Annotations for Ezekiel

Annotations for Ezekiel

Annotations for Ezekiel

Artist’s rendition of Ezekiel’s vision.

Jonathan Walton

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Kebar River. Ezekiel and his compatriots in exile have settled in the vicinity of the Kebar Canal, one of the many branches of an elaborate irrigation system that distributed water from the Euphrates River throughout the city and its environs. I saw visions. Apocalyptic literature is characterized by visions filled with the imagery sometimes associated with God’s manifold powers as creator. A divine messenger usually interprets the message that is conveyed to the prophet (see ). There are some pieces of Akkadian literature that show prototypes of some of the characteristics of Biblical apocalyptic, but nothing that is very close. Apocalyptic literature is most recognizable in its use of rich symbolism that draws heavily on mythological motifs. In prophetic literature, the symbols are rarely interpreted. Often the visions themselves do not symbolically represent a foretold happening, but serve as occasions for a message concerning what God is going to do. Most scholars now consider Ezekiel’s prophetic visions as being influential on later apocalyptic literature (see ; ); e.g., his vision of God enthroned in a shining chariot has been incorporated into , as well as the pseudepigraphal book of 1 Enoch 14:18. See the article “

exile of King Jehoiachin. The name Jehoiachin appears in a Babylonian ration list dating from the 10th to the 35th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (595–569 BC). While in Babylonian exile at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiachin retained the royal title “the king of the land of Judah” and, together with his five sons, received generous food rations. From the Babylonian point of view, therefore, not only was Jehoiachin in exile, but he was still considered by his conquerors as the legitimate king of Judah. Zedekiah was merely the “regent prince” in Jerusalem, and this is how Ezekiel consistently refers to Zedekiah. He never uses the term “king” when speaking of Zedekiah. Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, Amel-Marduk (Biblical Awel-Marduk) continued to treat Jehoiachin kindly. In 561 BC he removed Jehoiachin from prison and made him live in his palace, where Jehoiachin was given special rank among his fellow exiled kings (; ).

Babylonians. In Ezekiel the Hebrew name “Chaldeans” is interchanged with “Babylonians” (; , ). The term “Chaldeans” designates one of the several Aramean tribes that had settled into southern Babylonia in the early part of the first millennium BC. In 625 BC one of their leaders, Nabopolassar, succeeded in gaining Babylon independence from Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar II was the second monarch in this Neo-Babylonian (i.e., Chaldean) dynasty. See the article “

glowing metal. This Hebrew term occurs in the Bible only in Ezekiel (here; v. ; ). It is related to an Akkadian word meaning “amber,” a brilliant semiprecious stone used in the fabrication of divine statues. It served to enhance the shine of the eyes of the statue or to give an impression of radiance by reflecting light. Thus a Neo-Babylonian religious text uses this term to describe the outward appearance of the glowing face of the god Nergal.

four living creatures. It seems that in the elaboration of his vision Ezekiel takes as a model the gigantic composite creatures well known in Assyrian and Babylonian iconographic and glyptic art. These hybrid creatures protected the entrance into temples or palaces. The colossal Assyrian composite creatures unearthed during archaeological excavations provide a fitting example. They have been excavated at the site of ancient Nimrud, where they guarded the doorways to the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC). One of these is a winged bull with a human head; another has the body of a lion. Ezekiel consistently repeats the expression “looked like” (e.g., vv. , , , , , ), indicating his unwillingness to commit himself to the substantial identity of the seen with the compared. It looked “like” fire, living creatures, a human being, but these buffer terms indicate that this is only a “vision.” This is the sort of language regularly used in reports of dreams and visions.

The Aramaic language was increasingly becoming the trade and diplomatic language of the last days of the Babylonian Empire in the sixth century BC. Ezekiel’s extended stay in Babylonian exile accounts for the unusually high proportion of Aramaic and Akkadian words in his book and the numerous images and themes that have their background in his land of exile. Ezekiel is truly a product of his time and of his environment. As attested many times in the past, the literati and intellectual leadership of any age succeed in finding common meeting grounds despite political, social or religious pressures intended to keep them separate. It is therefore conceivable that Ezekiel was able to converse with Babylonian scribes and religious leaders in Aramaic, acquiring knowledge of Akkadian literature, or at least its main themes, motifs and metaphors. ◆

This seventh-century BC funerary stele has a carved scene and an inscription in Aramaic, Neirab.

Kim Walton. The Louvre.

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Each of the four had the face of a human being . . . a lion . . . an ox . . . an eagle. The head of the animal should in some way recall the qualities attributed to the divinity itself. human being. The most dignified and noble of all creatures, being created in the image of God and ruling over all the other creatures (; ). lion. Symbolizes royalty, strength and courage both in the Bible and in the ancient Near Eastern world (; ; ). eagle. The swiftest and the most high-flying of birds (; ; ). ox. The most frequent symbol of fertility. It was the emblematic animal of the northwest Semitic storm-god Adad, the one who brought rain and with it renewed fertility of the land (). These four, furthermore, particularly represent the categories of terrestrial creatures: humans, wild animals, domestic animals, birds.

In Mesopotamia it is lesser divinities like guardian genii that are portrayed in composite form, including winged biped or quadrupeds with human faces. Two tiny bronze figurines from Ischali dating from Old Babylonian times show a god and a goddess, each with four identical human faces conveying the idea of all-observing potency. Two-faced gods, so-called Janus figures, however, are more common in Mesopotamia. The major difference between the prophet’s vision and Mesopotamian parallels is that Ezekiel’s creatures have four different faces; for that we have no known analogues.

