Ezekiel 11:5

11:5 Then the Spirit of the Lord came ¹  upon me and said to me, “Say: This is what the Lord says: ‘This is what you are thinking, ²  O house of Israel; I know what goes through your minds. ³ 

Ezekiel 12:10

12:10 Say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem, ⁴  and all the house of Israel within it.’ ⁵ 

Ezekiel 14:6

14:6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Return! Turn from your idols, and turn your faces away from your abominations.

Ezekiel 20:30

20:30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers ⁶  and engage in prostitution with detestable idols?

Ezekiel 21:9

21:9 “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Lord says:

“‘A sword, a sword is sharpened,

and also polished.

Ezekiel 25:8

A Prophecy Against Moab

25:8 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Moab ⁷  and Seir say, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations.”

Ezekiel 33:25

33:25 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, ⁸  pray to ⁹  your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess ¹⁰  the land?

Ezekiel 36:2

36:2 This is what the sovereign Lord says: The enemy has spoken against you, saying “Aha!” and, “The ancient heights ¹¹  have become our property!”’

¹ tn Heb “fell.”

² tn The Hebrew verb commonly means “to say,” but may also mean “to think” (see also v. 3).

³ tn Heb “I know the steps of your spirits.”

⁴ tc The nearly incoherent Hebrew reads “The prince is this burden (prophetic oracle?) in Jerusalem.” The Targum, which may only be trying to make sense of a very difficult text, says “Concerning the prince is this oracle,” assuming the addition of a preposition. This would be the only case where Ezekiel uses this term for a prophetic oracle. The LXX reads the word for “burden” as a synonym for leader, as both words are built on the same root (נָשִׂיא, nasi’), but the verse is still incoherent because it is only a phrase with no verb. The current translation assumes that the verb יִשָּׂא (yisa’) from the root נָשִׂיא has dropped out due to homoioteleuton. If indeed the verb has dropped out (the syntax of the verbless clause being the problem), then context clearly suggests that it be a form of נָשִׂיא (see vv. 7 and 12). Placing the verb between the subject and object would result in three consecutive words based on the root נָשִׂיא and an environment conducive to an omission in copying: הַנָּשִׂיא יִשָּׁא הַמַּשָּׂא הַזֶּה (hannasi’ yisha’ hammasa’ hazzeh, “the Prince will raise this burden”).

⁵ tc The MT reads “within them.” Possibly a scribe copied this form from the following verse “among them,” but only “within it” makes sense in this context.

⁷ tn Heb “in the way of your fathers.”

¹⁰ sn Moab was located immediately south of Ammon.

¹³ sn This practice was a violation of Levitical law (see Lev 19:26).

¹⁴ tn Heb “lift up your eyes.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “Will you possess?”

¹⁶ tn Or “high places.”