8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? 1 For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”
9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, 2 for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ 3
1 tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”
3 sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.
3 tn Or “in his punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in vv. 8 and 9; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.
4 tn Heb “his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.”