect the privative use of the preposition (see BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7.b).

[25:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “from its cities, from its end.”

[29:3]  ³² tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[29:3]  ³³ tn Heb “jackals,” but many medieval Hebrew mss read correctly “the serpent.” The Hebrew term appears to refer to a serpent in Exod 7:9-10, 12; Deut 32:33; and Ps 91:13. It also refers to large creatures that inhabit the sea (Gen 1:21; Ps 148:7). In several passages it is associated with the sea or with the multiheaded sea monster Leviathan (Job 7:12; Ps 74:13; Isa 27:1; 51:9). Because of the Egyptian setting of this prophecy and the reference to the creature’s scales (v. 4), many understand a crocodile to be the referent here (e.g., NCV “a great crocodile”; TEV “you monster crocodile”; CEV “a giant crocodile”).

[29:3]  ³⁴ sn In Egyptian theology Pharaoh owned and controlled the Nile. See J. D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 240-44.

[30:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “come down.”

[30:6]  ³⁶ sn Syene is known as Aswan today.

[40:4]  ³⁷ tn Heb “look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and set your mind on.”

[40:4]  ³⁸ tn Heb “in order to show (it) to you.”

[46:19]  ³⁹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[47:10]  ⁴⁰ sn The Great Sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea (also in vv. 15, 19, 20).