Naturally, a chariot with wheels facing all four directions could not travel effectively in any direction. However, the purpose of the image is found in its symbolic value of attention to all the corners of the world—God’s omnipresence. In addition, the chariot is actually upheld on the outstretched wings of God’s four-faced creatures and flies through the air. There is, however, a sense of motion implicit in having the wheels in place. This is based on a comparison with the winged-bull figures that guarded entranceways in Assyrian palaces. Many of them have a fifth leg to suggest that though the figure is frozen in the relief, it is actually dynamic and in motion. Assyrian art also provides examples of wheeled chariots with high rims and multiple spokes that may be the origin of this image in Ezekiel. The wheels in Assyrian chariots of this time sometimes feature thick rims made up of concentric bands as well as spokes. The depiction of a “wheel intersecting a wheel” (v. ) may thus represent a greater stability for the chariot, as multiple axles and tires do for modern trucks.

all four rims were full of eyes. The eyes with which the rims of the wheels are inlaid may signify constant divine watchfulness. Rims full of eyes are comparable to the many “eye stones” that adorned the tiaras of the Assyrians’ divine statues. Alternatively, some of the depictions of chariots of this time period used the technology of creating a tread for the wooden chariot wheels by driving metal studs into the wheels all around the circumference.

a vault, sparkling like crystal. Above the heads of the four creatures is a platform sparkling like crystal or ice. Ancient Near Eastern glyptic art and sculpture contain images of winged creatures holding up a pillar, a throne, or a platform. In the seventh-century BC Assyrian palace at Nineveh, miniature sphinxes served as column bases. Similarly, a twelfth-century BC Phoenician wheeled cult stand depicts a human-faced, lion-bodied, winged figure. Its wings and head appear to be holding up one side of the stand. More significantly, first millennium BC Mesopotamian texts speak of three levels of the heavens, each of which feature pavements of different colored stone. The lower heavens are said to have a platform of jasper, usually associated with a glassy, translucent or opaque appearance. In those texts, the pavement of the middle heavens is lapis lazuli (see note on ) and holds up the dais of the god Bel (i.e., Marduk).

throne. The image of a deity’s throne in procession is well known in the ancient Near East. Engraved cylinder seals from the end of the third millennium BC show a deity standing in a four-wheeled chariot/cart drawn by a composite quadruped with a lion’s head and wings. Assyrian reliefs show wheeled thrones for both kings and gods that also feature poles for bearers to use to carry the throne. lapis lazuli. See note on .

glowing metal. See note on v. . brilliant light. The figure sitting on the throne is surrounded with splendor. The brilliant light stands for a numinous quality that seems to reflect a major literary and iconographic feature of Mesopotamian culture, the so-called melammu, radiance or divine effulgence surrounding beings or sacred objects that have divine power (see the article “

Son of man. The prophet is addressed 92 times with the expression “son of man.” In Hebrew it refers to a “son of humankind” and therefore refers to him as a mortal. The collective word has an underlying note of helplessness and frailty. In contrast to other prophets (see, e.g., ; ; ; ), the Lord speaks to Ezekiel without using his name (the name “Ezekiel” occurs only twice in the book). Ezekiel is called this in order to underline his mortal nature among the divine beings who often fill the scene and speak to him. Ezekiel’s call to prophetic service is described in ancient royal court language. stand up. Having been brought into the presence of a king, a person would signify subjection with the gesture of prostration and would not dare to rise unless authorized to do so by the king.

This is what the Sovereign LORD says. This is the prophetic adaptation of the “messenger formula.” Numerous letters in Mari, El-Amarna, and the ancient Near East start in the following manner: “To my lord say: ‘Thus says so and so.’ ” With this formula, messengers began their verbatim delivery of messages. This expression is found 129 times in Ezekiel, a frequency matched only by Jeremiah. Precisely because these two prophets were challenged by their contemporaries, they insist on the fact that they have been commissioned to speak by and on behalf of the Sovereign Lord.

briers and thorns . . . scorpions. The metaphors used in this verse seem to reflect Babylonian influence, in which case they should not be interpreted as threats to Ezekiel but as symbols of protection. In a Neo-Babylonian collection of incantations the speaker describes his inviolability in a similar way by describing himself as a thornbush or the stinger of a scorpion. This understanding of such metaphors is confirmed by the fact that this statement occurs at the very point where Biblical call narratives place the promise of divine presence for the commissioning of the prophet.

On both sides . . . were written words of lament and mourning and woe. Scrolls were made out of papyrus or leather. A relief of Sennacherib now in the British Museum shows two scribes, one with two wooden writing boards covered with beeswax and hinged as a diptych and another with a papyrus or leather scroll recording plunder. Since the scroll mentioned by Ezekiel is written on both sides, it is presumably made out of papyrus and not leather. Only around the first century AD did the quality of skin sufficiently improve to allow writing on both sides. Following the custom of that time, the content of the scroll is summarized on the outside of the rolled document with three ominous words, each of which spells disaster: lament, mourning, and woe. The title of the document sets the tone of Ezekiel’s ministry.

