translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZK

label: NET translator note

text: The date of this oracle was January 15, 588 b.c .


text: Heb “lean on, put pressure on.”


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


text: Or “rust.”


text: Heb “has not gone out.”


text: Here “lot” may refer to the decision made by casting lots; it is not chosen at all.


text: Heb “set it upon its coals, empty.”


text: Or “rust” (so also in v. 12 ).


text: Heb “(with) toil she has wearied.” The meaning of the statement is unclear in the Hebrew text; some follow the LXX and delete it. The first word in the statement (rendered “toil” in the literal translation above) occurs only here in the OT, and the verb “she has wearied” lacks a stated object. Elsewhere the Hiphil of the verb refers to wearying someone or trying someone’s patience. The feminine subject is apparently the symbolic pot.


text: Heb “does not go out.”


text: Heb “in fire its rust.” The meaning of the expression is unclear. The translation understands the statement as a command to burn the rust away. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:768.


text: Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”


text: Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.


text: The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”


text: Heb “it”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Or perhaps, “change my mind.”


label: NET textual note

text: Some medieval Hebrew mss and the major ancient versions read a first person verb here. Most Hebrew mss read have an indefinite subject, “they will judge you,” which could be translated, “you will be judged.”


text: Heb “ways.”


text: Heb “a strike.”


text: Or “Groan silently. As to the dead….” Cf. M. Greenberg’s suggestion that דֹּם מֵתִים ( dom metim ) be taken together and דֹּם be derived from ָדּמַם ( damam , “to moan, murmur”). See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:508.


text: Heb “(For) the dead mourning you shall not conduct.” In the Hebrew text the word translated “dead” is plural, indicating that mourning rites are in view. Such rites would involve outward demonstrations of one’s sorrow, including wailing and weeping.


text: Heb “the bread of men.” The translation follows the suggestion accepted by M. Greenberg ( Ezekiel [AB], 2:509) that this refers to a meal brought by comforters to the one mourning. Some repoint the consonantal text to read “the bread of despair” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 2:56), while others, with support from the Targum and Vulgate, emend the consonantal text to read “the bread of mourners” (see D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:784).


text: This may refer to the following morning. For a discussion of various interpretive options in understanding the chronology reflected in verse 18 , see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:790.


text: Heb “the pride of your strength” means “your strong pride.”


text: 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.”


text: Heb “fall.”


text: See v. 17 .


text: The same verb appears in 4:17 and 33:10 .


text: Or “in your punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23 . The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.


text: Heb “(Will) it not (be) in the day I take?”


text: Heb “the uplifting of their soul.” According to BDB 672 s.v. מַשָּׂא 2, the term “uplifting” refers to “that to which they lift up their soul, their heart’s desire.” However, this text is the only one listed for this use. It seems more likely that the term has its well-attested nuance of “burden, load,” here and refers to that which weighs them down emotionally and is a constant source of concern or worry.


text: In the Hebrew text there is no conjunction before “their sons and daughters.” For this reason one might assume that the preceding descriptive phrases refer to the sons and daughters, but verse 21 suggests otherwise. The descriptive phrases appear to refer to the “stronghold,” which parallels “my sanctuary” in verse 21 . The children constitute a separate category.


text: Heb “to make the ears hear.”


text: Heb “your mouth will open.”