Ezekiel 6:14

6:14 I will stretch out my hand against them ¹  and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, ²  in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”

Ezekiel 11:7

11:7 Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘The corpses you have dumped ³  in the midst of the city ⁴  are the meat, and this city ⁵  is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 14:9

14:9 “‘As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word – I, the Lord, have made a fool of ⁷  that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.

Ezekiel 14:13

14:13 “Son of man, suppose a country sins against me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it, cut off its bread supply, ⁸  cause famine to come on it, and kill both people and animals.

Ezekiel 16:27

16:27 So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct.

Ezekiel 20:9

20:9 I acted for the sake of my reputation, ⁹  so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, ¹⁰  before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. ¹¹ 

Ezekiel 21:19

21:19 “You, son of man, mark out two routes for the king of Babylon’s sword to take; both of them will originate in a single land. Make a signpost and put it at the beginning of the road leading to the city.

Ezekiel 22:22

22:22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my anger on you.’”

Ezekiel 34:13

34:13 I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land.

Ezekiel 35:3

35:3 Say to it, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Look, I am against you, Mount Seir;

I will stretch out my hand against you

and turn you into a desolate ruin.

Ezekiel 37:1

The Valley of Dry Bones

37:1 The hand ¹²  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed ¹³  me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.

Ezekiel 44:3

44:3 Only the prince may sit in it to eat a sacrificial meal ¹⁴  before the Lord; he will enter by way of the porch of the gate and will go out by the same way.”

[6:14]  ¹ sn I will stretch out my hand against them is a common expression in the book of Ezekiel (14:9, 13; 16:27; 25:7; 35:3).

[6:14]  ² tc The Vulgate reads the name as “Riblah,” a city north of Damascus. The MT reads Diblah, a city otherwise unknown. The letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) may have been confused in the Hebrew text. The town of Riblah was in the land of Hamath (2 Kgs 23:33) which represented the northern border of Israel (Ezek 47:14).

[11:7]  ³ tn Heb “placed.”

[11:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “in its midst.”

[11:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “she/it.” See v. 3.

[11:7]  ⁶ tc Many of the versions read “I will bring you out” (active) rather than “he brought out” (the reading of MT).

[14:9]  ⁵ tn The translation is uncertain due to difficulty both in determining the meaning of the verb’s stem and its conjugation in this context. In the Qal stem the basic meaning of the verbal root פָּתַה (patah) is “to be gullible, foolish.” The doubling stems (the Pual and Piel used in this verse) typically give such stative verbs a factitive sense, hence either “make gullible” (i.e., “entice”) or “make into a fool” (i.e., “to show to be a fool”). The latter represents the probable meaning of the term in Jer 20:7, 10 and is followed here (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:193; R. Mosis “Ez 14, 1-11 - ein Ruf zur Umkehr,” BZ 19 [1975]: 166-69 and ThWAT 4:829-31). In this view, if a prophet speaks when not prompted by God, he will be shown to be a fool, but this does not reflect negatively on the Lord because it is God who shows him to be a fool. Secondly, the verb is in the perfect conjugation and may be translated “I have made a fool of him” or “I have enticed him,” or to show determination (see IBHS 439-41 §27.2f and g), or in certain syntactical constructions as future. Any of these may be plausible if the doubling stems used are understood in the sense of “making a fool of.” But if understood as “to make gullible,” more factors come into play. As the Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, it is often translated as present perfect: “I have enticed.” In this case the Lord states that he himself enticed the prophet to cooperate with the idolaters. Such enticement to sin would seem to be a violation of God’s moral character, but sometimes he does use such deception and enticement to sin as a form of punishment against those who have blatantly violated his moral will (see, e.g., 2 Sam 24). If one follows this line of interpretation in Ezek 14:9, one would have to assume that the prophet had already turned from God in his heart. However, the context gives no indication of this. Therefore, it is better to take the perfect as indicating certitude and to translate it with the future tense: “I will entice.” In this case the Lord announces that he will judge the prophet appropriately. If a prophet allows himself to be influenced by idolaters, then the Lord will use deception as a form of punishment against that deceived prophet. A comparison with the preceding oracles also favors this view. In 14:4 the perfect of certitude is used for emphasis (see “I will answer”), though in v. 7 a participle is employed. For a fuller discussion of this text, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 23-25.

[14:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “break its staff of bread.”

[20:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “for the sake of my name.”

[20:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were.”

[20:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to whom I made myself known before their eyes to bring them out from the land of Egypt.” The translation understands the infinitive construct (“to bring them out”) as indicating manner. God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt was an act of self-revelation in that it displayed his power and his commitment to his promises.

[37:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “power.”

[37:1]  ¹² tn Heb “caused me to rest.”

[44:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “to eat bread.”