So I ate it. The notion of ingestion as a means of appropriating the divine word has been compared with the practice of ingesting magical inscriptions as found on Greco-Egyptian papyri. The important thing is not the act of swallowing the scroll but the memorization of its particularly difficult content. An anthropological study of the pedagogical system of Palestinian rabbis points out the importance of memorable gestures in the act of learning. “Chewing” of the scroll corresponds to an act of memorization and thorough appropriation of its verbal content. In the light of these analogies Ezekiel’s “eating of the scroll” should be understood as an act of memorization and not necessarily as a literal ingestion of a papyrus scroll.

I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. This verse focuses on the toughness and perseverance with which the prophet is equipped in order to withstand his audience’s hostility and defiance. The threefold repetition of the root hzq (“to harden”) is probably a wordplay on the prophet’s name, Ezekiel (yehezkel), meaning “God toughens.”

Tel Aviv. A Mesopotamian place-name. The phrase denotes what remains of a settlement after having been swept by the flood, i.e., a deluge-ruined heap. The expression occurs in the epilogue of the Code of Hammurapi, where the king invokes curses on the ruler who disregards his precepts. In his annals, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 BC) boasts how he wrought havoc on enemy cities by making them like the ruin after a flood.

Tel Aviv may have been applied to the present site in the aftermath of the Chaldean destruction of the region around Nippur prior to the arrival of the exiles from Judah. In an effort to rebuild the local economy, a Babylonian administrator may have settled the Hebrew exiles on that site. A wordplay may be implied here, indicating a new beginning for Ezekiel’s compatriots in their land of exile after the flood-like storm of destruction destroyed Jerusalem and their homeland.

The hand of the LORD was on me. Cf. ; . The reference to the Lord’s hand coming on Ezekiel compares with the equivalent expression in the Akkadian composition (Ludlul bel nemeqi 3.1: “I will praise the lord of wisdom”) also known as the “Poem of the Righteous Sufferer,” where Marduk’s hand was heavy on the one who suffered. In this way the prophet describes the urgency, pressure and compulsion by which he is overwhelmed by divine presence. In the rest of the Bible, God’s hand is a manifestation of divine power (e.g., ; ; ; ).

shut yourself inside your house . . . you will be bound . . . you will be silent. The significance of Ezekiel’s initial confinement may be found in extra-Biblical analogues. His experience of the inability to speak should be interpreted within its ancient Near Eastern milieu. Most elements describing Ezekiel’s confinement occur in Akkadian “medical” incantation texts: “the hand of god” on an individual, “seizure of the mouth,” and “binding of the limbs” with ropes. Ezekiel’s experience of confinement, binding and speechlessness is part of the description of his commissioning into a specific prophetic office. These elements should probably be taken as symbolic and stereotypical. Taken at face value, Ezekiel’s speechlessness lasts more than seven years, from one week after his inaugural vision (v. ; ) to the day he receives the news of Jerusalem’s fall ().

take a block of clay . . . draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Local Babylonian coloring is evident in the use of the term for a sun-dried brick (NIV “block of clay”), on which the prophet is to draw the map of Jerusalem. This would be an unusual action in Judah. Such maps, however, were common in the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Numerous depictions of Mesopotamian cities have been found drawn on clay tablets. The maps of Mesopotamian cities, however, do not depict a siege situation. While Ezekiel uses a Babylonian practice of drawing maps on clay tablets, here again he gives it a new meaning. While the image communicates typical representations, Ezekiel provides it with an oral explanation (“this is Jerusalem,” ), giving it specific historical relevance.

lay siege to it. See the article “

an iron wall. Iron in earlier periods was counted among the precious metals. Although more commonly used in the sixth century BC, it still would have been considered a prized object because of its strength and durability. Since Ezekiel is directing the symbolic siege, he must represent God. The iron wall is then understood to be the barrier between God and the people of Jerusalem. It signals that they may expect no help in the coming siege from the divine warrior Yahweh.

wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt. All these products were found in Mesopotamia. Among the names of the cereals enumerated some words, such as “millet,” occur only here in the Bible. Millet required irrigation in the land of Israel. It was more common in Mesopotamia because of the abundance of water and irrigation channels. The mixture of these grains is intended not as some exotic Babylonian recipe but as a siege diet. A Talmudic anecdote recounts an experiment in which these elements were combined to make bread. The product was so disgusting that not even a dog would eat it. Under siege, however, famished humans eat food that even dogs refuse to eat.

twenty shekels of food to eat each day. This is about eight ounces (230 grams) of food per day (barely a handful), about eight to ten times less than normal daily food intake. The allotment of water too is severely reduced (v. ). This description announces the scarcity of food in besieged Jerusalem.

The typical fuel in areas like Mesopotamia and Palestine was dried animal dung or cakes made from the waste pulp of crushed olives. Trees were too precious to be cut for cooking and warming. Ezekiel, however, is horrified when God commands him to cook using human dung (v. ), an unclean substance that must be buried away from human habitation (). As a priest this act would defile him, and he simply cannot bring himself to obey (v. ). Thus God compromises by allowing him to cook over cow dung (v. ).

cut off the food supply. This language is influenced by the “covenant curses” of ; , which will befall the people who persist in breaking the alliance with God. The scarcity of food is a hallmark of these curses. In these images, Ezekiel’s contemporaries would recognize that the prophet is referring to the outworking of a curse. The ninth-century BC bilingual (Aramaic and Akkadian) Tell Fakhariyah Inscription from northern Mesopotamia states a similar curse expressed as scarcity of food.

