Ezekiel 32:19

32:19 Say to them, ¹  ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty? ²  Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised!’

Ezekiel 32:21

32:21 The bravest of the warriors will speak to him from the midst of Sheol along with his allies, saying: ‘The uncircumcised have come down; they lie still, killed by the sword.’

Ezekiel 44:7

44:7 When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate ³  it – even my house – when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You ⁴  have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices.

Ezekiel 44:9

44:9 This is what the sovereign Lord says: No foreigner, who is uncircumcised in heart and flesh among all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, will enter into my sanctuary. ⁵ 

Ezekiel 44:2

44:2 The Lord said to me: “This gate will be shut; it will not be opened, and no one will enter by it. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it will remain shut.

Ezekiel 1:20

1:20 Wherever the spirit ⁶  would go, they would go, ⁷  and the wheels would rise up beside them because the spirit ⁸  of the living being was in the wheel.

Ezekiel 1:1

A Vision of God’s Glory

1:1 In the thirtieth year, ⁹  on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles ¹⁰  at the Kebar River, ¹¹  the heavens opened ¹²  and I saw a divine vision. ¹³ 

Ezekiel 10:4

10:4 Then the glory of the Lord arose from the cherub and moved to the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud while the court was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory.

Acts 7:51

7:51 “You stubborn ¹⁴  people, with uncircumcised ¹⁵  hearts and ears! ¹⁶  You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors ¹⁷  did!

[32:19]  ¹ tc The LXX places this verse after v. 21.

[32:19]  ² tn Heb “pleasantness.”

[44:7]  ³ tn Heb “to desecrate.”

[44:7]  ⁴ tc The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions read “you.” The Masoretic text reads “they.”

[44:9]  ⁵ sn Tobiah, an Ammonite (Neh 13:8), was dismissed from the temple.

[1:20]  ⁶ tn Or “wind”; the same Hebrew word can be translated as either “wind” or “spirit” depending on the context.

[1:20]  ⁷ tc The MT adds the additional phrase “the spirit would go,” which seems unduly redundant here and may be dittographic.

[1:20]  ⁸ tn Or “wind.” The Hebrew is difficult since the text presents four creatures and then talks about “the spirit” (singular) of “the living being” (singular). According to M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:45) the Targum interprets this as “will.” Greenberg views this as the spirit of the one enthroned above the creatures, but one would not expect the article when the one enthroned has not yet been introduced.

[1:1]  ⁹ sn The meaning of the thirtieth year is problematic. Some take it to mean the age of Ezekiel when he prophesied (e.g., Origen). The Aramaic Targum explains the thirtieth year as the thirtieth year dated from the recovery of the book of the Torah in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 22:3-9). The number seems somehow to be equated with the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile in 1:2, i.e., 593 b.c.

[1:1]  ¹⁰ sn The Assyrians started the tactic of deportation, the large-scale forced displacement of conquered populations, in order to stifle rebellions. The task of uniting groups of deportees, gaining freedom from one’s overlords and returning to retake one’s own country would be considerably more complicated than living in one’s homeland and waiting for an opportune moment to drive out the enemy’s soldiers. The Babylonians adopted this practice also, after defeating the Assyrians. The Babylonians deported Judeans on three occasions. The practice of deportation was reversed by the Persian conquerors of Babylon, who gained favor from their subjects for allowing them to return to their homeland and, as polytheists, sought the favor of the gods of the various countries which had come under their control.

[1:1]  ¹¹ sn The Kebar River is mentioned in Babylonian texts from the city of Nippur in the fifth century b.c. It provided artificial irrigation from the Euphrates.

[1:1]  ¹² sn For the concept of the heavens opened in later literature, see 3 Macc 6:18; 2 Bar. 22:1; T. Levi 5:1; Matt 3:16; Acts 7:56; Rev 19:11.

[1:1]  ¹³ tn Or “saw visions from God.” References to divine visions occur also in Ezek 8:3; 40:2

[7:51]  ¹⁴ sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.

[7:51]  ¹⁵ tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.

[7:51]  ¹⁶ tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)

[7:51]  ¹⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”