28:1 “If you indeed 11 obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving 12 you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.
9:7 Remember – don’t ever forget 13 – how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him. 14
79:3 They have made their blood flow like water
all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury them. 15
ס (Samek)
2:15 All who passed by on the road
clapped their hands to mock you. 23
They sneered and shook their heads
at Daughter Jerusalem.
“Ha! Is this the city they called 24
‘The perfection of beauty, 25
the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” 26
פ (Pe)
2:16 All your enemies
gloated over you. 27
They sneered and gnashed their teeth;
they said, “We have destroyed 28 her!
Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.
We have lived to see it!” 29
7:8 My enemies, 30 do not gloat 31 over me!
Though I have fallen, I will get up.
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. 32
1 tn Heb “you have brought near your days.” The expression “bring near your days” appears to be an adaptation of the idiom “days draw near,” which is used to indicate that an event, such as death, is imminent (see Gen 27:41; 47:29; Deut 31:14; 1 Kgs 2:1; Ezek 12:23). Here “your days” probably refers to the days of the personified city’s life, which was about to come to an end through God’s judgment.
2 tn Heb “and you have come to your years.” This appears to mean that she has arrived at the time when her years (i.e., life) would end, though it may mean that her years of punishment will begin. Because “day” and “time” are so closely associated in the immediate context (see 21:25, 29) some prefer to emend the text and read “you have brought near your time.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:31, as well as the translator’s note on verse 3.
3 tn The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.
4 tn Heb “unclean of name.”
7 tn Heb “with all your scorn in (the) soul.”
10 sn Tyre was located on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel.
11 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
12 tn Heb “I will be filled.”
13 sn That is, Jerusalem.
13 tn Heb “lip of the tongue.”
16 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
17 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
19 tn By juxtaposing the positive זְכֹר (zekhor, “remember”) with the negative אַל־תִּשְׁכַּח (’al-tishÿkakh, “do not forget”), Moses makes a most emphatic plea.
20 tn Heb “the
22 tn Heb “they have poured out their blood like water, all around Jerusalem, and there is no one burying.”
25 tn Heb “Oracle of the
26 sn The many allusions to trouble coming from the north are now clarified: it is the armies of Babylon which included within it contingents from many nations. See 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; 13:20 for earlier allusions.
27 sn Nebuchadnezzar is called the
28 tn The word used here was used in the early years of Israel’s conquest for the action of killing all the men, women, and children in the cities of Canaan, destroying all their livestock, and burning their cities down. This policy was intended to prevent Israel from being corrupted by paganism (Deut 7:2; 20:17-18; Josh 6:18, 21). It was to be extended to any city that led Israel away from worshiping God (Deut 13:15) and any Israelite who brought an idol into his house (Deut 7:26). Here the policy is being directed against Judah as well as against her neighbors because of her persistent failure to heed God’s warnings through the prophets. For further usage of this term in application to foreign nations in the book of Jeremiah see 50:21, 26; 51:3.
29 tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (this land, its inhabitants, and the nations surrounding it) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.
30 sn The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is the word often translated “eternal.” However, it sometimes has a more limited time reference. For example it refers to the lifetime of a person who became a “lasting slave” to another person (see Exod 21:6; Deut 15:17). It is also used to refer to the long life wished for a king (1 Kgs 1:31; Neh 2:3). The time frame here is to be qualified at least with reference to Judah and Jerusalem as seventy years (see 29:10-14 and compare v. 12).
31 tn Heb “I will make them an object of horror and a hissing and everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been broken up to separate the last object from the first two which are of slightly different connotation, i.e., they denote the reaction to the latter.
28 tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).
29 tn Heb “of which they said.”
30 tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.
31 tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.
31 tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”
32 tn Heb “We have swallowed!”
33 tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.
34 tn The singular form is understood as collective.
35 tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”
36 sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The