Ezekiel 7:23

7:23 (Make the chain, ¹  because the land is full of murder ²  and the city is full of violence.)

Ezekiel 9:9

9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ³  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ⁴ 

Ezekiel 22:2-6

22:2 “As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, ⁵  are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? ⁶  Then confront her with all her abominable deeds! 22:3 Then say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: O city, who spills blood within herself (which brings on her doom), ⁷  and who makes herself idols (which results in impurity), 22:4 you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; ⁸  the end of your years has come. ⁹  Therefore I will make ¹⁰  you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands. 22:5 Those both near and far from you will mock you, you with your bad reputation, ¹¹  full of turmoil.

22:6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood. ¹² 

Ezekiel 22:9

22:9 Slanderous men shed blood within you. ¹³  Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; ¹⁴  they commit obscene acts among you. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 22:12

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ¹⁶  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ¹⁷  declares the sovereign Lord. ¹⁸ 

Ezekiel 22:27

22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.

Ezekiel 24:6-9

24:6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Woe to the city of bloodshed,

the pot whose rot ¹⁹  is in it,

whose rot has not been removed ²⁰  from it!

Empty it piece by piece.

No lot has fallen on it. ²¹ 

24:7 For her blood was in it;

she poured it on an exposed rock;

she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.

24:8 To arouse anger, to take vengeance,

I have placed her blood on an exposed rock so that it cannot be covered up.

24:9 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Woe to the city of bloodshed!

I will also make the pile high.

Ezekiel 24:2

24:2 “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege ²²  to Jerusalem ²³  this very day.

Ezekiel 21:16

21:16 Cut sharply on the right!

Swing to ²⁴  the left,

wherever your edge ²⁵  is appointed to strike.

Isaiah 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ²⁶ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 2:30

2:30 “It did no good for me to punish your people.

They did not respond to such correction.

You slaughtered your prophets

like a voracious lion.” ²⁸ 

Jeremiah 2:34

2:34 Even your clothes are stained with

the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong;

you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ²⁹ 

Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 7:6

7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ³¹  Stop killing innocent people ³²  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ³³  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ³⁴ 

Jeremiah 7:9

7:9 You steal. ³⁵  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ³⁶  other gods whom you have not previously known.

Lamentations 4:13

מ (Mem)

4:13 But it happened ³⁷  due to the sins of her prophets ³⁸ 

and the iniquities of her priests,

who poured out in her midst

the blood of the righteous.

Hosea 4:2-3

4:2 There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery.

They resort to violence and bloodshed. ³⁹ 

4:3 Therefore the land will mourn,

and all its inhabitants will perish. ⁴⁰ 

The wild animals, ⁴¹  the birds of the sky,

and even the fish in the sea will perish.

Micah 3:2-3

3:2 yet you ⁴²  hate what is good, ⁴³ 

and love what is evil. ⁴⁴ 

You flay my people’s skin ⁴⁵ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ⁴⁶ 

3:3 You ⁴⁷  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ⁴⁸  –

like meat in a kettle.

Micah 3:10

3:10 You ⁴⁹  build Zion through bloody crimes, ⁵⁰ 

Jerusalem ⁵¹  through unjust violence.

Micah 7:2

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ⁵²  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ⁵³ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ⁵⁴ 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ⁵⁵ 

Zephaniah 3:3

3:3 Her princes ⁵⁶  are as fierce as roaring lions; ⁵⁷ 

her rulers ⁵⁸  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ⁵⁹ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ⁶⁰ 

Matthew 23:35

23:35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ⁶¹  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

[7:23]  ¹ tc The Hebrew word “the chain” occurs only here in the OT. The reading of the LXX (“and they will make carnage”) seems to imply a Hebrew text of ַהבַּתּוֹק (habbattoq, “disorder, slaughter”) instead of הָרַתּוֹק (haratoq, “the chain”). The LXX is also translating the verb as a third person plural future and taking this as the end of the preceding verse. As M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:154) notes, this may refer to a chain for a train of exiles but “the context does not speak of exile but of the city’s fall. The versions guess desperately and we can do little better.”

