Ezekiel 4:1

Ominous Object Lessons

4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick ¹  and set it in front of you. Inscribe ²  a city on it – Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 20:42

20:42 Then you will know that I am the Lord when I bring you to the land of Israel, to the land I swore ³  to give to your fathers.

Ezekiel 21:11

21:11 “‘He gave it to be polished,

to be grasped in the hand –

the sword is sharpened, it is polished –

giving it into the hand of the executioner.

Ezekiel 23:8

23:8 She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 23:17

23:17 The Babylonians crawled into bed with her. ⁵  They defiled her with their lust; after she was defiled by them, she ⁶  became disgusted with them.

Ezekiel 23:34

23:34 You will drain it dry, ⁷  gnaw its pieces, ⁸  and tear out your breasts, ⁹  for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.

Ezekiel 32:18

32:18 “Son of man, wail ¹⁰  over the horde of Egypt. Bring it down; ¹¹  bring ¹²  her ¹³  and the daughters of powerful nations down to the lower parts of the earth, along with those who descend to the pit.

Ezekiel 36:17

36:17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own land, they defiled it by their behavior ¹⁴  and their deeds. In my sight their behavior was like the uncleanness of a woman having her monthly period.

Ezekiel 47:14

47:14 You must divide it equally just as I vowed to give it to your forefathers; ¹⁵  this land will be assigned as your inheritance. ¹⁶ 

¹ sn Ancient Near Eastern bricks were 10 to 24 inches long and 6 to 13 1/2 inches wide.

² tn Or perhaps “draw.”

³ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

⁵ tn Heb “and poured out their harlotry on her.”

⁷ tn Heb “The sons of Babel came to her on a bed of love.”

⁸ tn Heb “her soul.”

⁹ tn Heb “You will drink it and drain (it).”

¹⁰ tn D. I. Block compares this to the idiom of “licking the plate” (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:754, n. 137). The text is difficult as the word translated “gnaw” is rare. The noun is used of the shattered pieces of pottery and so could envision a broken cup. But the Piel verb form is used in only one other place (Num 24:8), where it is a denominative from the noun “bone” and seems to mean to “break (bones).” Why it would be collocated with “sherds” is not clear. For this reason some emend the phrase to read “consume its dregs” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 2:44) or emend the verb to read “swallow,” as if the intoxicated Oholibah breaks the cup and then eats the very sherds in an effort to get every last drop of the beverage that dampens them.

¹¹ sn The severe action is more extreme than beating the breasts in anguish (Isa 32:12; Nah 2:7). It is also ironic for these are the very breasts she so blatantly offered to her lovers (vv. 3, 21).

¹¹ tn The Hebrew verb is used as a response to death (Jer 9:17-19; Amos 5:16).

¹² sn Through this prophetic lament given by God himself, the prophet activates the judgment described therein. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:217, and L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:136-37.

¹³ tn Heb “Bring him down, her and the daughters of the powerful nations, to the earth below.” The verb “bring down” appears in the Hebrew text only once. Because the verb takes several objects here, the repetition of the verb in the translation improves the English style.

¹⁴ tn This apparently refers to personified Egypt.

¹³ tn Heb “way.”

¹⁵ sn Gen 15:9-21.

¹⁶ tn Heb “will fall to you as an inheritance.”