Ezekiel 7:16-19

7:16 Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan – each one for his iniquity. 7:17 All of their hands will hang limp; their knees will be wet with urine. ¹  7:18 They will wear sackcloth, terror will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and all of their heads will be shaved bald. ²  7:19 They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. ³  Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury. ⁴  They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth ⁵  was the obstacle leading to their iniquity. ⁶ 

[7:17]  ¹ tn Heb “their knees will run with water.” The expression probably refers to urination caused by fright, which is how the LXX renders the phrase. More colloquial English would simply be “they will wet their pants,” but as D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:261, n. 98) notes, the men likely wore skirts which were short enough to expose urine on the knees.

[7:18]  ¹ tn Heb “baldness will be on their heads.”

[7:19]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term can refer to menstrual impurity. The term also occurs at the end of v. 20.

[7:19]  ² sn Compare Zeph 1:18.

[7:19]  ³ tn Heb “it.” Apparently the subject is the silver and gold mentioned earlier (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:102).

[7:19]  ⁴ tn The “stumbling block of their iniquity” is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12).