translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZK

label: NET translator note

text: January 7, 587 b.c .


text: Heb “set your face against.”


text: 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.


text: 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”).


label: NET textual note

text: Some Hebrew mss , the Targum, and the LXX read “buried.”


text: The Hebrew consonantal text ( Kethib ) has “by your hand,” but the marginal reading ( Qere ) has simply “by the hand.” The LXX reads “with their hand.”


text: Or perhaps “dislocated.”


text: Heb “you caused to stand for them all their hips.” An emendation which switches two letters but is supported by the LXX yields the reading “you caused all their hips to shake.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:103. In 2 Kgs 18:21 and Isa 36:6 trusting in the Pharaoh is compared to leaning on a staff. The oracle may reflect Hophra’s attempt to aid Jerusalem ( Jer 37:5-8 ).


text: Heb “I will cut off from you.”


text: Thus the Masoretic Text. The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate translate as though the Hebrew read “cause to inhabit.”


text: Heb “reminding of iniquity when they turned after them.”


text: Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an “ r ” rather than an “ n ” (so also in v. 19 ).


text: Heb “for which he worked,” referring to the assault on Tyre (v. 18 ).


text: Heb “I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel.” The horn is used as a figure for military power in the OT ( Ps 92:10 ). A similar expression is made about the Davidic dynasty in Ps 132:17 .


text: Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”