Ezekiel 9:2

9:2 Next, I noticed ¹  six men ²  coming from the direction of the upper gate ³  which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit ⁴  at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

Ezekiel 40:5

40:5 I saw ⁵  a wall all around the outside of the temple. ⁶  In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet ⁷  long. He measured the thickness of the wall ⁸  as 10½ feet, ⁹  and its height as 10½ feet.

[9:2]  ¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[9:2]  ² 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]  ³ sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).

[9:2]  ⁴ 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.

[40:5]  ⁵ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[40:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[40:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “a measuring stick of six cubits, [each] a cubit and a handbreadth.” The measuring units here and in the remainder of this section are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Therefore the measuring stick in the man’s hand was 10.5 feet (3.15 meters) long. Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard feet and inches, with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes.

[40:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “building.”

[40:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “one rod [or “reed”]” (also a second time in this verse, twice in v. 6, three times in v. 7, and once in v. 8).