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14 “They have blown the trumpet and everyone is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my anger is against their whole crowd.[a] 15 The sword is outside; pestilence and famine are inside the house. Whoever is in the open field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume everyone in the city. 16 Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys[b] ; all of them will moan—each one for his iniquity. 17 All their hands will hang limp; their knees will be wet with urine.[c] 18 They will wear sackcloth, terror will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved bald.[d] 19 They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth.[e] Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury.[f] They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth[g] was the obstacle leading to their iniquity.[h] 20 They rendered the beauty of his ornaments into pride,[i] and with it they made their abominable images—their detestable idols. Therefore I will render it filthy to them. 21 I will give it to foreigners as loot, to the world’s wicked ones as plunder, and they will desecrate it. 22 I will turn my face away from them, and they will desecrate my treasured place.[j] Vandals will enter it and desecrate it.[k] 23 (Make the chain,[l] because the land is full of murder[m] and the city is full of violence.)

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 7:14 tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.
  2. Ezekiel 7:16 sn The simile compares doves that flee their valley home for the mountains, where they coo in mournful discomfort. For doves moaning or mourning see Isa 38:14; 59:11; Ezek 7:16 and Nah 2:7.
  3. Ezekiel 7:17 tn Heb “their knees will run with water.” The expression probably refers to urination caused by fright, which is how the LXX renders the phrase. More colloquial English would simply be “they will wet their pants,” but as D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:261, n. 98) notes, the men likely wore skirts which were short enough to expose urine on the knees.
  4. Ezekiel 7:18 tn Heb “baldness will be on their heads.”
  5. Ezekiel 7:19 tn The Hebrew term can refer to menstrual impurity. The term also occurs at the end of v. 20.
  6. Ezekiel 7:19 sn Cf. Zeph 1:18.
  7. Ezekiel 7:19 tn Heb “it.” Apparently the subject is the silver and gold mentioned earlier (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:102).
  8. Ezekiel 7:19 tn The “stumbling block of their iniquity” is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12).
  9. Ezekiel 7:20 tc The MT reads “he set up the beauty of his ornament as pride.” The verb may be repointed as plural without changing the consonantal text. The Syriac reads “their ornaments” (plural), implying עֶדְיָם (ʿedyam) rather than עֶדְיוֹ (ʿedyo) and meaning “they were proud of their beautiful ornaments.” This understands “ornaments” in the common sense of women’s jewelry, which then was used to make idols. The singular suffix “his ornaments” would refer to using items from the temple treasury to make idols. D. I. Block points out the foreshadowing of Ezek 16:17, which, with Rashi and the Targum, supports the understanding that this is a reference to temple items. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:265.
  10. Ezekiel 7:22 sn My treasured place probably refers to the temple (however, cf. NLT’s “my treasured land”).
  11. Ezekiel 7:22 sn Since the pronouns “it” are both feminine, they do not refer to the masculine “my treasured place”; instead they probably refer to Jerusalem or the land, both of which are feminine in Hebrew.
  12. Ezekiel 7:23 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 הַבַּתּוֹק (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.”
  13. Ezekiel 7:23 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.

14 They shall blow on the trumpet and prepare everything,[a] but there is no one going to the battle, for my anger is on all of their multitude. 15 The sword is outside,[b] and the plague and the famine are inside;[c] the one who is in the field will die by the sword, and the one who is in the city, famine and plague will devour him. 16 And if their survivors will escape, they will be on the mountains, like the doves of the valley, all of them groaning, each because of his guilt. 17 All of the hands will hang limp, and all of the knees will be wet with urine.[d] 18 And they will wear sackcloth, and horror will cover them, and on all of the faces will be shame, and baldness on all of their heads. 19 Their silver they will discard on the streets, and filth will be their gold; their silver and their gold will not be able to rescue them on the day of the wrath of Yahweh. They will not satisfy their hunger[e] and their stomachs they will not fill, for their guilt will be their[f] stumbling block.

Judgment for the Profanation of the Temple and Sanctuary

20 “‘And the beauty of its[g] ornament he made into a prideful thing[h] and made with it their detestable things and their vile idols; therefore I will make it into an impure thing for them. 21 And I will give it into the hand of strangers as plunder and to the wicked people of the earth as spoil, and they will defile it. 22 And I will turn my face from them, and they will defile my treasured place, and violent ones will enter and defile it. 23 Make a chain for the land; it is full of bloody crimes[i] and the city is full of violence.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 7:14 Literally “the all”
  2. Ezekiel 7:15 Literally “is in the outside place”
  3. Ezekiel 7:15 Literally “are from the house
  4. Ezekiel 7:17 Literally “the knees will flow with water”
  5. Ezekiel 7:19 Literally “selves,” or “desire”
  6. Ezekiel 7:19 Hebrew “the”
  7. Ezekiel 7:20 Or “their”
  8. Ezekiel 7:20 Literally “to a prideful thing he made it”
  9. Ezekiel 7:23 Literally “the judgment of blood”