Text -- Ezekiel 8:1-2 (NET)

A Desecrated Temple

8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting in front of me, the hand of the sovereign Lord seized me. 8:2 As I watched, I noticed a form that appeared to be a man. From his waist downward was something like fire, and from his waist upward something like a brightness, like an amber glow.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Eze 8:1

¹ tc The LXX reads “In the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth of the month.”

sn In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month would be September 17, 592 b.c., about fourteen months after the initial vision.

² tn Or “power.”

sn Hand in the OT can refer metaphorically to power, authority, or influence. In Ezekiel God’s hand being on the prophet is regularly associated with communication or a vision from God (3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1).

³ tn Heb “fell upon me there,” that is, God’s influence came over him.

NET Notes: Eze 8:2

¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb (so also throughout the chapter).

² tc The MT reads “fire” rather than “man,” the reading of the LXX. The nouns are very similar in Hebrew.

³ tc The MT reads “what appeared to be his waist and downwards was fire.” The LXX omits “what appeared to be,” reading “from his waist to below was fire.” Suggesting that “like what appeared to be” belongs before “fire,” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:277) points out the resulting poetic symmetry of form with the next line as followed in the translation here.

⁴ tc The LXX omits “like a brightness.”

⁵ tn See Ezek 1:4.