translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZK

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “lift up over Tyre a lament.”


text: Heb “entrances.” The plural noun may reflect the fact that Tyre had two main harbors.


text: The city of Tyre is described in the following account as a merchant ship.


text: Heb “built.”


text: Perhaps the hull or deck. The term is dual, so perhaps it refers to a double-decked ship.


text: Or “hull.”


label: NET textual note

text: The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”


text: Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (CEV, TEV), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (NASB), “the coasts of Cyprus” (NIV, NRSV), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (NLT). sn The Kittean isles is probably a reference to southeast Cyprus where the Phoenicians had a colony.


text: The MT reads “the residents of”; the LXX reads “your rulers who dwell in.” With no apparent reason for the LXX to add “the rulers” many suppose something has dropped out of the Hebrew text. While more than one may be possible, Allen’s proposal, positing a word meaning “elders,” is the most likely to explain the omission in the MT from a graphic standpoint and also provides a parallel to the beginning of v. 9 . See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:81.a parallel to v. 9 .


text: For location see Map1-A1 ; JP3-F3 ; JP4-F3 .


text: Or “wise.”


text: Heb “strengthening damages.” Here “to strengthen” means to repair. The word for “damages” occurs several times in about some type of damage to the temple, which may have referred to or included cracks. Since the context describes Tyre in its glory, we do not expect this reference to damages to be of significant scale, even if there are repairmen. This may refer to using pitch to seal the seams of the ship, which had to be done periodically and could be considered routine maintenance rather than repair of damage.


text: Heb “sons of Arvad.”


text: See note on “quivers” in Jer 51:11 on the meaning of Hebrew שֶׁלֶט ( shelet ) and also M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:553.


text: The way in which these horses may have been distinguished from other horses is unknown. Cf. ASV “war-horses” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, CEV all similar); NLT “chariot horses.”


text: Heb “sons of Dedan.”


text: Heb “they returned as your gift.”


text: Many Hebrew mss , Aquila’s Greek translation, and the Syriac version read “Edom.” The LXX reads “man,” a translation which assumes the same consonants as Edom. This reading is supported from the context as the text deals with Damascus, the capital of Syria (Aram), later (in v. 18 ).


text: The MT leaves v. 18 as an incomplete sentence and begins v. 19 with “and Dan and Javan (Ionia) from Uzal.” The LXX mentions “wine.” The translation follows an emendation assuming some confusions of vav and yod . See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:82.


text: Or perhaps “Large merchant ships.” The expression “ships of Tarshish” may describe a class of vessel, that is, large oceangoing merchant ships.


text: Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9 .


text: Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8 . See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:561.


text: Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”


text: Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10 .


text: Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”


text: As it stands, the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. The translation follows the suggestion of M. Dahood, “Accadian-Ugaritic dmt in Ezekiel 27:32 ,” Bib 45 (1964): 83-84. Several other explanations and emendations have been offered. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:83, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:85-86, for a list of options.


text: Heb “fallen.”


text: Heb “in the midst of you.”