29:6 Then all those living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord
because they were a reed staff 1 for the house of Israel;
Because he said, “The Nile is mine and I made it,”
“‘Look, I am against you, 4 Sidon,
and I will magnify myself in your midst.
Then they will know that I am the Lord
when I execute judgments on her
and reveal my sovereign power 5 in her.
28:23 I will send a plague into the city 6 and bloodshed into its streets;
the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it 7 from every side.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.
28:24 “‘No longer will Israel suffer from the sharp briers 8 or painful thorns of all who surround and scorn them. 9 Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.
1 sn Compare Isa 36:6.
2 tn Heb “I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel.” The horn is used as a figure for military power in the OT (Ps 92:10). A similar expression is made about the Davidic dynasty in Ps 132:17.
3 tn Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”
4 tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.
5 tn Or “reveal my holiness.” God’s “holiness” is fundamentally his transcendence as sovereign ruler of the world. The revelation of his authority and power through judgment is in view in this context.
6 tn Heb “into it”; the referent of the feminine pronoun has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “by a sword against it.”
8 sn Similar language is used in reference to Israel’s adversaries in Num 33:55; Josh 23:13.
9 tn Heb “and there will not be for the house of Israel a brier that pricks and a thorn that inflicts pain from all the ones who surround them, the ones who scorn them.”
10 sn This promise was given in Lev 25:18-19.