5:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her.
“‘What a lioness was your mother among the lions!
She lay among young lions; 2 she reared her cubs.
19:6 He walked about among the lions; he became a young lion.
He learned to tear prey; he devoured people.
27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:
“Who was like Tyre, like a tower 3 in the midst of the sea?”
1 tn Or “like a wheel at right angles to another wheel.” Some envision concentric wheels here, while others propose “a globe-like structure in which two wheels stand at right angles” (L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:33-34). See also 1:16.
1 sn Lions probably refer to Judahite royalty and/or nobility. The lioness appears to symbolize the Davidic dynasty, though some see the referent as Hamutal, the wife of Josiah and mother of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah. Gen 49:9 seems to be the background for Judah being compared to lions.
1 tn As it stands, the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. The translation follows the suggestion of M. Dahood, “Accadian-Ugaritic dmt in Ezekiel 27:32,” Bib 45 (1964): 83-84. Several other explanations and emendations have been offered. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:83, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:85-86, for a list of options.