translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZK

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “lift up.”


text: Heb “a man.”


label: NET textual note

text: The Hebrew text reads “knew,” but is apparently the result of a ר - ד ( dalet-resh ) confusion. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. However, Allen retains the reading “widows” as the object of the verb, which he understands in the sense of “do harm to,” and translates the line: “He did harm to women by making them widows” (p. 282). The line also appears to be lacking a beat for the meter of the poem.


text: The Hebrew text reads “widows” instead of “strongholds,” apparently due to a confusion of ר ( resh ) and ל ( lamed ). L. C. Allen ( Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284) favors the traditional text, understanding “widows” in the sense of “women made widows.” D. I. Block, ( Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:602) also defends the Hebrew text, arguing that the image is that of a dominant male lion who takes over the pride and by copulating with the females lays claim to his predecessor’s “widows.”


text: Or “They put him in a neck stock with hooks.” The noun סּוּגַר ( sugar ), translated “collar,” occurs only here in the Bible. L. C. Allen and D. I. Block point out a Babylonian cognate that refers to a device for transporting prisoners of war that held them by their necks (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:597, n. 35; L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284). Based on the Hebrew root, the traditional rendering had been “cage” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).


text: The term in the MT occurs only here and in Eccl 9:12 where it refers to a net for catching fish. The LXX translates this as “prison,” which assumes a confusion of dalet and resh took place in the MT.


text: The Hebrew text reads “in your blood,” but most emend to “in your vineyard,” assuming a ב - כ ( beth-kaph ) confusion. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. Another attractive emendation assumes a faulty word division and yields the reading “like a vine full of tendrils, which/because…”; see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:607, n. 68.


text: The word “fit” does not occur in the Hebrew text.


text: Heb “and it was seen by its height and by the abundance of its branches.”


text: The verse describes the similar situation recorded in Judg 9:20 .