[7:23]  ² tn Heb “judgment for blood,” i.e., indictment or accountability for bloodshed. The word for “judgment” does not appear in the similar phrase in 9:9.

[9:9]  ³ tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”

[9:9]  ⁴ sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.

[22:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment upon the city. See 20:4.

[22:2]  ⁶ tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.

[22:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “her time”; this refers to the time of impending judgment (see the note on “doom” in v. 4).

[22:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “you have brought near your days.” The expression “bring near your days” appears to be an adaptation of the idiom “days draw near,” which is used to indicate that an event, such as death, is imminent (see Gen 27:41; 47:29; Deut 31:14; 1 Kgs 2:1; Ezek 12:23). Here “your days” probably refers to the days of the personified city’s life, which was about to come to an end through God’s judgment.

[22:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you have come to your years.” This appears to mean that she has arrived at the time when her years (i.e., life) would end, though it may mean that her years of punishment will begin. Because “day” and “time” are so closely associated in the immediate context (see 21:25, 29) some prefer to emend the text and read “you have brought near your time.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:31, as well as the translator’s note on verse 3.

[22:4]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.

[22:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “unclean of name.”

[22:6]  ¹² tn Heb “Look! The princes of Israel, each according to his arm, were in you in order to shed blood.”

[22:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “men of slander are in you in order to shed blood.”

[22:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and on the mountains they eat within you.” The mountains mentioned here were the site of pagan sacrifices. See 18:6.

[22:9]  ¹⁵ sn This statement introduces vv. 10-11 and refers in general terms to the sexual sins described there. For the legal background of vv. 10-11, see Lev 18:7-20; 20:10-21; Deut 22:22-23, 30; 27:22.

[22:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ¹⁷ sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ¹⁸ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

[24:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “rust.”

[24:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “has not gone out.”

[24:6]  ²¹ tn Here “lot” may refer to the decision made by casting lots; it is not chosen at all.

[24:2]  ²² tn Heb “lean on, put pressure on.”

[24:2]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[21:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Put to.”

[21:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “face.”

[1:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ²⁷ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[2:30]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.” However, the reference to the sword in this and many similar idioms is merely idiomatic for death by violent means.

[2:34]  ²⁹ tn The words “for example” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification. This is only one example of why their death was not legitimate.

[2:34]  ³⁰ tn KJV and ASV read this line with 2:34. The ASV makes little sense and the KJV again erroneously reads the archaic second person feminine singular perfect as first person common singular. All the modern English versions and commentaries take this line with 2:35.

[7:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ³² tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ³³ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ³⁶ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[4:13]  ³⁷ tn These words do not appear in the Hebrew, but are supplied to make sense of the line. The introductory causal preposition מִן (min) (“because”) indicates that this phrase – or something like it – is implied through elision.

[4:13]  ³⁸ tn There is no main verb in the verse; it is an extended prepositional phrase. One must either assume a verbal idea such as “But it happened due to…” or connect it to the following verses, which themselves are quite difficult. The former option was employed in the present translation.

[4:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “they break out and bloodshed touches bloodshed.” The Hebrew term פָּרַץ (parats, “to break out”) refers to violent and wicked actions (BDB 829 s.v. פָּרַץ 7; HALOT 972 s.v. פרץ 6.c). It is used elsewhere in a concrete sense to describe breaking through physical barriers. Here it is used figuratively to describe breaking moral barriers and restraints (cf. TEV “Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another”).

[4:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “languish” (so KJV, NRSV); NIV “waste away.”

[4:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so NAB, NIV).

[3:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ⁴³ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:3]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ⁴⁸ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

[3:10]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “who.”

[3:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”

[3:10]  ⁵¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[7:2]  ⁵² tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ⁵⁵ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.

[3:3]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ⁵⁸ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[23:35]  ⁶¹ sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Baraciou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).