Ezekiel 9:1

The Execution of Idolaters

9:1 Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, ¹  you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!”

Ezekiel 47:3

47:3 When the man went out toward the east with a measuring line in his hand, he measured 1,750 feet, ²  and then he led me through water, which was ankle deep.

Ezekiel 30:24

30:24 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and I will place my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan like the fatally wounded before the king of Babylon. ³ 

Ezekiel 40:3

40:3 When he brought me there, I saw ⁴  a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring stick in his hand. He was standing in the gateway.

Ezekiel 8:11

8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel ⁵  (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant ⁶  vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.

Ezekiel 9:2

9:2 Next, I noticed ⁷  six men ⁸  coming from the direction of the upper gate ⁹  which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit ¹⁰  at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

¹ tc Heb “they approached.” Reading the imperative assumes the same consonantal text but different vowels.

² tn Heb “one thousand cubits” (i.e., 525 meters); this phrase occurs three times in the next two verses.

³ tn Heb “him”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

⁵ sn Note the contrast between these seventy men who represented Israel and the seventy elders who ate the covenant meal before God, inaugurating the covenant relationship (Exod 24:1, 9).

⁶ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

⁷ sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.

⁸ sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).

⁹ tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.