Ezekiel 8:11

8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel ¹  (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant ²  vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.

Ezekiel 9:2

9:2 Next, I noticed ³  six men ⁴  coming from the direction of the upper gate ⁵  which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit ⁶  at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

[8:11]  ¹ sn Note the contrast between these seventy men who represented Israel and the seventy elders who ate the covenant meal before God, inaugurating the covenant relationship (Exod 24:1, 9).

[8:11]  ² tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[9:2]  ³ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[9:2]  ⁴ sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.

[9:2]  ⁵ sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).

[9:2]  ⁶ tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.