Ezekiel 21:23-27

21:23 But those in Jerusalem ¹  will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, ²  but the king of Babylon ³  will accuse them of violations ⁴  in order to seize them. ⁵ 

21:24 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up ⁶  your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. ⁷ 

21:25 “‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, ⁸ 

whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

21:26 this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Tear off the turban, ⁹ 

take off the crown!

Things must change! ¹⁰ 

Exalt the lowly,

bring down the proud! ¹¹ 

21:27 A total ruin I will make it! ¹² 

It will come to an end

when the one arrives to whom I have assigned judgment.’ ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 5:11

5:11 You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, ¹⁴  for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 5:2

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ¹⁶ 

But the fact is, ¹⁷  what they swear to is really a lie.” ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 5:9

5:9 I will surely punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.

“I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this!” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 7:9-15

7:9 You steal. ²⁰  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ²¹  other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ²²  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ²³  7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ²⁴  is to be a hideout for robbers? ²⁵  You had better take note! ²⁶  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 7:12 So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped ²⁷  in the early days. See what I did to it ²⁸  because of the wicked things my people Israel did. 7:13 You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. ²⁹  But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! ³⁰  7:14 So I will destroy this temple which I have claimed as my own, ³¹  this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, ³²  just like I destroyed Shiloh. ³³  7:15 And I will drive you out of my sight just like I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel.’” ³⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people in Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² sn When the people of Judah realized the Babylonians’ intentions, they would object on grounds that they had made a treaty with the Babylonian king (see 17:13).

³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Or “iniquity.”

⁵ tn Heb “and he will remind of guilt for the purpose of being captured.” The king would counter their objections by pointing out that they had violated their treaty with him (see 17:18).

⁶ tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”

⁷ tn Heb “Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt when your transgressions are uncovered so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds – because you are remembered, by the hand you will be seized.”

⁸ tn This probably refers to King Zedekiah.

⁹ tn Elsewhere in the Bible the turban is worn by priests (Exod 28:4, 37, 39; 29:6; 39:28, 31; Lev 8:9; 16:4), but here a royal crown is in view.

¹⁰ tn Heb “This not this.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the high one.”

¹² tn Heb “A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I will make it.” The threefold repetition of the noun “ruin” is for emphasis and draws attention to the degree of ruin that would take place. See IBHS 233 §12.5a and GKC 431-32 §133.k. The pronominal suffix (translated “it”) on the verb “make” is feminine in Hebrew. The probable antecedent is the “turban/crown” (both nouns are feminine in form) mentioned in verse 26. The point is that the king’s royal splendor would be completely devastated as judgment overtook his realm and brought his reign to a violent end.

¹³ tn Heb “Also this, he was not, until the coming of the one to whom the judgment belongs and I have given it.” The Hebrew text, as it stands, is grammatically difficult. The pronoun “this” is feminine, while the following negated verb (“was not”) is masculine. Some emend the verb to a feminine form (see BHS). In this case the statement refers to the destiny of the king’s turban/crown (symbolizing his reign). See the previous note. The preposition translated “when” normally means “until,” but here it seems to refer to the period during which the preceding situation is realized, rather than its termination point. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:19, 21. The second part of the statement, though awkward, probably refers to the arrival of the Babylonian king, to whom the Lord had assigned the task of judgment (see 23:24). Or the verse may read “A total ruin I will make, even this. It will not be until the one comes to whom is (the task of) judgment and I have assigned it.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “take up the name of the Lord your God to emptiness”; KJV “take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The idea here is not cursing or profanity in the modern sense of these terms but rather the use of the divine Name for unholy, mundane purposes, that is, for meaningless (the Hebrew term is שָׁוְא) and empty ends. In ancient Israel this would include using the Lord’s name as a witness in vows one did not intend to keep.

¹⁵ tn Heb “who takes up his name to emptiness.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

¹⁷ tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ’akhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT.

¹⁸ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “Should I not punish them…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions have the force of strong declarations.

²⁰ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

²¹ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

²² tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

²³ tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”

²⁴ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

²⁵ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

²⁶ tn Heb “Behold!”

²⁷ tn Heb “where I caused my name to dwell.” The translation does not adequately represent the theology of the Lord’s deliberate identification with a place where he chose to manifest his presence and desired to be worshiped (cf. Exod 20:25; Deut 16:2, 6, 11).

²⁸ sn The place in Shiloh…see what I did to it. This refers to the destruction of Shiloh by the Philistines circa 1050 b.c. (cf. Ps 78:60). The destruction of Shiloh is pertinent to the argument. The presence of the tabernacle and ark of the covenant did not prevent Shiloh from being destroyed when Israel sinned. The people of Israel used the ark as a magic charm but it did not prevent them from being defeated or the ark being captured (1 Sam 4:3, 11, 21-22).

²⁹ tn This reflects a Hebrew idiom (e.g., 7:25; 11:7; 25:3, 4), i.e., an infinitive of a verb meaning “to do something early [or eagerly]” followed by an infinitive of another verb of action. Cf. HALOT 1384 s.v. שָׁכַם Hiph.2.

³⁰ tn Heb “I called to you and you did not answer.” The words “to repent” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

³¹ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

³² tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 25, 26).

³³ tn Heb “I will do to this house which I…in which you put…and to this place which…as I did to Shiloh.”

³⁴ tn Heb “the descendants of Ephraim.” However, Ephraim here stands (as it often does) for all the northern tribes of Israel.