Ezekiel 3:9

3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! ¹  Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, ²  for they are a rebellious house.”

Ezekiel 5:4

5:4 Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, ³  and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 9:1

The Execution of Idolaters

9:1 Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, ⁴  you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!”

Ezekiel 9:5

9:5 While I listened, he said to the others, ⁵  “Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare ⁶  anyone!

Ezekiel 21:13

21:13 “‘For testing will come, and what will happen when the scepter, which the sword despises, is no more? ⁷  declares the sovereign Lord.’

Ezekiel 31:3

31:3 Consider Assyria, ⁸  a cedar in Lebanon, ⁹ 

with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,

and extremely tall;

its top reached into the clouds.

[3:9]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “of their faces.”

[5:4]  ³ tn Heb “into the midst of” (so KJV, ASV). This phrase has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[9:1]  ⁵ tc Heb “they approached.” Reading the imperative assumes the same consonantal text but different vowels.

[9:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “to these he said in my ears.”

[9:5]  ⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[21:13]  ⁹ 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.

[31:3]  ¹¹ sn Either Egypt, or the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria, which is described in vv. 3-17 through the metaphor of a majestic tree. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:185. Like Egypt, Assyria had been a great world power, but in time God brought the Assyrians down. Egypt should learn from history the lesson that no nation, no matter how powerful, can withstand the judgment of God. Rather than following the text here, some prefer to emend the proper name Assyria to a similar sounding common noun meaning “boxwood” (see Ezek 27:6), which would make a fitting parallel to “cedar of Lebanon” in the following line. In this case vv. 3-18 in their entirety refer to Egypt, not Assyria. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:121-27.

[31:3]  ¹² sn Lebanon was know for its cedar trees (Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 4:33; 5:6; 2 Kgs 14:9; Ezra 3:7; Pss 29:5; 92:12; 104:16).