Ezekiel 3:26-27

3:26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to reprove ¹  them, for they are a rebellious house. 3:27 But when I speak with you, I will loosen your tongue ²  and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says.’ Those who listen will listen, but the indifferent will refuse, ³  for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel 29:21

29:21 On that day I will make Israel powerful, ⁴  and I will give you the right to be heard ⁵  among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 33:22

33:22 Now the hand of the Lord had been on me ⁶  the evening before the refugee reached me, but the Lord ⁷  opened my mouth by the time the refugee arrived ⁸  in the morning; he opened my mouth and I was no longer unable to speak. ⁹ 

Exodus 6:11-12

6:11 “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt that he must release ¹⁰  the Israelites from his land.” 6:12 But Moses replied to ¹¹  the Lord, “If the Israelites did not listen to me, then ¹²  how will Pharaoh listen to me, since ¹³  I speak with difficulty?” ¹⁴ 

Psalms 51:15

51:15 O Lord, give me the words! ¹⁵ 

Then my mouth will praise you. ¹⁶ 

Luke 21:15

21:15 For I will give you the words ¹⁷  along with the wisdom ¹⁸  that none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

Ephesians 6:19

6:19 Pray ¹⁹  for me also, that I may be given the message when I begin to speak ²⁰  – that I may confidently make known ²¹  the mystery of the gospel,

[3:26]  ¹ tn Heb “you will not be to them a reprover.” In Isa 29:21 and Amos 5:10 “a reprover” issued rebuke at the city gate.

[3:27]  ² tn Heb “open your mouth.”

[3:27]  ³ tn Heb “the listener will listen, the refuser will refuse.” Because the word for listening can also mean obeying, the nuance may be that the obedient will listen, or that the one who listens will obey. Also, although the verbs are not jussive as pointed in the MT, some translate them with a volitive sense: “the one who listens – let that one listen, the one who refuses – let that one refuse.”

[29:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel.” The horn is used as a figure for military power in the OT (Ps 92:10). A similar expression is made about the Davidic dynasty in Ps 132:17.

[29:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”

[33:22]  ⁶ tn The other occurrences of the phrase “the hand of the Lord” in Ezekiel are in the context of prophetic visions.

[33:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “by the time of the arrival to me.” For clarity the translation specifies the refugee as the one who arrived.

[33:22]  ⁹ sn Ezekiel’s God-imposed muteness was lifted (see 3:26).

[6:11]  ¹⁰ tn The form וִישַׁלַּח (vishallakh) is the Piel imperfect or jussive with a sequential vav; following an imperative it gives the imperative’s purpose and intended result. They are to speak to Pharaoh, and (so that as a result) he will release Israel. After the command to speak, however, the second clause also indirectly states the content of the speech (cf. Exod 11:2; 14:2, 15; 25:2; Lev 16:2; 22:2). As the next verse shows, Moses doubts that what he says will have the intended effect.

[6:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And Moses spoke before.”

[6:12]  ¹² sn This analogy is an example of a qal wahomer comparison. It is an argument by inference from the light (qal) to the heavy (homer), from the simple to the more difficult. If the Israelites, who are Yahwists, would not listen to him, it is highly unlikely Pharaoh would.

[6:12]  ¹³ tn The final clause begins with a disjunctive vav (ו), a vav on a nonverb form – here a pronoun. It introduces a circumstantial causal clause.

[6:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and [since] I am of uncircumcised lips.” The “lips” represent his speech (metonymy of cause). The term “uncircumcised” makes a comparison between his speech and that which Israel perceived as unacceptable, unprepared, foreign, and of no use to God. The heart is described this way when it is impervious to good impressions (Lev 26:41; Jer 9:26) and the ear when it hears imperfectly (Jer 6:10). Moses has here returned to his earlier claim – he does not speak well enough to be doing this.

[51:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “open my lips.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and my mouth will declare your praise.”

[21:15]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “a mouth.” It is a metonymy and refers to the reply the Lord will give to them.

[21:15]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “and wisdom.”

[6:19]  ¹⁹ tn To avoid a lengthy, convoluted sentence in English, the Greek sentence was broken up at this point and the verb “pray” was inserted in the English translation to pick up the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseuxomenoi, “praying”) in v. 18.

[6:19]  ²⁰ tn Grk “that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth.” Here “word” (λόγος, logo") is used in the sense of “message.”

[6:19]  ²¹ tn The infinitive γνωρίσαι (gnwrisai, “to make known”) is functioning epexegetically to further explain what the author means by the preceding phrase “that I may be given the message when I begin to speak.”