20:7 “You shall not take 1 the name of the Lord your God in vain, 2 for the Lord will not hold guiltless 3 anyone who takes his name in vain.
17:16 “‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, surely in the city 6 of the king who crowned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke – in the middle of Babylon he will die! 17:17 Pharaoh with his great army and mighty horde will not help 7 him in battle, when siege ramps are erected and siege-walls are built to kill many people. 17:18 He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Take note 8 – he gave his promise 9 and did all these things – he will not escape!
17:19 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will certainly repay him 10 for despising my oath and breaking my covenant!
20:39 “‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Each of you go and serve your idols, 11 if you will not listen to me. 12 But my holy name will not be profaned 13 again by your sacrifices 14 and your idols.
39:7 “‘I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 15
1 tn Or “use” (NCV, TEV); NIV, CEV, NLT “misuse”; NRSV “make wrongful use of.”
2 tn שָׁוְא (shav’, “vain”) describes “unreality.” The command prohibits use of the name for any idle, frivolous, or insincere purpose (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 196). This would include perjury, pagan incantations, or idle talk. The name is to be treated with reverence and respect because it is the name of the holy God.
3 tn Or “leave unpunished.”
4 tn Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”
5 tn Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”
6 tn Heb “place.”
7 tn Heb “deal with” or “work with.”
8 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates being aware of or taking notice of something.
9 sn Heb “hand.” “Giving one’s hand” is a gesture of promise (2 Kgs 10:15).
10 tn Heb “place it on his head.”
11 sn Compare the irony here to Amos 4:4 and Jer 44:25.
12 tn Heb “and after, if you will not listen to me.” The translation leaves out “and after” for smoothness. The text is difficult. M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:374) suggests that it may mean “but afterwards, if you will not listen to me…” with an unspoken threat.
13 sn A similar concept may be found in Lev 18:21; 20:3.
14 tn Or “gifts.”
15 sn The basic sense of the word “holy” is “set apart from that which is commonplace, special, unique.” The
16 sn The word table, here a synonym for “altar,” has overtones of covenant imagery in which a feast shared by the covenant partners was an important element (see Exod 24:11). It also draws attention to the analogy of sitting down at a common meal with the governor (v. 8).
17 tn Heb “fruit.” The following word “food” in the Hebrew text (אָכְלוֹ, ’okhlo) appears to be an explanatory gloss to clarify the meaning of the rare word נִיב (niv, “fruit”; see Isa 57:19 Qere; נוֹב, nov, “fruit,” in Kethib). Cf. ASV “the fruit thereof, even its food.” In this cultic context the reference is to the offerings on the altar.