Jeremiah 6:28

6:28 I reported, ¹ 

“All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! ² 

They are as hard as bronze or iron.

They go about telling lies.

They all deal corruptly.

Leviticus 19:16

19:16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. ³  You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. ⁴  I am the Lord.

Psalms 15:3

15:3 He ⁵  does not slander, ⁶ 

or do harm to others, ⁷ 

or insult his neighbor. ⁸ 

Proverbs 6:16

6:16 There are six things that the Lord hates,

even ⁹  seven ¹⁰  things that are an abomination to him: ¹¹ 

Proverbs 6:19

6:19 a false witness who pours out lies, ¹² 

and a person who spreads discord ¹³  among family members. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 10:18

10:18 The one who conceals hatred utters lies, ¹⁵ 

and the one who spreads ¹⁶  slander ¹⁷  is certainly ¹⁸  a fool.

Proverbs 25:18

25:18 Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow, ¹⁹ 

so is the one who testifies against ²⁰  his neighbor as a false witness. ²¹ 

Ezekiel 22:9

22:9 Slanderous men shed blood within you. ²²  Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; ²³  they commit obscene acts among you. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 22:1

The Sins of Jerusalem

22:1 The word of the Lord came to me:

Ezekiel 2:1-2

Ezekiel’s Commission

2:1 He said to me, “Son of man, ²⁵  stand on your feet and I will speak with you.” 2:2 As he spoke to me, ²⁶  a wind ²⁷  came into me and stood me on my feet, and I heard the one speaking to me.

[6:28]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some takes these words to be the continuation of the Lord’s commission of Jeremiah to the task of testing them. However, since this is the evaluation, the task appears to be complete. The words are better to be taken as Jeremiah’s report after he has completed the task.

[6:28]  ² tn Or “arch rebels,” or “hardened rebels.” Literally “rebels of rebels.”

[19:16]  ³ tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”

[19:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).

[15:3]  ⁵ sn Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age.

[15:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “he does not slander upon his tongue.” For another example of רָגַל (ragal, “slander”) see 2 Sam 19:28.

[15:3]  ⁷ tn Or “his fellow.”

[15:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he does not lift up an insult against one who is near to him.”

[6:16]  ⁹ tn The conjunction has the explicative use here (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §434).

[6:16]  ¹⁰ sn This saying involves a numerical ladder, paralleling six things with seven things (e.g., also 30:15, 18, 21, 24, 29). The point of such a numerical arrangement is that the number does not exhaust the list (W. M. Roth, “The Numerical Sequence x / x +1 in the Old Testament,” VT 12 [1962]: 300-311; and his “Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament,” VT 13 [1965]: 86).

[6:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his soul.”

[6:19]  ¹² sn The Lord hates perjury and a lying witness (e.g., Ps 40:4; Amos 2:4; Mic 1:4). This is a direct violation of the law (Exod 20).

[6:19]  ¹³ sn Dissension is attributed in Proverbs to contentious people (21:9; 26:21; 25:24) who have a short fuse (15:8).

[6:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “brothers,” although not limited to male siblings only. Cf. NRSV, CEV “in a family”; TEV “among friends.”

[10:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “lips of falsehood.” The genitive noun שָׁקֶר (shaqer, “falsehood”) functions as an attributive genitive. The noun “lips” is a metonymy of cause for speech produced by lips. The one who shows friendliness while concealing hatred is a liar (e.g., Ps 28:3).

[10:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “causes to go out.” The Hiphil of יָצָא (yatsa) literally means “to cause to go out” (BDB 424 s.v. Hiph.1). This may refer to speech (“to utter”) in the sense of causing words to go out of one’s mouth, or it may refer to slander (“to spread”) in the sense of causing slander to go out to others.

[10:18]  ¹⁷ tn The word דִבָּה (dibbah) means “whispering; defamation; evil report” (BDB 179 s.v.). Cf. NAB “accusations”; TEV “gossip.”

[10:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he is a fool.” The independent personal pronoun הוּא (hu’, “he”) is used for emphasis. This is reflected in the translation as “certainly.”

[25:18]  ¹⁹ sn The first line identifies the emblem of the proverb: False witnesses are here compared to deadly weapons because they can cause the death of innocent people (e.g., Exod 20:16; Deut 5:20; and Prov 14:5).

[25:18]  ²⁰ tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) followed by the preposition בְּ (bet) with its object means “to testify against” (answer against someone). With the preposition לְ (lamed) it would mean “to testify for” someone. Here the false witness is an adversary, hence the comparison with deadly weapons.

[25:18]  ²¹ tn While עֵד (’ed) could be interpreted as “evidence” (a meaning that came from a metonymy – what the witness gives in court), its normal meaning is “witness.” Here it would function as an adverbial accusative, specifying how he would answer in court.

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

[22:9]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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.

[2:1]  ²⁵ sn The phrase son of man occurs ninety-three times in the book of Ezekiel. It simply means “human one,” and distinguishes the prophet from the nonhuman beings that are present in the world of his vision.

[2:2]  ²⁶ tc The phrase “as he spoke to me” is absent from the LXX.

[2:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “spirit.” NIV has “the Spirit,” but the absence of the article in the Hebrew text makes this unlikely. Elsewhere in Ezekiel the Lord’s Spirit is referred to as “the Spirit of the Lord” (11:5; 37:1), “the Spirit of God” (11:24), or “my (that is, the Lord’s) Spirit” (36:27; 37:14; 39:29). Some identify the “spirit” of 2:2 as the spirit that energized the living beings, however, that “spirit” is called “the spirit” (1:12, 20) or “the spirit of the living beings” (1:20-21; 10:17). Still others see the term as referring to an impersonal “spirit” of strength or courage, that is, the term may also be understood as a disposition or attitude. The Hebrew word often refers to a wind in Ezekiel (1:4; 5:10, 12; 12:4; 13:11, 13; 17:10, 21; 19:12; 27:26; 37:9). In 37:5-10 a “breath” originates in the “four winds” and is associated with the Lord’s life-giving breath (see v. 14). This breath enters into the dry bones and gives them life. In a similar fashion the breath of 2:2 (see also 3:24) energizes paralyzed Ezekiel. Breath and wind are related. On the one hand it is a more normal picture to think of breath rather than wind entering someone, but since wind represents an external force it seems more likely for wind rather than breath to stand someone up (unless we should understand it as a disposition). It may be that one should envision the breath of the speaker moving like a wind to revive Ezekiel, helping him to regain his breath and invigorating him to stand. A wind also transports the prophet from one place to another (3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 43:5).