translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZK

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment upon the city. See 20:4 .


text: The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1 .


text: Heb “her time”; this refers to the time of impending judgment (see the note on “doom” in v. 4 ).


text: Heb “you have brought near your days.” The expression “bring near your days” appears to be an adaptation of the idiom “days draw near,” which is used to indicate that an event, such as death, is imminent (see Gen 27:41; 47:29 ; Deut 31:14 ; 1 Kgs 2:1 ; Ezek 12:23 ). Here “your days” probably refers to the days of the personified city’s life, which was about to come to an end through God’s judgment.


text: Heb “and you have come to your years.” This appears to mean that she has arrived at the time when her years (i.e., life) would end, though it may mean that her years of punishment will begin. Because “day” and “time” are so closely associated in the immediate context (see 21:25, 29 ) some prefer to emend the text and read “you have brought near your time.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:31, as well as the translator’s note on verse 3 .


text: The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.


text: Heb “unclean of name.”


text: Heb “Look! The princes of Israel, each according to his arm, were in you in order to shed blood.”


text: Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”


text: Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT ( Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13 ; Jer 7:6; 22:3 ). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.


text: Heb “men of slander are in you in order to shed blood.”


text: Heb “and on the mountains they eat within you.” The mountains mentioned here were the site of pagan sacrifices. See 18:6 .


text: Heb “the nakedness of a father one uncovers within you.” The ancient versions read the verb as plural (“they uncover”). If the singular is retained, it must be taken as indefinite and representative of the entire group. The idiomatic expression “uncover the nakedness” refers here to sexual intercourse (cf. Lev 18:6 ). To uncover a father’s nakedness could include sexual relations with one’s own mother ( Lev 18:7 ), but more likely it refers to having intercourse with another wife of one’s father, such as a stepmother ( Lev 18:8 ; cf. Gen 35:22; 49:4 ).


text: Heb “(one who is) unclean due to the impurity they humble within you.” The use of the verb “to humble” suggests that these men forced themselves upon women during menstruation. Having sexual relations with a woman during her period was forbidden by the Law ( Lev 18:19; 20:18 ).


text: Heb “a man.”


text: The verb is the same one used in verse 10 b and suggests forcible sexual violation of the woman.


text: Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17 . This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36 .


text: The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.


text: Heb “the blood which was in you.”


text: Heb “stand.” The heart here stands for the emotions; Jerusalem would panic in the face of God’s judgment.


text: Heb “in the days when I act against you.”


label: NET textual note

text: Several ancient versions read the verb as first person, in which case the Lord refers to how his people’s sin brings disgrace upon him. For a defense of the Hebrew text, see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:712, n. 68, and M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:457-58. tn The phrase “within yourself” is the same as the several previous occurrences of “within you” but adjusted to fit this clause which is the culmination of the series of indictments.


text: For similar imagery, see Isa 1:21-26 ; Jer 6:27-30 .


text: The Hebrew second person pronoun is masculine plural here and in vv. 19 b-21, indicating that the people are being addressed.


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Heb “I will put.” No object is supplied in the Hebrew, prompting many to emend the text to “I will blow.” See BHS and verse 21 .


text: The MT reads “that is not cleansed”; the LXX reads “that is not drenched,” which assumes a different vowel pointing as well as the loss of a מ ( mem ) due to haplography. In light of the following reference to showers, the reading of the LXX certainly fits the context well. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32. Yet the MT is not an unreasonable reading since uncleanness in the land also fits the context, and a poetic connection between rain and the land being uncleansed may be feasible since washing with water is elsewhere associated with cleansing ( Num 8:7; 31:23 ; Ps 51:7 ).


text: Heb “in a day of anger.”


text: Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28 ). If one follows the LXX in verse 25 , then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29 : princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.


text: Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.


text: Or “between the consecrated and the common.”


text: Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4 ; 1 Sam 12:3 ; Prov 28:27 ; Isa 1:15 ).


text: Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15 .


text: Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”


text: Heb “I did not find.”


text: Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”