Ezekiel’s symbolic action of shaving is comparable to a ritual act found in the Babylonian apotropaic namburbi texts, though this may be more akin to the remnant saved () than the destruction (). This ritual in which a man is shaved and his hair gathered into a pot is performed in connection with a catastrophe like an earthquake. Shaving part of the head occurs in the context of punishment by the court alongside flogging in the Code of Hammurapi.

According to , having shaved himself, Ezekiel is ordered to weigh out his hair on a set of scales and divide it into three equal parts. A Babylonian incantation text also speaks of a man’s hair being weighed as an item of identification. This comparison suggests that the act of weighing hair was practiced in Ezekiel’s Babylonian environment. The use of a set of scales intimates to those who grasp the meaning of this sign-act performance that the judgment that the Lord metes out is not haphazard but deliberate and carefully measured.

Manipulation of parts of the body like shaving (or circumcision and laceration) is common to many cultures. According to social anthropologists such manipulation functions to distinguish individuals and to communicate status distinctions. In the Levites shave their whole bodies. This act marks their symbolic submission to divine authority.

In the case of Ezekiel and his elaborate symbolic act, one can argue that the shaving indicates a change in the status of the Israelites from free individuals to captives submitted to their Babylonian conquerors. The shaving serves as a public, temporary marker of this status change. ◆

Painting from the tomb of Userhet shows barbers at work, c. 1438 to 1312 BC.

Egypt, Luxor, West Thebes, Sheik el Gurnak. Tomb of Usirhat, barber, details from fresco. (New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII)/De Agostini Picture Library/G. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images

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take a sharp sword . . . shave your head and your beard. A sword would have been an awkward instrument to shave the beard and head. Though “sword” is the usual translation of this Hebrew word, it can be used for other sharp implements, including axes, daggers and chisels (cf.  [“weapons”]; [“knives”]). In Ugaritic, an implement described by this word is used to carve roast meat. A general-purpose translation like “blade” would be preferable. barber’s razor. The word translated “barber” corresponds to an Akkadian term. Ezekiel borrows it either directly from Akkadian or from Aramaic, which is more probable, the latter having become the new common tongue of that time. Other Biblical texts use more indigenous terms in order to express the action of “shaving” and the instrument called a “razor” (; ). Only in Ezekiel does one find the unique mention of a “barber’s razor” (expressed with a foreign word). The prophet may be referring to an implement well attested in Mesopotamian society of his time and foreign to traditional Israelite economy. See the article “Shaving in the Ancient World.”

Cutting or shaving the hair is most often associated with rituals of mourning (). However, when a Nazirite vow has been completed, the law commands that the hair that has been dedicated during the period of the vow is to be cut and placed as a sacrifice in the fire (). Hair (along with blood) was one of the main representatives in ancient thinking of a person’s life essence. As such it was often an ingredient in sympathetic magic. This is evident, e.g., in the practice of sending along a lock of the presumed prophet’s hair when the prophecies were sent to the king of Mari. The hair would be used in divination to determine whether the prophet’s message would be accepted as valid.

center of the nations. See note on .

unruly. This Hebrew term (“unruly, noisy crowd, tumult, clamor”) has also a metaphoric meaning of “insolent noise, hubris, rebellion.” The NIV mostly translates it with “crowd” or “horde,” which is only one of its meanings. It misses a prominent feature of Ezekiel’s message: the Lord’s wrath against the excessive “clamor” of certain groups.

This particular way of speaking can be clarified in the light of a prominent motif in Mesopotamian literature. In the Atrahasis epic, an eighteenth-century BC Babylonian story of the great flood, the terms “noise” and “clamor” are a recurring theme describing how the human race multiplied and became a “noisy crowd.” Their “uproar” is an expression of their rebellion and defiance of divinely imposed limits. Enlil, the supreme god of the divine council, decides to send the great flood so that the “insolent noise” of the humans may stop.

The same literary motif is found in the Old Babylonian Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin. Several lines describe how the invaders destroy the cities of the Mesopotamian plain by trampling its tumult. Furthermore, “noise” and “clamor” are seen as metaphors for human wicked behavior, describing not merely noise but rather cries of rebellion.

The ninth-century BC Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” speaks of the “clamor” of the inhabitants of Babylonia that becomes unbearable to Erra, the god of plague and war, who then decides to destroy them (Erra I 40). It seems, therefore, that in Ezekiel this term is not used in a private or esoteric way; rather, it points to a sophisticated writer who has adapted to his purpose a prominent motif of Akkadian literature.

parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. According to , the standard curse of covenant violators is cannibalism, where parents eat their children. Ezekiel caps this by stating a hitherto unheard of patricidal cannibalism, where children eat their parents. Ancient Near Eastern texts attest to the practice of cannibalism during sieges. See note on .

high places. See notes on ; ; .

Canaanite incense altar, Taanach, thirteenth to twelfth centuries BC. Incense altars () were made of baked clay, about two feet high, and usually inscribed with animal figures and idols of Canaanite gods.

© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin. Courtesy of the Turkish Ministry of Antiquities and the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, Turkey.

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idols. The Hebrew term (gillulim) used here is one of the key terms in Ezekiel, and it therefore merits particular attention. It is one of the terms the prophet favors to designate pagan gods or idols. Out of its 49 occurrences in the OT, it occurs 39 times in Ezekiel. The term represents an outrageous manner of designating pagan idols as dung. It seems to be a specially coined term of derision treating pagan idols as “dung-gods.”

See note on .

