Discovery BoxEzekiel 24:21
Context24:21 Say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Realize I am about to desecrate my sanctuary – the source of your confident pride, 1 the object in which your eyes delight, 2 and your life’s passion. 3 Your very own sons and daughters whom you have left behind will die 4 by the sword.
Ezekiel 24:1
Context24:1 The word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month 5 :
Ezekiel 29:1-2
Context29:1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, 6 the word of the Lord came to me: 29:2 “Son of man, turn toward 7 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
Ezekiel 29:2
Context29:2 “Son of man, turn toward 8 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
Ezekiel 2:9
Context2:9 Then I looked and realized a hand was stretched out to me, and in it was a written scroll.
Ezekiel 3:1-17
Context3:1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you 9 – eat this scroll – and then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 3:2 So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.
3:3 He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving to you.” So I ate it, 10 and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.
3:4 He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. 3:5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech 11 and difficult language, 12 but 13 to the house of Israel – 3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand 14 – surely if 15 I had sent you to them, they would listen to you! 3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, 16 because they are not willing to listen to me, 17 for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. 18
3:8 “I have made your face adamant 19 to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads. 3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! 20 Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, 21 for they are a rebellious house.”
3:10 And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully. 3:11 Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, 22 and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”
3:12 Then a wind lifted me up 23 and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me as the glory of the Lord rose from its place, 24 3:13 and the sound of the living beings’ wings brushing against each other, and the sound of the wheels alongside them, a great rumbling sound. 3:14 A wind lifted me up and carried me away. I went bitterly, 25 my spirit full of fury, and the hand of the Lord rested powerfully 26 on me. 3:15 I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, 27 who lived by the Kebar River. 28 I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days. 29
3:16 At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 30 3:17 “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman 31 for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me.
Ezra 3:12
Context3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders 32 – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established 33 – were weeping loudly, 34 and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.
Psalms 48:2
Context48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, 35
a source of joy to the whole earth. 36
Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; 37
it is the city of the great king.
Psalms 50:2
Context50:2 From Zion, the most beautiful of all places, 38
God comes in splendor. 39
Psalms 87:2-3
Context87:2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
87:3 People say wonderful things about you, 40
O city of God. (Selah)
Isaiah 64:11
Context64:11 Our holy temple, our pride and joy, 41
the place where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned with fire;
all our prized possessions have been destroyed. 42
Haggai 2:3
Context2:3 ‘Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple? 43 How does it look to you now? Isn’t it nothing by comparison?
[24:21] 1 tn Heb “the pride of your strength” means “your strong pride.”
[24:21] 2 sn Heb “the delight of your eyes.” Just as Ezekiel was deprived of his beloved wife (v. 16, the “desire” of his “eyes”) so the Lord would be forced to remove the object of his devotion, the temple, which symbolized his close relationship to his covenant people.
[24:21] 3 tn Heb “the object of compassion of your soul.” The accentuation in the traditional Hebrew text indicates that the descriptive phrases (“the source of your confident pride, the object in which your eyes delight, and your life’s passion”) modify the preceding “my sanctuary.”
[24:1] 5 tn The date of this oracle was January 15, 588
[29:1] 6 tn January 7, 587
[29:2] 7 tn Heb “set your face against.”
[29:2] 8 tn Heb “set your face against.”
[3:1] 9 tn Heb “eat what you find.”
[3:3] 10 tc Heb “I ate,” a first common singular preterite plus paragogic he (ה). The ancient versions read “I ate it,” which is certainly the meaning in the context, and indicates they read the he as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix. The Masoretes typically wrote a mappiq in the he for the pronominal suffix but apparently missed this one.
[3:5] 11 tn Heb “deep of lip” (in the sense of incomprehensible).
[3:5] 12 tn Heb “heavy of tongue.” Similar language occurs in Exod 4:10; Isa 33:19.
[3:5] 13 tn The conjunction “but” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied from the context.
[3:6] 15 tc The MT reads “if not” but most ancient versions translate only “if.” The expression occurs with this sense in Isa 5:9; 14:24. See also Ezek 34:8; 36:5; 38:19.
[3:7] 16 sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.
[3:7] 17 sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.
[3:7] 18 tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”
[3:8] 19 tn Heb “strong, resolute.”
[3:9] 20 tn The Hebrew term translated “diamond” is parallel to “iron” in Jer 17:1. The Hebrew uses two terms which are both translated at times as “flint,” but here one is clearly harder than the other. The translation “diamond” attempts to reflect this distinction in English.
[3:9] 21 tn Heb “of their faces.”
[3:11] 22 tn Heb “to the sons of your people.”
[3:12] 23 sn See note on “wind” in 2:2.
[3:12] 24 tc This translation accepts the emendation suggested in BHS of בְּרוּם (bÿrum) for בָּרוּךְ (barukh). The letters mem (מ) and kaph (כ) were easily confused in the old script while בָּרוּךְ (“blessed be”) both implies a quotation which is out of place here and also does not fit the later phrase, “from its place,” which requires a verb of motion.
[3:14] 25 tn The traditional interpretation is that Ezekiel embarked on his mission with bitterness and anger, either reflecting God’s attitude toward the sinful people or his own feelings about having to carry out such an unpleasant task. L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:13) takes “bitterly” as a misplaced marginal note and understands the following word, normally translated “anger,” in the sense of fervor or passion. He translates, “I was passionately moved” (p. 4). Another option is to take the word translated “bitterly” as a verb meaning “strengthened” (attested in Ugaritic). See G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 152.
[3:14] 26 tn Heb “the hand of the Lord was on me heavily.” The “hand of the Lord” is a metaphor for his power or influence; the modifier conveys intensity.
[3:15] 27 sn The name “Tel Abib” is a transliteration of an Akkadian term meaning “mound of the flood,” i.e., an ancient mound. It is not to be confused with the modern city of Tel Aviv in Israel.
[3:15] 29 sn A similar response to a divine encounter is found in Acts 9:8-9.
[3:16] 30 sn This phrase occurs about fifty times in the book of Ezekiel.
[3:17] 31 tn The literal role of a watchman is described in 2 Sam 18:24; 2 Kgs 9:17.
[3:12] 32 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”
[3:12] 33 sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586
[3:12] 34 tn Heb “with a great voice.”
[48:2] 35 tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.
[48:2] 36 sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).
[48:2] 37 tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the
[50:2] 38 tn Heb “the perfection of beauty.”
[50:2] 39 tn Or “shines forth.”
[87:3] 40 tn Heb “glorious things are spoken about you.” The translation assumes this is a general reference to compliments paid to Zion by those who live within her walls and by those who live in the surrounding areas and lands. Another option is that this refers to a prophetic oracle about the city’s glorious future. In this case one could translate, “wonderful things are announced concerning you.”
[64:11] 41 tn Heb “our source of pride.”
[64:11] 42 tn Or “all that we valued has become a ruin.”
[2:3] 43 tn Heb “this house in its earlier splendor”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “in its former glory.”
