Ezekiel 1:5

1:5 In the fire ¹  were what looked like ²  four living beings. ³  In their appearance they had human form, ⁴ 

Ezekiel 3:25

3:25 As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and tie you up with them, so you cannot go out among them.

Ezekiel 5:5

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.

Ezekiel 10:10

10:10 As for their appearance, all four of them looked the same, something like a wheel within a wheel. ⁵ 

Ezekiel 11:9

11:9 ‘But I will take you out of the city. ⁶  And I will hand you over to foreigners. I will execute judgments on you.

Ezekiel 11:23

11:23 The glory of the Lord rose up from within the city and stopped ⁷  over the mountain east of it.

Ezekiel 12:24

12:24 For there will no longer be any false visions or flattering omens amidst the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 19:2

19:2 and say:

“‘What a lioness was your mother among the lions!

She lay among young lions; ⁸  she reared her cubs.

Ezekiel 19:6

19:6 He walked about among the lions; he became a young lion.

He learned to tear prey; he devoured people.

Ezekiel 22:7

22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ⁹  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ¹⁰  within you.

Ezekiel 22:13

22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together ¹¹  at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed ¹²  they have done among you.

Ezekiel 27:32

27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:

“Who was like Tyre, like a tower ¹³  in the midst of the sea?”

Ezekiel 27:34

27:34 Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters;

your merchandise and all your company have sunk ¹⁴  along with you. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 32:20

32:20 They will fall among those killed by the sword. The sword is drawn; they carry her and all her hordes away.

Ezekiel 34:24

34:24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince ¹⁶  among them; I, the Lord, have spoken!

Ezekiel 37:28

37:28 Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.’” ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 43:9

43:9 Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

[1:5]  ¹ tc Heb “from its midst” (מִתּוֹכָהּ, mitokhah). The LXX reads ἐν τῷ μέσῳ (en tw mesw, “in the midst of it”). The LXX also reads ἐν for מִתּוֹךְ (mitokh) in v. 4. The translator of the LXX of Ezekiel either read בְּתוֹךְ (bÿtokh, “within”) in his Hebrew exemplar or could not imagine how מִתּוֹךְ could make sense and so chose to use ἐν. The Hebrew would be understood by adding “from its midst emerged the forms of four living beings.”

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “form, figure, appearance.”

[1:5]  ³ tn The Hebrew term is feminine plural yet thirty-three of the forty-five pronominal suffixes and verbal references which refer to the living beings in the chapter are masculine plural. The grammatical vacillation between masculine and feminine plurals suggests the difficulty Ezekiel had in penning these words as he was overcome by the vision of God. In ancient Near Eastern sculpture very similar images of part-human, part-animal creatures serve as throne and sky bearers. For a discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:26-31. Ezekiel’s vision is an example of contextualization, where God accommodates his self-revelation to cultural expectations and norms.

[1:5]  ⁴ sn They had human form may mean they stood erect.

[10:10]  ⁵ 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.

[11:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “its midst.”

[11:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “stood.”

[19:2]  ¹⁷ 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.

[22:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

[22:7]  ²² tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.

[22:13]  ²⁵ sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).

[22:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the blood which was in you.”

[27:32]  ²⁹ 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.

[27:34]  ³³ tn Heb “fallen.”

[27:34]  ³⁴ tn Heb “in the midst of you.”

[34:24]  ³⁷ sn The messianic king (“David”) is called both “king” and “prince” in 37:24-25. The use of the term “prince” for this king facilitates the contrast between this ideal ruler and the Davidic “princes” denounced in earlier prophecies (see 7:27; 12:10, 12; 19:1; 21:25; 22:6, 25).

[37:28]  ⁴¹ sn The sanctuary of Israel becomes the main focus of Ezek 40-48.