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 30:17

30:17 The young men of On and of Pi-beseth ⁵  will die by the sword;

and the cities will go ⁶  into captivity.

Ezekiel 42:5

42:5 Now the upper chambers were narrower, because the galleries took more space from them than from the lower and middle chambers of the building.

Ezekiel 42:9

42:9 Below these chambers was a passage on the east side as one enters from the outer court.

[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.

[30:17]  ⁵ sn On and Pi-beseth are generally identified with the Egyptian cities of Heliopolis and Bubastis.

[30:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “they will go.” The pronoun and verb are feminine plural, indicating that the cities just mentioned are the antecedent of the pronoun and the subject of the verb. The translation makes this clear by stating the subject as “the cities.”