Strike your hands. Gestures and body language take on different meanings in different cultures. In current western society, clapping hands can be used to show appreciation, to summon subordinates or children, to get someone’s attention, to accompany music, or to express frustration (one clap). There were also several functions in the ancient world. Clapping could be used in praise () or applause (), or as a gesture of anger or derision (; ). Variations may exist in the precise movement involved: compare the different significations in Western culture of (1) striking the palms together parallel to the body on a horizontal plain (applause); (2) slapping the palms together in a roughly vertical movement (frustration); and (3) striking the palms together perpendicular to the body while alternating which hand is on top and which is on bottom (as if knocking the dust off). stamp your feet. Often a sign of frustration or anger, as in the Ugaritic Aqhat Legend. In that tale the hero refuses to give his bow to the goddess Anat, telling her hunting weapons are for men. She is so angry that she violently stamps her foot and goes off in a rush to seek revenge from the gods. cry out “Alas!” An exclamation of frustration that reinforces this scene of impending divine punishment. In this verse Ezekiel is instructed by God to perform a series of symbolic gestures (clapping, stomping his foot, and crying out “Alas!”) that display God’s wrath.

the day. Like prophets who have preceded him, Ezekiel refers to the coming of the “day of the LORD.” The first prophet in the Bible to have mentioned this day of doom was Amos ().

The seller will not recover the property. The extent of the doom pronounced upon the nation is such that even the Jubilee Year will not be celebrated (see note on ). Ordinarily, property that has been sold to satisfy debts could be redeemed during the Jubilee, thereby restoring the grants of lands that were first made after the conquest (the Code of Hammurapi contains similar clauses regarding redemption of land). Now the “divine lease” has been revoked and there will be no economic advantage for buyer or seller in the age of destruction to come.

Every hand will go limp. Represents a nonverbal expression of failed strength or loss of courage. every leg will be wet with urine. Indicates the loss of bladder control that occurs in a moment of extreme crisis. The prophet’s words recall a Neo-Assyrian description of fleeing enemies: “Their hearts beat like that of a fledgling dove chased away, they passed hot urine.” Urine would be visible on the legs of soldiers because their skirts were knee high.

the hand of the Sovereign LORD came on me. See note on .

glowing metal. See note on .

took me by the hair of my head. The vision of the departure of the glory of the Lord from the Jerusalem temple reflects formal elements of a definite type of vision known in Akkadian literature. A shining figure that had the appearance of fire took Ezekiel by the lock of his hair. A similar expression is found in “The Vision of the Netherworld by an Assyrian Crown Prince.” The tablet comes from Ashur and is dated around 670 BC. The composition describes how an Assyrian prince (perhaps Ashurbanipal), for unknown reasons, wishes to see the netherworld. To this end he sacrifices to Ereshkigal, the queen of the netherworld, and prays to her and to Erra/Nergal, her consort. His request is granted, and in a dream he receives a vision of the netherworld. He sees Erra/Nergal as a shining figure with lightning flashing from his arms. Erra/Nergal then takes the prince by the hair and carries him. The same expression occurs in the Mesopotamian myth Nergal and Ereshkigal, where it is said that Nergal seized Ereshkigal by her hair.

idol. The Hebrew word used here is an unusual one that is thought to be a loanword from Phoenician or Canaanite. The same word is used to describe the image of Asherah that Manasseh set up in the temple complex (, ). Though this should not be considered the same image, it could easily be another Asherah. Any image that was the object of worship would provoke Yahweh’s jealousy according to the second commandment of the Decalogue.

crawling things and unclean animals. The images portrayed on the inner wall of one of the rooms at the entrance to the palace court (v. ) may be pictorial representations of unclean animals that are worshiped by “the seventy elders of Israel” (v. ), perhaps similar to the representations of serpents, crocodiles, beetles, baboons and lions that appear in the many versions of the Egyptian “Book of the Dead.” Another suggestion compares the wall decorations with animal motifs to those found in Mesopotamian houses, which were decorated with different colored species of ants and cockroaches. These animal motifs had apotropaic purposes, as confirmed by omen texts mentioning reptiles, lizards, scorpions, cockroaches and beetles that might be encountered both inside the house and on its walls.

mourning the god Tammuz. It is generally admitted that this refers to a Mesopotamian rite of lamenting over the god Dumuzi/Tammuz. This is the only reference to Tammuz in the Bible. In the Mesopotamian myth Descent of Ishtar, Tammuz is Ishtar’s lover, whom she betrays and sends to the netherworld to take her place, thus putting into effect his cyclic resurrection. This was a Mesopotamian way of explaining the seasons. While Tammuz was in the netherworld, the vegetation on earth was dying, dried up by the sun. In this verse Ezekiel is describing some elements of religious syncretism taking place among the people of Judah.

bowing down to the sun in the east. Official evidence of sun worship in ancient Israel seems to be tied primarily to the reign of Manasseh. The horses and chariots of the sun that he set up were destroyed by Josiah as he cleansed the temple complex of foreign religious influence (see note on ). Place-names such as Beth Shemesh (), En Shemesh () and Mount Heres () also attest to the popularity of sun worship. Perhaps it is not coincidental that ch. is dated to the time of the autumn equinox, when the sun would be at the angle to shine directly into the temple at sunrise. While Egypt, Canaan and Mesopotamia all had sun-gods (Amun-Ra, Shemesh and Shamash, respectively), it is more likely that this is syncretistic worship of Yahweh as a sun-god. This would complete the series of scenes that portrayed Canaanite worship (v. ), Egyptian worship (vv. ), Mesopotamian worship (v. ), and syncretistic worship of Yahweh (v. ).

