13:34 In the meantime Absalom fled. When the servant who was the watchman looked up, he saw many people coming from the west 1 on a road beside the hill.
18:24 Now David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, 2 and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate at the wall. When he looked, he saw a man running by himself.
21:6 For this is what the sovereign master 3 has told me:
“Go, post a guard!
He must report what he sees.
21:7 When he sees chariots,
teams of horses, 4
riders on donkeys,
riders on camels,
he must be alert,
very alert.”
21:8 Then the guard 5 cries out:
“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, 6
I stand all day long;
at my post
I am stationed every night.
21:9 Look what’s coming!
A charioteer,
a team of horses.” 7
When questioned, he replies, 8
“Babylon has fallen, fallen!
All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
21:11 Here is a message about Dumah: 9
Someone calls to me from Seir, 10
“Watchman, what is left of the night?
Watchman, what is left of the night?” 11
21:12 The watchman replies,
“Morning is coming, but then night. 12
If you want to ask, ask;
come back again.” 13
56:10 All their watchmen 14 are blind,
they are unaware. 15
All of them are like mute dogs,
unable to bark.
They pant, 16 lie down,
and love to snooze.
62:6 I 17 post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they should keep praying all day and all night. 18
You who pray to 19 the Lord, don’t be silent!
33:7 “As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman 27 for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them on my behalf. 33:8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you must certainly die,’ 28 and you do not warn 29 the wicked about his behavior, 30 the wicked man will die for his iniquity, but I will hold you accountable for his death. 31 33:9 But if you warn the wicked man to change his behavior, 32 and he refuses to change, 33 he will die for his iniquity, but you have saved your own life.
1 tn Heb “behind him.”
2 tn Heb “the two gates.”
3 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 8, 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
4 tn Or “a pair of horsemen.”
5 tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.
6 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).
7 tn Or “[with] teams of horses,” or perhaps, “with a pair of horsemen.”
8 tn Heb “and he answered and said” (so KJV, ASV).
9 tn The noun דּוּמָה (dumah) means “silence,” but here it is a proper name, probably referring to a site in northern Arabia or to the nation of Edom. See BDB 189 s.v. II דּוּמָה. If Dumah was an area in northern Arabia, it would be of interest to the Edomites because of its strategic position on trade routes which they used. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:398.
10 sn Seir is another name for Edom. See BDB 973 s.v. שֵׂעִיר.
11 sn The “night” probably here symbolizes distress and difficult times. See BDB 539 s.v. לַיְלָה.
12 sn Dumah will experience some relief, but it will be short-lived as night returns.
13 sn The point of the watchman’s final instructions (“if you want to ask, ask; come again”) is unclear. Perhaps they are included to add realism to the dramatic portrayal. The watchman sends the questioner away with the words, “Feel free to come back and ask again.”
14 sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.
15 tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”
16 tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.
17 sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.
18 tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.
19 tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”
20 tn Heb “sons of your people.”
21 tn Heb “shofar,” a ram’s horn rather than a brass instrument (so throughout the chapter).
22 tn Sounding the trumpet was a warning of imminent danger (Neh 4:18-20; Jer 4:19; Amos 3:6).
23 tn Heb “his blood will be on his own head.”
24 tn Heb “his blood will be on him.”
25 tn Or “in his punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in vv. 8 and 9; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.
26 tn Heb “his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.”
27 sn Jeremiah (Jer 6:17) and Habakkuk (Hab 2:1) also served in the role of a watchman.
28 tn The same expression occurs in Gen 2:17.
29 tn Heb “and you do not speak to warn.”
30 tn Heb “way.”
31 tn Heb “and his blood from your hand I will seek.”
32 tn Heb “from his way to turn from it.”
33 tn Heb “and he does not turn from his way.”
34 tn Or “testify.”
35 tn Grk “clean, pure,” thus “guiltless” (BDAG 489 s.v. καθαρός 3.a).
36 tn That is, “that if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible” (an idiom). According to L&N 33.223, the meaning of the phrase “that I am innocent of the blood of all of you” is “that if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible.” However, due to the length of this phrase and its familiarity to many modern English readers, the translation was kept closer to formal equivalence in this case. The word “you” is not in the Greek text, but is implied; Paul is addressing the Ephesian congregation (in the person of its elders) in both v. 25 and 27.
37 tn Or “did not avoid.” BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 2.b has “shrink from, avoid implying fear…οὐ γὰρ ὑπεστειλάμην τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι I did not shrink from proclaiming Ac 20:27”; L&N 13.160 has “to hold oneself back from doing something, with the implication of some fearful concern – ‘to hold back from, to shrink from, to avoid’…‘for I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God’ Ac 20:27.”
38 tn Or “proclaiming,” “declaring.”
39 tn Or “plan.”
40 tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.
41 tn Grk “in which.”
42 tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.
43 tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì74 A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule
44 tn Or “acquired.”
45 tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.
46 tn Grk “after my departure.”
47 tn That is, people like fierce wolves. See BDAG 167-68 s.v. βαρύς 4 on the term translated “fierce.” The battle that will follow would be a savage one.
48 tn Grk “from among yourselves.”
49 tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.
50 tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”
51 tn Or “be watchful.”
52 tn Or “admonishing.”