Ezekiel 33:7

33:7 “As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman ¹  for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them on my behalf.

Ezekiel 33:2

33:2 “Son of man, speak to your people, ²  and say to them, ‘Suppose I bring a sword against the land, and the people of the land take one man from their borders and make him their watchman.

Ezekiel 18:24-27

18:24 “But if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing according to all the abominable practices the wicked carry out, will he live? All his righteous acts will not be remembered; because of the unfaithful acts he has done and the sin he has committed, he will die. ³ 

18:25 “Yet you say, ‘The Lord’s conduct ⁴  is unjust!’ Hear, O house of Israel: Is my conduct unjust? Is it not your conduct that is unjust? 18:26 When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; ⁵  because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die. 18:27 When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life.

Ezekiel 18:2

18:2 “What do you mean by quoting this proverb concerning the land of Israel,

“‘The fathers eat sour grapes

And the children’s teeth become numb?’ ⁶ 

Ezekiel 9:1

The Execution of Idolaters

9:1 Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, ⁷  you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!”

Isaiah 21:6-9

21:6 For this is what the sovereign master ⁸  has told me:

“Go, post a guard!

He must report what he sees.

21:7 When he sees chariots,

teams of horses, ⁹ 

riders on donkeys,

riders on camels,

he must be alert,

very alert.”

21:8 Then the guard ¹⁰  cries out:

“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, ¹¹ 

I stand all day long;

at my post

I am stationed every night.

21:9 Look what’s coming!

A charioteer,

a team of horses.” ¹² 

When questioned, he replies, ¹³ 

“Babylon has fallen, fallen!

All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

Isaiah 56:9-10

The Lord Denounces Israel’s Paganism

56:9 All you wild animals in the fields, come and devour,

all you wild animals in the forest!

56:10 All their watchmen ¹⁴  are blind,

they are unaware. ¹⁵ 

All of them are like mute dogs,

unable to bark.

They pant, ¹⁶  lie down,

and love to snooze.

Isaiah 62:6

62:6 I ¹⁷  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ¹⁸ 

You who pray to ¹⁹  the Lord, don’t be silent!

Jeremiah 51:12

51:12 Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! ²⁰ 

Bring more guards! ²¹ 

Post them all around the city! ²² 

Put men in ambush! ²³ 

For the Lord will do what he has planned.

He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. ²⁴ 

Hosea 9:8

9:8 The prophet ²⁵  is a watchman ²⁶  over Ephraim ²⁷  on behalf of God, ²⁸ 

yet traps ²⁹  are laid for him along all of his paths; ³⁰ 

animosity rages against him in the land ³¹  of his God.

[33:7]  ¹ sn Jeremiah (Jer 6:17) and Habakkuk (Hab 2:1) also served in the role of a watchman.

[33:2]  ² tn Heb “sons of your people.”

[18:24]  ³ tn Heb “because of them he will die.”

[18:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “way.”

[18:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “for them” or “because of them.”

[18:2]  ⁶ tn This word only occurs here and in the parallel passage in Jer 31:29-30 in the Qal stem and in Eccl 10:10 in the Piel stem. In the latter passage it refers to the bluntness of an ax that has not been sharpened. Here the idea is of the “bluntness” of the teeth, not from having ground them down due to the bitter taste of sour grapes but to the fact that they have lost their “edge,” “bite,” or “sharpness” because they are numb from the sour taste. For this meaning for the word, see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:197.

[9:1]  ⁷ tc Heb “they approached.” Reading the imperative assumes the same consonantal text but different vowels.

[21:6]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 8, 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[21:7]  ⁹ tn Or “a pair of horsemen.”

[21:8]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.

[21:8]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).

[21:9]  ¹² tn Or “[with] teams of horses,” or perhaps, “with a pair of horsemen.”

[21:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he answered and said” (so KJV, ASV).

[56:10]  ¹⁴ sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.

[56:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”

[56:10]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.

