Ezekiel 17:6

17:6 It sprouted and became a vine,

spreading low to the ground; ¹ 

its branches turning toward him, ²  its roots were under itself. ³ 

So it became a vine; it produced shoots and sent out branches.

Ezekiel 19:11

19:11 Its boughs were strong, fit ⁴  for rulers’ scepters; it reached up into the clouds.

It stood out because of its height and its many branches. ⁵ 

Ezekiel 31:3

31:3 Consider Assyria, ⁶  a cedar in Lebanon, ⁷ 

with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,

and extremely tall;

its top reached into the clouds.

Ezekiel 31:5

31:5 Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field;

its boughs grew large and its branches grew long,

because of the plentiful water in its shoots. ⁸ 

Ezekiel 31:10

31:10 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because it was tall in stature, and its top reached into the clouds, and it was proud of its height,

Ezekiel 13:18

13:18 and say ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to those who sew bands ⁹  on all their wrists ¹⁰  and make headbands ¹¹  for heads of every size to entrap people’s lives! ¹²  Will you entrap my people’s lives, yet preserve your own lives?

Ezekiel 40:5

40:5 I saw ¹³  a wall all around the outside of the temple. ¹⁴  In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet ¹⁵  long. He measured the thickness of the wall ¹⁶  as 10½ feet, ¹⁷  and its height as 10½ feet.

Ezekiel 31:14

31:14 For this reason no watered trees will grow so tall; their tops will not reach into the clouds, nor will the well-watered ones grow that high. ¹⁸  For all of them have been appointed to die in the lower parts of the earth; ¹⁹  they will be among mere mortals, ²⁰  with those who descend to the pit.

[17:6]  ¹ tn Heb “short of stature.”

[17:6]  ² tn That is, the eagle.

[17:6]  ³ tn Or “him,” i.e., the eagle.

[19:11]  ⁴ tn The word “fit” does not occur in the Hebrew text.

[19:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it was seen by its height and by the abundance of its branches.”

[31:3]  ⁷ sn Either Egypt, or the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria, which is described in vv. 3-17 through the metaphor of a majestic tree. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:185. Like Egypt, Assyria had been a great world power, but in time God brought the Assyrians down. Egypt should learn from history the lesson that no nation, no matter how powerful, can withstand the judgment of God. Rather than following the text here, some prefer to emend the proper name Assyria to a similar sounding common noun meaning “boxwood” (see Ezek 27:6), which would make a fitting parallel to “cedar of Lebanon” in the following line. In this case vv. 3-18 in their entirety refer to Egypt, not Assyria. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:121-27.

[31:3]  ⁸ sn Lebanon was know for its cedar trees (Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 4:33; 5:6; 2 Kgs 14:9; Ezra 3:7; Pss 29:5; 92:12; 104:16).

[31:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “when it sends forth.” Repointing the consonants of the Masoretic text would render the proposed reading “shoots” (cf. NRSV).

[13:18]  ¹³ sn The wristbands mentioned here probably represented magic bands or charms. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:413.

[13:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “joints of the hands.” This may include the elbow and shoulder joints.

[13:18]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term occurs in the Bible only here and in v. 21. It has also been understood as a veil or type of head covering. D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:414) suggests that given the context of magical devices, the expected parallel to the magical arm bands, and the meaning of this Hebrew root (סָפַח [safakh, “to attach” or “join”]), it may refer to headbands or necklaces on which magical amulets were worn.

[13:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “human lives” or “souls” (three times in v. 18 and twice in v. 19).

[40:5]  ¹⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[40:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[40:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a measuring stick of six cubits, [each] a cubit and a handbreadth.” The measuring units here and in the remainder of this section are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Therefore the measuring stick in the man’s hand was 10.5 feet (3.15 meters) long. Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard feet and inches, with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes.

[40:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “building.”

[40:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “one rod [or “reed”]” (also a second time in this verse, twice in v. 6, three times in v. 7, and once in v. 8).

[31:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and they will not stand to them in their height, all the drinkers of water.”

[31:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for death, to the lower earth.”

[31:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “the sons of men.”