4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin
as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,
you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord
and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, 1
people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
If you do not, 2 my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you
that no one will be able to extinguish.
That will happen because of the evil you have done.”
16:10 “When you tell these people about all this, 3 they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the Lord threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the Lord our God?’
28:15 “But if you ignore 8 the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: 9 28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children 10 will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 11
28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you 12 in everything you undertake 13 until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. 14 28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases 15 until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He 16 will afflict you with weakness, 17 fever, inflammation, infection, 18 sword, 19 blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The 20 sky 21 above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror 22 to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. 23 28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; 24 you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape 25 her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. 26 28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king 27 whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.
28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. 28 28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts 29 will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners 30 who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!
28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given 31 you. 28:46 These curses 32 will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. 33
28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty 34 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They 35 will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth 36 as the eagle flies, 37 a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They 38 will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, 39 or lambs of your flocks 40 until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages 41 until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, 42 the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege 43 by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict 44 you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most 45 tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, 46 will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth 47 and her newborn children 48 (since she has nothing else), 49 because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.
28:58 “If you refuse to obey 50 all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt 51 that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. 52 28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, 53 until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, 54 because you will have disobeyed 55 the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he 56 will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. 57 28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
29:2 Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows: “You have seen all that the Lord did 77 in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land.
22:13 Suppose a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, 78 and then rejects 79 her,
34:1 Then Moses ascended from the deserts of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. 85 The Lord showed him the whole land – Gilead to Dan,
כ (Kaf)
4:11 The Lord fully vented 86 his wrath;
he poured out his fierce anger. 87
He started a fire in Zion;
it consumed her foundations. 88
13:13 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: In my rage I will make a violent wind break out. In my anger there will be a deluge of rain and hailstones in destructive fury.
24:8 To arouse anger, to take vengeance,
I have placed her blood on an exposed rock so that it cannot be covered up.
24:9 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:
Woe to the city of bloodshed!
I will also make the pile high.
24:10 Pile up the bones, kindle the fire;
cook the meat well, mix in the spices,
let the bones be charred.
24:11 Set the empty pot on the coals, 94
until it becomes hot and its copper glows,
until its uncleanness melts within it and its rot 95 is consumed.
24:12 It has tried my patience; 96
yet its thick rot is not removed 97 from it.
Subject its rot to the fire! 98
24:13 You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. 99
I tried to cleanse you, 100 but you are not clean.
You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness 101
until I have exhausted my anger on you.
1 tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the
2 tn Heb “lest.”
3 tn Heb “all these words/things.”
4 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”
5 tn Heb “all its towns.”
6 tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”
7 tn Heb “with outstretched hand and with strong arm.” These are, of course, figurative of God’s power and might. He does not literally have hands and arms.
8 tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”
9 tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”
10 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
11 sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.
12 tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”
13 tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”
14 tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.
15 tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”
16 tn Heb “The
17 tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).
18 tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”
19 tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).
20 tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”
21 tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
22 tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).
23 tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).
24 tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”
25 tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.
26 tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”
27 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
28 tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.
29 tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).
30 tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.
31 tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”
32 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).
34 tn Heb “lack of everything.”
35 tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the
36 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”
37 tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.
38 tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).
39 tn Heb “increase of herds.”
40 tn Heb “growth of flocks.”
41 tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.
42 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”
43 tn Heb “siege and stress.”
44 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”
45 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
46 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
47 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
48 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
49 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
50 tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”
51 sn These are the plagues the
52 tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”
53 tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”
54 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
55 tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”
56 tn Heb “the
57 tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.
58 tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”
59 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
60 tn Heb “in his heart.”
61 tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.
62 tn Heb “heart.”
63 tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.
64 tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”
65 tn Heb “the wrath of the
66 tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”
67 tn Heb “the entire oath.”
68 tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”
69 tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”
70 tn Heb “set him apart.”
71 tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”
72 tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.
73 tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.
74 tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”
75 tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”
76 tn Heb “the entire curse.”
77 tn The Hebrew text includes “to your eyes,” but this is redundant in English style (cf. the preceding “you have seen”) and is omitted in the translation.
78 tn Heb “goes to her,” a Hebrew euphemistic idiom for sexual relations.
79 tn Heb “hate.” See note on the word “other” in Deut 21:15. Cf. NAB “comes to dislike”; NASB “turns against”; TEV “decides he doesn’t want.”
80 tn Heb “they will spread the garment.”
81 tn Heb “your brother” (also later in this verse).
82 tn Heb “is not.” The idea of “residing” is implied.
83 tn Heb “and you do not know him.”
84 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the ox or sheep mentioned in v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
85 sn For the geography involved, see note on the term “Pisgah” in Deut 3:17.
86 tn Heb “has completed.” The verb כִּלָּה (killah), Piel perfect 3rd person masculine singular from כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete”), has a range of closely related meanings: (1) “to complete, bring to an end,” (2) “to accomplish, finish, cease,” (3) “to use up, exhaust, consume.” Used in reference to God’s wrath, it describes God unleashing his full measure of anger so that divine justice is satisfied. This is handled admirably by several English versions: “The
87 tn Heb “the heat of his anger.”
88 tn The term יְסוֹד (yÿsod, “foundation”) refers to the ground-level and below ground-level foundation stones of a city wall (Ps 137:7; Lam 4:11; Mic 1:6).
89 tn Or “calm myself.”
90 tn The Hebrew noun translated “jealousy” is used in the human realm to describe suspicion of adultery (Num 5:14ff.; Prov 6:34). Since Israel’s relationship with God was often compared to a marriage this term is appropriate here. The term occurs elsewhere in Ezekiel in 8:3, 5; 16:38, 42; 23:25.
91 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.
92 sn This phrase occurs frequently in Deuteronomy (Deut 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 11:2; 26:8).
93 tn Heb “I will put.” No object is supplied in the Hebrew, prompting many to emend the text to “I will blow.” See BHS and verse 21.
94 tn Heb “set it upon its coals, empty.”
95 tn Or “rust” (so also in v. 12).
96 tn Heb “(with) toil she has wearied.” The meaning of the statement is unclear in the Hebrew text; some follow the LXX and delete it. The first word in the statement (rendered “toil” in the literal translation above) occurs only here in the OT, and the verb “she has wearied” lacks a stated object. Elsewhere the Hiphil of the verb refers to wearying someone or trying someone’s patience. The feminine subject is apparently the symbolic pot.
97 tn Heb “does not go out.”
98 tn Heb “in fire its rust.” The meaning of the expression is unclear. The translation understands the statement as a command to burn the rust away. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:768.
99 tn Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”
100 tn Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.
101 tn The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”