Yehezkiel 6:11

6:11 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and say, “Ah!” because of all the evil, abominable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine, and pestilence. ¹ 

Yehezkiel 14:9

14:9 “‘As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word – I, the Lord, have made a fool of ²  that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.

Yehezkiel 24:21

24:21 Say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Realize I am about to desecrate my sanctuary – the source of your confident pride, ³  the object in which your eyes delight, ⁴  and your life’s passion. ⁵  Your very own sons and daughters whom you have left behind will die ⁶  by the sword.

Yehezkiel 26:7

26:7 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note that ⁷  I am about to bring King Nebuchadrezzar ⁸  of Babylon, king of kings, against Tyre from the north, with horses, chariots, and horsemen, an army and hordes of people.

Yehezkiel 26:16

26:16 All the princes of the sea will vacate ⁹  their thrones. They will remove their robes and strip off their embroidered clothes; they will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground; they will tremble continually and be shocked at what has happened to you. ¹⁰ 

Yehezkiel 28:25

28:25 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather the house of Israel from the peoples where they are dispersed, I will reveal my sovereign power ¹¹  over them in the sight of the nations, and they will live in their land that I gave to my servant Jacob.

Yehezkiel 34:2

34:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds ¹²  of Israel; prophesy, and say to them – to the shepherds: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not shepherds feed the flock?

Yehezkiel 36:20

36:20 But when they arrived in the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name. It was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, yet they have departed from his land.’

Yehezkiel 38:17

38:17 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by my servants ¹³  the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days ¹⁴  that I would bring you against them?

Yehezkiel 38:20

38:20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the wild beasts, all the things that creep on the ground, and all people who live on the face of the earth will shake ¹⁵  at my presence. The mountains will topple, the cliffs ¹⁶  will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.

[6:11]  ¹ sn By the sword and by famine and by pestilence. A similar trilogy of punishments is mentioned in Lev 26:25-26. See also Jer 14:12; 21:9; 27:8, 13; 29:18).

[14:9]  ² tn The translation is uncertain due to difficulty both in determining the meaning of the verb’s stem and its conjugation in this context. In the Qal stem the basic meaning of the verbal root פָּתַה (patah) is “to be gullible, foolish.” The doubling stems (the Pual and Piel used in this verse) typically give such stative verbs a factitive sense, hence either “make gullible” (i.e., “entice”) or “make into a fool” (i.e., “to show to be a fool”). The latter represents the probable meaning of the term in Jer 20:7, 10 and is followed here (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:193; R. Mosis “Ez 14, 1-11 - ein Ruf zur Umkehr,” BZ 19 [1975]: 166-69 and ThWAT 4:829-31). In this view, if a prophet speaks when not prompted by God, he will be shown to be a fool, but this does not reflect negatively on the Lord because it is God who shows him to be a fool. Secondly, the verb is in the perfect conjugation and may be translated “I have made a fool of him” or “I have enticed him,” or to show determination (see IBHS 439-41 §27.2f and g), or in certain syntactical constructions as future. Any of these may be plausible if the doubling stems used are understood in the sense of “making a fool of.” But if understood as “to make gullible,” more factors come into play. As the Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, it is often translated as present perfect: “I have enticed.” In this case the Lord states that he himself enticed the prophet to cooperate with the idolaters. Such enticement to sin would seem to be a violation of God’s moral character, but sometimes he does use such deception and enticement to sin as a form of punishment against those who have blatantly violated his moral will (see, e.g., 2 Sam 24). If one follows this line of interpretation in Ezek 14:9, one would have to assume that the prophet had already turned from God in his heart. However, the context gives no indication of this. Therefore, it is better to take the perfect as indicating certitude and to translate it with the future tense: “I will entice.” In this case the Lord announces that he will judge the prophet appropriately. If a prophet allows himself to be influenced by idolaters, then the Lord will use deception as a form of punishment against that deceived prophet. A comparison with the preceding oracles also favors this view. In 14:4 the perfect of certitude is used for emphasis (see “I will answer”), though in v. 7 a participle is employed. For a fuller discussion of this text, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 23-25.

[24:21]  ³ tn Heb “the pride of your strength” means “your strong pride.”

[24:21]  ⁴ sn Heb “the delight of your eyes.” Just as Ezekiel was deprived of his beloved wife (v. 16, the “desire” of his “eyes”) so the Lord would be forced to remove the object of his devotion, the temple, which symbolized his close relationship to his covenant people.

[24:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “the object of compassion of your soul.” The accentuation in the traditional Hebrew text indicates that the descriptive phrases (“the source of your confident pride, the object in which your eyes delight, and your life’s passion”) modify the preceding “my sanctuary.”

[24:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “fall.”

[26:7]  ⁷ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something.

[26:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an an “r” rather than an “n.”

[26:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “descend from.”

[26:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they will be astonished over you.”

[28:25]  ¹¹ tn Or “reveal my holiness.” See verse 22.

[34:2]  ¹² tn The term shepherd is applied to kings in the ancient Near East. In the OT the Lord is often addressed as shepherd of Israel (Gen 49:24; Ps 8:1). The imagery of shepherds as Israel’s leaders is also employed (Jer 23:1-2).

[38:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “by the hand of my servants.”

[38:17]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds “years” here, but this is probably a scribal gloss on the preceding phrase. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:201.

[38:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “tremble.”

[38:20]  ¹⁶ tn The term occurs only here and in Song of Songs 2:14.