translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZK

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “set your face against.” The expression occurs at the beginning of Ezekiel’s prophetic oracles in Ezek 13:17; 20:46; 21:2; 25:2; 28:21; 29:2; 35:2; 38:2 . sn Based on comparison to a similar expression in Ugaritic, the phrase may imply that Ezekiel was to actually go to these locations to deliver his message.


text: The phrase “mountains of Israel” occurs only in the book of Ezekiel ( 6:2, 3; 19:9; 33:28; 34:13, 14; 35:12; 36:1, 4, 8; 37:22; 38:8; 39:2, 4, 17 ). The expression refers to the whole land of Israel. sn The mountainous terrain of Israel would contrast with the exiles’ habitat in the river valley of Babylonia.


text: The introductory formula “Hear the word of the sovereign Lord ” parallels a pronouncement delivered by the herald of a king ( 2 Kgs 18:28 ).


text: Heb “Look I, I am bringing.” The repetition of the pronoun draws attention to the speaker. The construction also indicates that the action is soon to come; the Lord is “about to bring a sword against” them.


text: The Hebrew term refers to elevated platforms where pagan sacrifices were performed.


text: Thirty-nine of the forty-eight biblical occurrences of this Hebrew word are found in the book of Ezekiel. sn This verse is probably based on Lev 26:30 in which God forecasts that he will destroy their high places, cut off their incense altars, and set their corpses by the corpses of their idols.


label: NET textual note

text: This first sentence, which explains the meaning of the last sentence of the previous verse, does not appear in the LXX and may be an instance of a marginal explanatory note making its way into the text.


text: The Hebrew verb translated “wiped out” is used to describe the judgment of the Flood ( Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23 ).


text: Heb “when you have fugitives from the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the lands.”


text: The words “they will realize” are not in the Hebrew text; they are added here for stylistic reasons since this clause assumes the previous verb “to remember” or “to take into account.”


text: Heb “how I was broken by their adulterous heart.” The image of God being “broken” is startling, but perfectly natural within the metaphorical framework of God as offended husband. The idiom must refer to the intense grief that Israel’s unfaithfulness caused God. For a discussion of the syntax and semantics of the Hebrew text, see M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:134.


text: Heb adds “in their faces.”


text: Heb “not in vain did I speak to do to them this catastrophe.” The wording of the last half of v. 10 parallels God’s declaration after the sin of the golden calf ( Exod 32:14 ).


text: Heb “the one who is left, the one who is spared.”


text: The Vulgate reads the name as “Riblah,” a city north of Damascus. The MT reads Diblah, a city otherwise unknown. The letters resh ( ר ) and dalet ( ד ) may have been confused in the Hebrew text. The town of Riblah was in the land of Hamath ( 2 Kgs 23:33 ) which represented the northern border of Israel ( Ezek 47:14 ).