Ezekiel 19:3

19:3 She reared one of her cubs; he became a young lion.

He learned to tear prey; he devoured people. ¹ 

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 22:25-28

22:25 Her princes ²  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ³  within it. 22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ⁴  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ⁵  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst. 22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ⁶  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

Ezekiel 33:25-26

33:25 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, ⁷  pray to ⁸  your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess ⁹  the land? 33:26 You rely ¹⁰  on your swords and commit abominable deeds; each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Will you possess the land?’

Ezekiel 33:1

Ezekiel Israel’s Watchman

33:1 The word of the Lord came to me:

Ezekiel 21:13-16

21:13 “‘For testing will come, and what will happen when the scepter, which the sword despises, is no more? ¹¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’

21:14 “And you, son of man, prophesy,

and clap your hands together.

Let the sword strike twice, even three times!

It is a sword for slaughter,

a sword for the great slaughter surrounding them.

21:15 So hearts melt with fear and many stumble.

At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter.

Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!

21:16 Cut sharply on the right!

Swing to ¹²  the left,

wherever your edge ¹³  is appointed to strike.

Ezekiel 21:2

21:2 “Son of man, turn toward ¹⁴  Jerusalem ¹⁵  and speak out against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel

Ezekiel 21:16

21:16 Cut sharply on the right!

Swing to ¹⁶  the left,

wherever your edge ¹⁷  is appointed to strike.

Isaiah 1:10

1:10 Listen to the Lord’s word,

you leaders of Sodom! ¹⁸ 

Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, ¹⁹ 

people of Gomorrah!

Isaiah 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ²⁰ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 2:30

2:30 “It did no good for me to punish your people.

They did not respond to such correction.

You slaughtered your prophets

like a voracious lion.” ²² 

Jeremiah 22:17

22:17 But you are always thinking and looking

for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means.

Your eyes and your heart are set

on killing some innocent person

and committing fraud and oppression. ²³ 

Lamentations 4:13

מ (Mem)

4:13 But it happened ²⁴  due to the sins of her prophets ²⁵ 

and the iniquities of her priests,

who poured out in her midst

the blood of the righteous.

Micah 3:1-3

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ²⁶  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²⁷  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ²⁸ 

3:2 yet you ²⁹  hate what is good, ³⁰ 

and love what is evil. ³¹ 

You flay my people’s skin ³² 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ³³ 

3:3 You ³⁴  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ³⁵  –

like meat in a kettle.

Zephaniah 3:3

3:3 Her princes ³⁶  are as fierce as roaring lions; ³⁷ 

her rulers ³⁸  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ³⁹ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ⁴⁰ 

[19:3]  ¹ tn Heb “a man.”

[22:25]  ² tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ³ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:26]  ⁴ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[22:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[33:25]  ⁷ sn This practice was a violation of Levitical law (see Lev 19:26).

[33:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “lift up your eyes.”

[33:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “Will you possess?”

[33:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “stand.”

[21:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “For testing (will come) and what if also a scepter, it despises, will not be?” The translation understands the subject of the verb “despises,” which is a feminine form in the Hebrew text, to be the sword (which is a feminine noun) mentioned in the previous verses. The text is very difficult and any rendering is uncertain.

[21:16]  ¹² tn Heb “Put to.”

[21:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “face.”

[21:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “set your face toward.”

[21:2]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[21:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Put to.”

[21:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “face.”

[1:10]  ¹⁸ sn Building on the simile of v. 9, the prophet sarcastically addresses the leaders and people of Jerusalem as if they were leaders and residents of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. The sarcasm is appropriate, for if the judgment is comparable to Sodom’s, that must mean that the sin which prompted the judgment is comparable as well.

[1:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to the instruction of our God.” In this context, which is highly accusatory and threatening, תּוֹרָה (torah, “law, instruction”) does not refer to mere teaching, but to corrective teaching and rebuke.

[1:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ²¹ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[2:30]  ²² tn Heb “Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.” However, the reference to the sword in this and many similar idioms is merely idiomatic for death by violent means.

[22:17]  ²³ tn Heb “Your eyes and your heart do not exist except for dishonest gain and for innocent blood to shed [it] and for fraud and for oppression to do [them].” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to English style and the significance of “eyes” and “heart” explained before they are introduced into the translation.

[4:13]  ²⁴ tn These words do not appear in the Hebrew, but are supplied to make sense of the line. The introductory causal preposition מִן (min) (“because”) indicates that this phrase – or something like it – is implied through elision.

[4:13]  ²⁵ tn There is no main verb in the verse; it is an extended prepositional phrase. One must either assume a verbal idea such as “But it happened due to…” or connect it to the following verses, which themselves are quite difficult. The former option was employed in the present translation.

[3:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ³⁰ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ³¹ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ³² tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ³³ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ³⁵ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

[3:3]  ³⁶ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³⁸ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.