six men . . . each with a deadly weapon in his hand. In , the prophet sees the coming of God’s six agents of judgment, accompanied by a recorder. In the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum,” the god of plague and war has at his service seven executioners called “the Seven” (^dSebetti). They are his weapons of destruction that march at his side. In both Ezekiel and the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” the seven executioners are employed to implement divine judgment. In Ezekiel they turn against the idolaters and those who commit abominations, while in the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” they turn against humans, who are accused of having neglected the worship of Erra and Marduk, patron god of Babylon—i.e., of having committed religious offenses. “The Seven” in the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” and the seven executioners in are not free to act as they please. Their activity is controlled and directed by a superior power—Erra or Yahweh, respectively. What makes this comparison pertinent is the fact that “the Seven” are invoked whenever a treaty is concluded between two parties. man . . . who had a writing kit. The motif of a divine record-keeper is found in the Gilgamesh Epic, where Belet-seri kneels before Ereshkigal (the queen of the underworld in Akkadian belief) and reads out the names of mortals who will die. But the scribal writing kit carried by the man here would evoke the image of Nabu, the god of scribes and the scribe of the gods. Nabu was one of the most popular Babylonian gods of the period, as is demonstrated by his appearance in so many of Babylonian names (e.g., Nebuchadnezzar). He is the one who keeps the accounts on the tablet of life, just as the scribal personage here in Ezekiel is doing. bronze altar. Part of the furnishings of the original temple complex created by Solomon (see note on ). It had sat in front of the temple between the new altar and the temple, and had then been moved to the north side to make room for the idolatrous altar erected by Ahaz (; see note on ).

mark on the foreheads. Here we find another literary motif that ch. shares with Akkadian literature (see previous note). The writing down of names or the marking of certain individuals can on certain occasions be an ominous process. According to the Gilgamesh Epic, on periodic occasions the gods made lists that determined who among the humans was to live and who was to die. It refers to Belet-seri, recorder of the netherworld, who reads a tablet, presumably with a list of names, before Ereshkigal, the queen of the netherworld. In Hebrew the “mark” is a taw sign. The protective sign taw, the last letter of the alphabet written in paleo-Hebrew script, represents two intersecting diagonal lines, the shape of an X, and resembles a cross. It was compared to the magical diagonal lines written on the tablets of the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” that prevented any tampering with the text written on them. Its purpose here is merely to discriminate the good people from the rest of the population.

In his Neo-Assyrian inscription, Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) recounts how his father, Sennacherib, had to destroy Babylon on account of three major offenses:

1. Political offenses: treason and perjury by using the gold from the Esagila temple to buy military help from the Elamites against Assyria.

2. Moral and social offenses: lies, oppression and corruption.

3. Religious offenses: they stole the property of Marduk’s temple and incurred his wrath.

Marduk consequently sent an inundation like the great flood and destroyed his temple Esagila in Babylon, and the gods fled.

This was accompanied by the Assyrian spoliation of divine images from their temples. It was meant to portray the abandonment of the enemy’s gods in submission to the superior power of the invader’s god.

The Akkadian accounts of the departure of the divinity from its temple display several links with Ezekiel’s vision of the Lord’s departure:

1. They assume a symbiotic relationship between deity, land and people, analogous to the association of the Lord, Jerusalem and the Israelites.

2. They attribute divine abandonment directly to the wrath of the patron god.

3. The divine wrath was precipitated by the wickedness of the deity’s subjects, expressed in both cultic and moral misdeeds.

4. The god’s departure often coincides with the enemy army moving in and destroying the city.

For Ezekiel’s compatriots in exile, the exposure of the sin of the people, the expression of the divine wrath, and finally the Lord’s abandonment of his temple and his city has a familiar ring. The prophet does not, however, rationalize the defeat of Jerusalem as a capitulation of Yahweh to the supreme might of the Babylonian god Marduk. He grounds the defeat instead in Yahweh’s holiness. The social, political, economic and religious wrongdoings of Jerusalem’s population are incompatible with Yahweh’s ethics. Therefore God’s glory departs from the midst of his people. ◆

One of Esarhaddon’s numerous inscriptions describing his restoration of Babylon.

Kim Walton. The British Museum.

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cherubim. echoes some elements from the previous texts. The four living creatures of ch. are called “cherubim” here in . Modern scholars have compared these creatures with the winged sphinxes and other composite quadrupeds pictured as supporting the throne of ancient Near Eastern kings or serving as pedestals of gods. That Ezekiel does not immediately identify the creatures as cherubim indicates that some difference sets them apart from the Mesopotamian sanctuary images, though he doesn’t give further specification.

Comparable is the early disk-wheeled divine chariot with a god standing in it. The Lord too is said to ride in a chariot (; ). In the vision of divine judgment in , God’s throne is equipped with wheels. Related to this image is one in which “bull-men” support a “stool” on which the symbol of a god rests, or one in which a four-winged “eagle-man” with upraised arms supports a divine symbol over his head. Perhaps even more apt is the high-backed, wheeled sedan chair of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC), depicted on the bronze gate found at Balawat.

The role of the cherubim and of the different winged creatures is to delimit sacred space. On account of their holiness, neither the Israelite God nor the ancient Near Eastern divinities can be directly approached. Access is guarded and protected by the cherubim creatures. They indicate that one is approaching holy ground.

the radiance of the glory of the LORD. See notes on ; ; see also the article “

topaz. Reflects the light and provides a sense of translucent brilliance.

full of eyes. See note on .

four faces. See note on .