[62:6]  ¹⁷ sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

[62:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

[62:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”

[51:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon.”

[51:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “Strengthen the watch.”

[51:12]  ²² tn Heb “Station the guards.”

[51:12]  ²³ tn Heb “Prepare ambushes.”

[51:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “For the Lord has both planned and done what he said concerning the people living in Babylon,” i.e., “he has carried out what he planned.” Here is an obvious case where the perfects are to be interpreted as prophetic; the commands imply that the attack is still future.

[9:8]  ²⁵ tc The Leningrad Codex (the MT ms used for BHS) and Aleppo Codex both place the atnach (colon divider) after אלהי (“my God”) and connect נָבִיא (navi’, “prophet”) with the following colon. On the other hand, BHS suggests that נָבִיא (navi’, “prophet”) belongs with the first colon. For discussion of this syntactical problem, see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Hosea (AB), 533-34.

[9:8]  ²⁶ tc The syntax of this line is difficult, and the text is questionable. The major options include: (1) Adopt the MT vocalization and BHS line division: צֹפֶה אֶפְרַיִם עִם־אֱלֹהָי נָבִיא (tsofeh ’efrayim ’im-elohay navi’, “The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim with my God [= on behalf of God]”). There are two problems with this: (a) Although BHS places נָבִיא (“prophet”) with this colon, the Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex both connect נָבִיא with the next colon (as do KJV, ASV). (b) The phrase עִם־אֱלֹהָי (“with my God”) is difficult to explain. (2) Adopt the MT vocalization and the MT line division: עִם־אֱלֹהָי צֹפֶה אֶפְרַיִם (“Ephraim is a watchman with my God,” cf. NASB). The problem with this, of course, is that Ephraim hardly fits the description of a prophetic watchman. (3) Revocalize the MT and adopt BHS line division: צֹפֶה אֶפְרַיִם עַם אֱלֹהָי נָבִיא (“Ephraim – the people of my God! – lies in ambush for the prophet”) This involves: (a) revocalization of the preposition עִם (’im, “with”) to the noun עַם (’am, “people”), (b) taking עַם־אֱלֹהָי (“people of my God”) in apposition to אֶפְרַיִם (“Ephraim”), and (c) nuancing צֹפֶה as “to lie in wait (=set ambush)” (e.g., Ps 37:32). This is contextually attractive and harmonizes well with the following line: “traps are laid along all of his paths.” However, it has two problems: (a) there is no textual evidence supporting the revocalization of עם as “people” and (b) the unusual nuance “to lie in wait” for צֹפֶה occurs only in Ps 37:32, where it takes the preposition לְ (lamed, i.e., “to lie in wait for the righteous”; HALOT 1044 s.v. צפה 4). (4) Emend אֱלֹהָי (“my God”) to אֹהֶל (’ohel, “tent”), as suggested in the BHS textual apparatus: אֶפְרַיִם עַם־אֹהֶל נָבִיא צֹפֶה (“Ephraim spies on the prophet’s tent”). The verb צָפָה may mean “to spy” (BDB 859 s.v. צָפָה; HALOT 1044 s.v. צפה 3); however, the preposition עִם (’im) does not normally mean “upon” and צָפָה is not used with עִם elsewhere.

[9:8]  ²⁷ tn Or “Ephraim is a watchman with my God”; cf. ASV, NASB.

[9:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “with my God” (so ASV, NASB).

[9:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “bird trap of a bird catcher” or “snare of a fowler” (so KJV).

[9:8]  ³⁰ tc Or “The prophet is like a trap along all of his paths.” The Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex (ms used in BHS) both connect נָבִיא (navi’, “prophet”) with this colon. On the other hand, BHS places נָבִיא (“prophet”) at the end of the preceding colon.

[9:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “house.” The term בַּיִת (bayit, “house”) is used as a figure of speech, referring to either (1) the temple or official sanctuaries (so TEV, CEV) or (2) the land of Israel (e.g., Hos 9:15).