translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZK

label: NET translator note

text: In the Hebrew text the subject is left unstated and must be supplied from the context.


text: The names Oholah and Oholibah are both derived from the word meaning “tent.” The meaning of Oholah is “her tent,” while Oholibah means “my tent is in her.”


text: Heb “while she was under me.” The expression indicates that Oholah is viewed as the Lord’s wife. See Num 5:19-20, 29 . sn Played the harlot refers to alliances with pagan nations in this context. In harlotry described the sin of idolatry.


text: Heb “Assyria.”


text: The term apparently refers to Assyrian military officers; it is better construed with the description that follows. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:738.


text: Heb “lusted after.”


text: Heb “and poured out their harlotry on her.”


text: Heb “I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Assyria.”


text: Heb “name.”


text: The word “this” is not in the original text.


text: The only other occurrence of the Hebrew term is in Jer 22:14 .


text: Heb “the sons of Babel.”


text: Heb “at the appearance of her eyes.”


text: Heb “The sons of Babel came to her on a bed of love.”


text: Heb “her soul.”


text: Heb “She exposed her harlotry and she exposed her nakedness.”


text: Heb “my soul.”


text: Heb “She lusted after their concubines (?) whose flesh was the flesh of donkeys.” The phrase “their concubines” is extremely problematic here. The pronoun is masculine plural, suggesting that the Egyptian men are in view, but how concubines would fit into the picture envisioned here is not clear. Some suggest that Ezekiel uses the term in an idiomatic sense of “paramour,” but this still fails to explain how the pronoun relates to the noun. It is more likely that the term refers here to the Egyptians’ genitals. The relative pronoun that follows introduces a more specific description of their genitals.


text: Or “you took note of.” The Hebrew verb פָּקַד ( paqad ) in the Qal implies evaluating something and then acting in light of that judgment; here the prophet depicts Judah as approving of her youthful unfaithfulness and then magnifying it at the present time. Some translations assume the verb should be repointed as a Niphal, rendering “you missed” or by extension “you longed for,” but such an extension of the Niphal “to be missing” is otherwise unattested.


text: Heb “when (they) did,” but the verb makes no sense here and is better emended to “when (they) fondled,” a verb used in vv. 3 and 8 . See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:43.


text: Heb “for the sake of,” but the expression is awkward and is better emended to read “to squeeze.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:43.


text: The word הִנֵּה ( hinneh , traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.


text: Heb “come against.”


text: This is the only occurrence of this term in the OT. The precise meaning is uncertain.


text: Heb “an assembly of peoples.”


text: Heb “I will place before them judgment.”


text: Heb “give.”


text: Heb “they will remove.” sn This method of punishment is attested among ancient Egyptian and Hittite civilizations. See W. Zimmerli, Ezekiel (Hermeneia), 1:489.


text: Heb “fall.”


text: Heb “I will cause your obscene conduct to cease from you and your harlotry from the land of Egypt.”


text: Heb “lift your eyes to them.”


text: Heb “I am giving you into the hand of.”


text: The Hebrew term means “labor,” but by extension it can also refer to that for which one works.


text: Heb “The nakedness of your prostitution will be exposed, and your obscene conduct and your harlotry.”


text: The infinitive absolute continues the sequence begun in v. 28 : “Look here, I am about to deliver you.” See Joüon 2:430 §123.w.


text: Heb “her cup.” A cup of intoxicating strong drink is used, here and elsewhere, as a metaphor for judgment because both leave one confused and reeling. (See Jer 25:15, 17, 28 ; Hab 2:16 .) The cup of wrath is a theme also found in the NT ( Mark 14:36 ).


text: Heb “filled with.”


text: Heb “You will drink it and drain (it).”


text: D. I. Block compares this to the idiom of “licking the plate” ( Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:754, n. 137). The text is difficult as the word translated “gnaw” is rare. The noun is used of the shattered pieces of pottery and so could envision a broken cup. But the Piel verb form is used in only one other place ( Num 24:8 ), where it is a denominative from the noun “bone” and seems to mean to “break (bones).” Why it would be collocated with “sherds” is not clear. For this reason some emend the phrase to read “consume its dregs” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 2:44) or emend the verb to read “swallow,” as if the intoxicated Oholibah breaks the cup and then eats the very sherds in an effort to get every last drop of the beverage that dampens them.


text: Heb “and you cast me behind your back.” The expression pictures her rejection of the Lord (see 1 Kgs 14:9 ).


text: The word “punishment” is not in the Hebrew text but is demanded by the context.


text: Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment. See 20:4; 22:2 .


text: Heb “they have passed to them for food.” The verb is commonly taken to refer to passing children through fire, especially as an offering to the pagan god Molech. See Jer 32:35 .


text: Heb “in that day.”


text: Heb “to whom a messenger was sent, and look, they came.” Foreign alliances are in view here.


text: The Hebrew verb form is feminine singular, indicating that Oholibah (Judah) is specifically addressed here. This address continues through verse 42 a (note “her”), but then both sisters are described in verse 42 b, where the feminine pronouns are again plural.


text: Heb “(was) in her.”


text: Heb “and men from the multitude of mankind.”


text: An alternate reading is “drunkards.” Sheba is located in the area of modern day Yemen.


text: Heb “they”; the referents (the sisters) have been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.


text: Heb “and they came to her.”


text: Heb “and upright men will judge them (with) the judgment of adulteresses and the judgment of those who shed blood.”


text: Heb “assembly.”


text: Heb “give them to.”


text: The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”


text: Heb “and the sins of your idols you will bear.” By extension it can mean the punishment for the sins.