Kebar River. See note on .

the glory of the LORD departed. Here Ezekiel is echoing one of the major literary and religious themes of ancient Near Eastern literature: the theme of divine abandonment or the stories of gods forsaking their temples. It is found already in Sumerian texts as an attempt to explain a city’s misfortune. The five Sumerian city laments, dating from 2000–1800 BC, mention the fear of the people and the disaster that falls on the city when the deity abandons its shrine, leaves its statue, and departs to the heavens. The people felt bereaved and abandoned with no protection (see note on ). In Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times the motif is widely used in the service of a political propaganda. The divine abandonment is the rationale of choice adopted by Assyrian scribes as they attempt to account for the human capture of divine images from the perspective of divine will. See the article “Esarhaddon’s Inscription Concerning Babylon.” the threshold. Entranceways have great symbolic significance in the Biblical world. They serve as a place of judgment () as well as a legal site where acts of submission and worship may take place (; ). They also mark the point of entry and exit from a private home, or, as in Ezekiel, from the realm of sacred space to the secular world.

east gate. This would be the gate of the outer court of the temple. While the temple complex had an east-west orientation, it is unclear how closely tied to this sacred precincts were the buildings and courtyards of the royal palace. It is possible that the gate Ezekiel is referring to in this case is one of those that connected the temple and the palace. If this is the case, then its significance is heightened as Yahweh prepares to abandon both the religious community as well as the secular authorities to their fate.

Ezekiel refutes the claims of Jerusalem’s new rulers that they have created a safe haven in the city for the people. He turns this around, transforming the pot (Jerusalem) from a tightly sealed storage jar into a cooking pot in which the people (see ) and their false rulers will be broiled over the flame of Yahweh’s anger (compare ).

Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. The name Pelatiah means “The Lord is my deliverance,” or “The Lord’s remnant.” This name seems to have enjoyed great popularity near the end of Judah’s history. Its meaning reflects the longing of the people for divine intervention on their behalf. Since this man bearing such a significant name has just died, the prophet immediately grasps the name as a portent of the coming disaster: Pelatiah son of Benaiah (“the Lord has built up”) has died. He has symbolized the hope of Jerusalem, but that hope has become futile. With his death the hope of the city dies.

I will gather you. The idea of the powerful and generous ruler who gathers a dispersed people is a major ancient Near Eastern motif that appears with great frequency in Mesopotamian literature. The expression “to gather the dispersed” originated in Sumerian royal inscriptions commemorating the reestablishment of a stable rule after the Ur III political and economic disaster and in connection with several building projects, where it frequently appears in stereotypical expressions like “to establish in their dwellings the scattered countries” and “to make return to their place its [i.e., the city’s] scattered peoples.” While the king usually gathers the dispersed, in one Sumerian prayer this action is attributed to a god. This feature parallels Biblical usage of the expression.

heart of stone. This concept had a couple of associations in the ancient world, mostly from Egypt. First of all, in Egyptian beliefs, it was the heart that was weighed in judgment to determine whether or not the afterlife could be attained. If it was weighed down with guilt and sin, the results could be disastrous (see the article “

mountain east. The Mount of Olives. From here one can look down on the temple mount and the city. From a vantage point in Jerusalem, this would be the limit of how far one could look to the east. Whether the implication is that God is going to sit outside the city and watch (compare ), or whether it is from here that he returns to heaven (it is the traditional site of the ascension of Christ as well, though NT support is slight) is uncertain.

packed for exile. In this sign-act Ezekiel is to pack an exile’s knapsack in preparation for a long journey. The article in question is often represented on Neo-Assyrian monumental reliefs celebrating the victories of Assyrian kings that portray captives being led away in procession with large bags slung over their shoulders. The knapsack must have contained the barest necessities.

dig through the wall. As depicted in Assyrian reliefs, when a city is besieged a number of different measures are used to breach its defenses. Among these is undermining or drilling through the city walls (see the article “

prince. Ezekiel’s antipathy toward the last king of Jerusalem and the fundamentally antidynastic stance in his judgment prophecies is expressed in his preference for the term “prince” instead of “king.” cover his face. This has been variously interpreted as an expression of grief or an allusion to Zedekiah’s blinding that occurred when the Babylonians captured the city. The key to the interpretation lies not in the covering of the eyes but in the reference to not seeing the land. This motif of not seeing the land as punishment appears in ancient Near Eastern curses.

tremble as you eat . . . shudder in fear as you drink. Since eating and drinking are the most basic activities of daily life, the mood at the table often reflects current conditions. At the Passover, the Israelites were to eat their meal “in haste” () as a reflection of their readiness to leave. Here the anxiety betrays the threat they are living under.

flattering divinations. See note on .

flimsy wall . . . cover it with whitewash. Ezekiel uses an analogy similar to that in ; . In both, the prophet’s reality is covered up and people delude themselves into believing that a wound is not serious or a wall is sturdy. It reflects the tendency to hide structural problems with cosmetic solutions. Mesopotamian law codes also deal with unscrupulous builders and homeowners who neglect repairs or attempt to hide unsafe workmanship.

