Ezra 9:8-9

9:8 “But now briefly ¹  we have received mercy from the Lord our God, in that he has left us a remnant and has given us a secure position ²  in his holy place. Thus our God has enlightened our eyes ³  and has given us a little relief in our time of servitude. 9:9 Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us ⁴  to restore the temple of our God and to raise ⁵  up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Ezra 9:14

9:14 Shall we once again break your commandments and intermarry with these abominable peoples? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant?

Jeremiah 44:14

44:14 None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah. Though they long to return and live there, none of them shall return except a few fugitives.’” ⁷ 

Ezekiel 6:9

6:9 Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize ⁸  how I was crushed by their unfaithful ⁹  heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves ¹⁰  because of the evil they have done and because of all their abominable practices.

Ezekiel 7:16

7:16 Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan – each one for his iniquity.

Ezekiel 24:26-27

24:26 On that day a fugitive will come to you to report the news. ¹¹  24:27 On that day you will be able to speak again; ¹²  you will talk with the fugitive and be silent no longer. You will be an object lesson for them, and they will know that I am the Lord.”

¹ tn Heb “according to a little moment.”

² tn Heb “a peg” or “tent peg.” The imagery behind this word is drawn from the experience of nomads who put down pegs as they pitched their tents and made camp after times of travel.

³ tn Heb “to cause our eyes to shine.” The expression is a figure of speech for “to revive.” See DCH 1:160 s.v. אור Hi.7.

⁴ tn Heb “has granted us reviving.”

⁵ tn Heb “to cause to stand.”

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ tn Heb “There shall not be an escapee or a survivor to the remnant of Judah who came to sojourn there in the land of Egypt even to return to the land of Judah which they are lifting up their souls [= “longing/desiring” (BDB 672 s.v. נָשָׂא Piel.2)] to return to live there; for none shall return except fugitives.” The long, complex Hebrew original has been broken up and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style. Another possible structure would be “None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive. None of them will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah where they long to return to live. Indeed (emphatic use of כִּי [ki]; cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e) none of them shall return except a few fugitives.” This verse is a good example of rhetorical hyperbole where a universal negative does not apply to absolutely all the particulars. Though the Lord denies at the outset that any will escape or survive the punishment of vv. 12-13 to return to Judah, he says at the end that a few fugitives will return (the two words for fugitive are from the same root and mean the same thing). (E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 618-19, might classify this as a synecdoche of genus where a universal negative does not deny particularity.) That this last statement is not a gloss or an afterthought is supported by what is said later in v. 28.

⁸ tn The words “they will realize” are not in the Hebrew text; they are added here for stylistic reasons since this clause assumes the previous verb “to remember” or “to take into account.”

⁹ tn Heb “how I was broken by their adulterous heart.” The image of God being “broken” is startling, but perfectly natural within the metaphorical framework of God as offended husband. The idiom must refer to the intense grief that Israel’s unfaithfulness caused God. For a discussion of the syntax and semantics of the Hebrew text, see M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:134.

¹⁰ tn Heb adds “in their faces.”

¹¹ tn Heb “to make the ears hear.”

¹² tn Heb “your mouth will open.”