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, ¹  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ² 

Ezekiel 11:6

11:6 You have killed many people in this city; you have filled its streets with corpses.’

Ezekiel 22:3-6

22:3 Then say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: O city, who spills blood within herself (which brings on her doom), ³  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; ⁴  the end of your years has come. ⁵  Therefore I will make ⁶  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, ⁷  full of turmoil.

22:6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood. ⁸ 

Ezekiel 22:9

22:9 Slanderous men shed blood within you. ⁹  Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; ¹⁰  they commit obscene acts among you. ¹¹ 

Ezekiel 22:13

22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together ¹²  at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed ¹³  they have done among you.

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 22:2

22:2 “As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, ¹⁴  are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? ¹⁵  Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!

Ezekiel 21:16

21:16 Cut sharply on the right!

Swing to ¹⁶  the left,

wherever your edge ¹⁷  is appointed to strike.

Ezekiel 24:4

24:4 add the pieces of meat to it,

every good piece,

the thigh and the shoulder;

fill it with choice bones.

Isaiah 1:15

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

I look the other way; ¹⁸ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 59:3

59:3 For your hands are stained with blood

and your fingers with sin;

your lips speak lies,

your tongue utters malicious words.

Isaiah 59:7

59:7 They are eager to do evil, ²⁰ 

quick to shed innocent blood. ²¹ 

Their thoughts are sinful;

they crush and destroy. ²² 

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. ²³ 

Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ²⁴ 

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. ²⁵  Stop killing innocent people ²⁶  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ²⁷  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ²⁸ 

Jeremiah 22:17

22:17 But you are always thinking and looking

for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means.

Your eyes and your heart are set

on killing some innocent person

and committing fraud and oppression. ²⁹ 

Hosea 4:2

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

They resort to violence and bloodshed. ³⁰ 

Micah 2:2

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ³¹ 

They defraud people of their homes, ³² 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ³³ 

Micah 7:2

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ³⁴  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ³⁵ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ³⁶ 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ³⁷ 

Zephaniah 3:3-4

3:3 Her princes ³⁸  are as fierce as roaring lions; ³⁹ 

her rulers ⁴⁰  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ⁴¹ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ⁴² 

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ⁴³ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ⁴⁴ 

they break God’s laws. ⁴⁵ 

[9:9]  ¹ 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]  ² sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.

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

[22:4]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.

[22:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “unclean of name.”

[22:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “Look! The princes of Israel, each according to his arm, were in you in order to shed blood.”

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

[22:9]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.

[22:13]  ¹² sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).

[22:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “the blood which was in you.”

[22:2]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.

[21:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Put to.”

[21:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “face.”

[1:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ¹⁹ 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.

[59:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “their feet run to evil.”

[59:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “they quickly pour out innocent blood.”

[59:7]  ²² tn Heb “their thoughts are thoughts of sin, destruction and crushing [are] in their roadways.”

[2:34]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[22:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Your eyes and your heart do not exist except for dishonest gain and for innocent blood to shed [it] and for fraud and for oppression to do [them].” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to English style and the significance of “eyes” and “heart” explained before they are introduced into the translation.

[4:2]  ³⁰ 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”).

[2:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ³² tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ³³ tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[7:2]  ³⁴ tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ³⁷ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.

[3:3]  ³⁸ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² 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.

[3:4]  ⁴³ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”