Ezekiel 3:3

3:3 He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving to you.” So I ate it, ¹  and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.

Ezekiel 3:6-7

3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand ²  – surely if ³  I had sent you to them, they would listen to you! 3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, ⁴  because they are not willing to listen to me, ⁵  for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 33:31

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ⁷  and they sit in front of you as ⁸  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ⁹  them. For they talk lustfully, ¹⁰  and their heart is set on ¹¹  their own advantage. ¹² 

Ezekiel 36:15

36:15 I will no longer subject you to ¹³  the nations’ insults; no longer will you bear the shame of the peoples, and no longer will you bereave ¹⁴  your nation, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

¹ tc Heb “I ate,” a first common singular preterite plus paragogic he (ה). The ancient versions read “I ate it,” which is certainly the meaning in the context, and indicates they read the he as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix. The Masoretes typically wrote a mappiq in the he for the pronominal suffix but apparently missed this one.

² tn Heb “hear.”

³ tc The MT reads “if not” but most ancient versions translate only “if.” The expression occurs with this sense in Isa 5:9; 14:24. See also Ezek 34:8; 36:5; 38:19.

³ sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.

⁴ sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.

⁵ tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”

⁴ tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

⁵ tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

⁶ tn Heb “do.”

⁷ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

⁸ tn Heb “goes after.”

⁹ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.

⁵ tn Heb “cause you to hear.”

⁶ tc The MT reads תַכְשִׁלִי (takhshiliy), a metathesis for תַשְׁכִלִי (tashkhiliy) from the root שָׁכַל (shakhal) which is used in each of the previous verses.