Discovery BoxEzekiel 20:29-49
Context20:29 So I said to them, What is this high place you go to?’” (So it is called “High Place” 1 to this day.)
20:30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers 2 and engage in prostitution with detestable idols? 20:31 When you present your sacrifices 3 – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, 4 O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! 5
20:32 “‘What you plan 6 will never happen. You say, “We will be 7 like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone.” 8 20:33 As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm, 9 and with an outpouring of rage, I will be king over you. 20:34 I will bring you out from the nations, and will gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm and with an outpouring of rage! 20:35 I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 20:36 Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the sovereign Lord. 20:37 I will make you pass under 10 the shepherd’s staff, 11 and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 20:38 I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt 12 against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
20:39 “‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Each of you go and serve your idols, 13 if you will not listen to me. 14 But my holy name will not be profaned 15 again by your sacrifices 16 and your idols. 20:40 For there on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, all the house of Israel will serve me, all of them 17 in the land. I will accept them there, and there I will seek your contributions and your choice gifts, with all your holy things. 20:41 When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, I will accept you along with your soothing aroma. I will display my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 20:42 Then you will know that I am the Lord when I bring you to the land of Israel, to the land I swore 18 to give to your fathers. 20:43 And there you will remember your conduct 19 and all your deeds by which you defiled yourselves. You will despise yourselves 20 because of all the evil deeds you have done. 20:44 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for the sake of my reputation and not according to your wicked conduct and corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord.’”
20:45 (21:1) 21 The word of the Lord came to me: 20:46 “Son of man, turn toward 22 the south, 23 and speak out against the south. 24 Prophesy against the open scrub 25 land of the Negev, 20:47 and say to the scrub land of the Negev, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, 26 I am about to start a fire in you, 27 and it will devour every green tree and every dry tree in you. The flaming fire will not be extinguished, and the whole surface of the ground from the Negev to the north will be scorched by it. 20:48 And everyone 28 will see that I, the Lord, have burned it; it will not be extinguished.’”
20:49 Then I said, “O sovereign Lord! They are saying of me, ‘Does he not simply speak in eloquent figures of speech?’”
[20:29] 1 tn The Hebrew word (“Bamah”) means “high place.”
[20:30] 2 tn Heb “in the way of your fathers.”
[20:31] 4 tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”
[20:31] 5 tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”
[20:32] 6 tn Heb “what comes upon your mind.”
[20:32] 7 tn The Hebrew could also read: “Let us be.”
[20:32] 8 tn Heb “serving wood and stone.”
[20:33] 9 sn This phrase occurs frequently in Deuteronomy (Deut 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 11:2; 26:8).
[20:37] 10 tn This is the same Hebrew verb used to describe the passing of the children through the fire.
[20:37] 11 sn The metaphor may be based in Lev 27:32 (see also Jer 33:13; Matt 25:32-33). A shepherd would count his sheep as they passed beneath his staff.
[20:38] 12 tn See the note at 2:3.
[20:39] 13 sn Compare the irony here to Amos 4:4 and Jer 44:25.
[20:39] 14 tn Heb “and after, if you will not listen to me.” The translation leaves out “and after” for smoothness. The text is difficult. M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:374) suggests that it may mean “but afterwards, if you will not listen to me…” with an unspoken threat.
[20:39] 15 sn A similar concept may be found in Lev 18:21; 20:3.
[20:40] 17 tn Heb “all of it.”
[20:42] 18 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
[20:43] 20 tn Heb “loathe yourselves in your faces.”
[20:45] 21 sn Beginning with 20:45, the verse numbers through 21:32 in the English Bible differ by five from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 20:45 ET = 21:1 HT, 20:46 ET = 21:2 HT, 21:1 ET = 21:6 HT etc., through 21:32 ET = 21:37 HT. Beginning with 22:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.
[20:46] 22 tn Heb “set your face toward.” This expression occurs as well in Ezek 6:2; 13:17.
[20:46] 23 tn Or “the way toward the south,” or “the way toward Teman.” Teman is in the south and may be a location or the direction.
[20:46] 24 tn Or “toward Darom.” Darom may mean the south or a region just north of southern city of Beer Sheba. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:417-18.
[20:46] 25 tn The Hebrew term can also mean “forest,” but a meaning of uncultivated wasteland fits the Negev region far better. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:418.
[20:47] 26 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[20:47] 27 tn Fire also appears as a form of judgment in Ezek 15:4-7; 19:12, 14.
