Ezekiel 4:14

4:14 And I said, “Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat ¹  has never entered my mouth.”

Ezekiel 5:11

5:11 “Therefore, as surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare ²  you.

Ezekiel 14:11

14:11 so that the house of Israel will no longer go astray from me, nor continue to defile themselves by all their sins. They will be my people and I will be their God, ³  declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Ezekiel 18:6

18:6 does not eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains ⁴  or pray to the idols ⁵  of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, does not have sexual relations with a ⁶  woman during her period,

Ezekiel 20:31

20:31 When you present your sacrifices ⁷  – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, ⁸  O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! ⁹ 

Ezekiel 22:4

22:4 you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; ¹⁰  the end of your years has come. ¹¹  Therefore I will make ¹²  you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands.

Ezekiel 37:23

37:23 They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness ¹³  by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become my people and I will become their God.

Ezekiel 43:8

43:8 When they placed their threshold by my threshold and their doorpost by my doorpost, with only the wall between me and them, they profaned my holy name by the abominable deeds they committed. So I consumed them in my anger.

¹ tn The Hebrew term refers to sacrificial meat not eaten by the appropriate time (Lev 7:18; 19:7).

² tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

³ sn I will be their God. See Exod 6:7; Lev 26:12; Jer 7:23; 11:4.

⁴ tn Heb, “on the mountains he does not eat.” The mountains are often mentioned as the place where idolatrous sacrifices were eaten (Ezek 20:28; 22:9; 34:6).

⁵ tn Heb, “does not lift up his eyes.” This refers to looking to idols for help.

⁶ tn Heb, “does not draw near to.” “Draw near” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse (Lev 18:14; Deut 22:14; Isa 8:3).

⁵ tn Or “gifts.”

⁶ tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”

⁷ tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”

⁶ 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.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.

⁷ tc Heb “their dwellings.” The text as it stands does not make sense. Based on the LXX, a slight emendation of two vowels, including a mater, yields the reading “from their turning,” a reference here to their turning from God and deviating from his commandments. See BDB 1000 s.v. מְשׁוּבָה, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:407.