Ezekiel 2:2

2:2 As he spoke to me, ¹  a wind ²  came into me and stood me on my feet, and I heard the one speaking to me.

Ezekiel 3:24

3:24 Then a wind ³  came into me and stood me on my feet. The Lord ⁴  spoke to me and said, “Go shut yourself in your house.

Ezekiel 43:7

43:7 He said to me: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne ⁵  and the place for the soles of my feet, ⁶  where I will live among the people of Israel forever. The house of Israel will no longer profane my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their spiritual prostitution or by the pillars of their kings set up when they die. ⁷ 

[2:2]  ¹ tc The phrase “as he spoke to me” is absent from the LXX.

[2:2]  ² tn Or “spirit.” NIV has “the Spirit,” but the absence of the article in the Hebrew text makes this unlikely. Elsewhere in Ezekiel the Lord’s Spirit is referred to as “the Spirit of the Lord” (11:5; 37:1), “the Spirit of God” (11:24), or “my (that is, the Lord’s) Spirit” (36:27; 37:14; 39:29). Some identify the “spirit” of 2:2 as the spirit that energized the living beings, however, that “spirit” is called “the spirit” (1:12, 20) or “the spirit of the living beings” (1:20-21; 10:17). Still others see the term as referring to an impersonal “spirit” of strength or courage, that is, the term may also be understood as a disposition or attitude. The Hebrew word often refers to a wind in Ezekiel (1:4; 5:10, 12; 12:4; 13:11, 13; 17:10, 21; 19:12; 27:26; 37:9). In 37:5-10 a “breath” originates in the “four winds” and is associated with the Lord’s life-giving breath (see v. 14). This breath enters into the dry bones and gives them life. In a similar fashion the breath of 2:2 (see also 3:24) energizes paralyzed Ezekiel. Breath and wind are related. On the one hand it is a more normal picture to think of breath rather than wind entering someone, but since wind represents an external force it seems more likely for wind rather than breath to stand someone up (unless we should understand it as a disposition). It may be that one should envision the breath of the speaker moving like a wind to revive Ezekiel, helping him to regain his breath and invigorating him to stand. A wind also transports the prophet from one place to another (3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 43:5).

[3:24]  ³ tn See the note on “wind” in 2:2.

[3:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “he.”

[43:7]  ⁵ sn God’s throne is mentioned in Isa 6:1; Jer 3:17.

[43:7]  ⁶ sn See 1 Chr 28:2; Ps 99:5; 132:7; Isa 60:13; Lam 2:1.

[43:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “by their corpses in their death.” But the term normally translated “corpses” is better understood here as a reference to funeral pillars or funerary offerings. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:583-85, and L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:257.