17:4 He plucked off its topmost shoot;
he brought it to a land of merchants
and planted it in a city of traders.
19:4 The nations heard about him; he was trapped in their pit.
They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. 2
19:7 He broke down 3 their strongholds 4 and devastated their cities.
The land and everything in it was frightened at the sound of his roaring.
27:33 When your products went out from the seas,
you satisfied many peoples;
with the abundance of your wealth and merchandise
you enriched the kings of the earth.
30:5 Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all the foreigners, 5 Libya, and the people 6 of the covenant land 7 will die by the sword along with them.
32:6 I will drench the land with the flow
of your blood up to the mountains,
and the ravines will be full of your blood. 8
1 tn Heb “Chaldea.” The name of the tribal group ruling Babylon (“Chaldeans”) and the territory from which they originated (“Chaldea”) is used as metonymy for the whole empire of Babylon.
2 sn The description applies to king Jehoahaz (2 Kgs 23:31-34; Jer 22:10-12).
3 tc The Hebrew text reads “knew,” but is apparently the result of a ר-ד (dalet-resh) confusion. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. However, Allen retains the reading “widows” as the object of the verb, which he understands in the sense of “do harm to,” and translates the line: “He did harm to women by making them widows” (p. 282). The line also appears to be lacking a beat for the meter of the poem.
4 tc The Hebrew text reads “widows” instead of “strongholds,” apparently due to a confusion of ר (resh) and ל (lamed). L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284) favors the traditional text, understanding “widows” in the sense of “women made widows.” D. I. Block, (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:602) also defends the Hebrew text, arguing that the image is that of a dominant male lion who takes over the pride and by copulating with the females lays claim to his predecessor’s “widows.”
4 tn The same expression appears in Exod 12:38; Jer 25:20; 50:37; Neh 13:3. It may refer to foreign mercenaries serving in the armies of the nations listed here.
5 tn Heb “sons.”
6 tn The expression “sons of the covenant land” possibly refers to Jews living in Egypt (Jer 44).
5 tn Heb “from you.”