hailstones. This expression occurs only in Ezekiel (see also v. ; ). All three uses of this expression appear in contexts in which God will use them together with other elements of nature as implements of punishment and destruction. Ezekiel uses it alongside of rain and wind, so a meteorological phenomenon must be intended, though hail is ice, not stone. The Hebrew term seems to echo a cognate Akkadian term pertaining to a type of stone (perhaps steatite) that can be carved and transformed into objects such as kitchen utensils. Overall, however, it may refer more to the color of a common stone rather than a geological classification. In Babylonia this stone was used for the fabrication of everyday objects like bowls, spindles and flasks. In Akkadian the word was never used for meteorological phenomena, so it is more likely that in Ezekiel it is a metaphoric expression comparing hail to stones of a certain color.

violent wind. In Mesopotamian laments over the ruin of major cities like Ur, Eridu, Lagash and Nippur dating from Old Babylonian times, the storm or tempestuous wind is mentioned as the main symbol of divine punishment and destruction. The “Lament Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur” describes the destruction as an onslaught of a violent storm. hailstones. See note on v. .

wall . . . covered with whitewash. See note on v. . its foundation will be laid bare. God’s wrath is so strong that the symbolic wall constructed of deceptive prophecy is to be totally razed to its bare foundations. Its foundation will be seen for what it is: self-interest and self-advancement rather than the word of God. Foundations usually consisted of a few courses of stone laid in trenches.

sew magic charms on all their wrists. This practice is a bit uncertain since the Hebrew term only appears in this chapter (vv. , ). It is possible that it relates to Akkadian “binding magic.” Babylonian incantation texts describe how persons wishing to bind others to their will made bands that they wore on their arms or wrists, empowering them with an oath. Perhaps these false female prophets were employing something similar or perhaps Ezekiel is simply comparing their influence to a practice known to him from Babylonia. veils of various lengths. The women involved in magical practices are making veils. The meaning of the term is uncertain. It differs from the usual Hebrew words for veils and therefore suggests a special kind of veil used in magical practices. The Babylonian series of incantations called Maqlû refers to calling on gods of the night and refers to the night as a “veiled bride” (Tablet I, 1–2), the female counterpart of the gods of darkness presiding over witchcraft.

elders. The mention of the elders of Israel also occurs in ; , . This group’s existence and status were rooted in preexilic Judahite social structures. Although King Jehoiachin and members of his court were also in Babylonian exile, they seem not to have exercised any authority over the exiled Judahites. Rather, the exiles were governed in the traditional manner by the heads of the clans, referred to as the “family heads” (; ; , ) or “heads of the families” (; ; , ). These leaders are referred to in Aramaic as “elders of the Jews.” The Jews in exile were not the only social group to have been organized in this manner. A document from the time of the Persian king Cambyses (529 BC) records an exact counterpart for the colony of Egyptian exiles near Babylon in its reference to the assembly of the elders of the Egyptians.

, , idols in their hearts. The Hebrew expression specifies that they have set idols upon their hearts. One possible interpretation understands this expression as indicating that the Israelites are wearing amulets of gods on their chests. It was a widespread custom among the Babylonians to wear all kinds of amulets around their neck and on their chest beneath their clothes. In light of such use, Ezekiel is likely reacting to some practices that the Israelites in exile have been adopting from their hosts.

Noah, Daniel and Job. The Biblical Noah and Job are paragons of virtue from eras long ago. They are not considered to be Israelites. Moreover, the spelling of Daniel here (dnl) differs from the Hebrew spelling of the prophet Daniel (dnyl) and is usually taken as a reference to another ancient Gentile of old—hence the aptness of comparing the king of Tyre to him ().

In the Ugaritic texts, the father of the hero Aqhat is a king, Dan’el, who is described as the righteous ruler “who judges the cause of the widow and adjudicates the case of the fatherless.” This is a stock phrase that describes a righteous ruler par excellence. Dan’el is an upright man who prays to god and gives righteous judgment. The memory of an ancient righteous man named Dan’el is part of the common tradition in the ancient Near East. He has become an emblematic figure and we may see a reference to him here in Ezekiel.

The context favors such an understanding. The point of Ezekiel’s invectives is that Israel has become more wicked and worse than the nations and countries around her. In , Israel is accused of not even conforming to the standards of the nations around her. Even if the three noble Gentiles of old—Noah, Dan’el and Job—would intercede for Israel, they could not revert the judgment God ordained for the wayward and rebellious nation. Accepting a reference to Ugaritic Dan’el in this verse makes Ezekiel’s invective even more poignant and squares well with the rest of his message.

Like the song of the vineyard in , Ezekiel also uses the vine as a metaphor for Judah (see also ). In each case, the uselessness of the vine versus a branch or a tree well rooted is the justification for its destruction. A similar image appears in an Egyptian wisdom piece, the “Instruction of Amenemope.” There too a plant that serves as the metaphor for fools who speak without thinking is uprooted, burned and destroyed because it soon withers and has no value once uprooted. The metaphor of a city as an unproductive plant is known from the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” (known copies date to the eighth century BC) in which Marduk laments Babylon. He says that he filled it with seeds like a pinecone but no fruit came from it, and he planted it like an orchard but never tasted its fruit.

Although they have come out of the fire, the fire will yet consume them. Refers to events related to the fall of Jerusalem and its aftermath. The first burning refers to the siege of Jerusalem in Zedekiah’s time (). The second burning adds a judgment that the people will face after the fall of Jerusalem. Many of the inhabitants who remained behind after 587 BC took up residence at Mizpah or returned to their home villages while Gedaliah served as governor at Mizpah. After the Judahite rebels murdered Gedaliah, they were subjected to more Chaldean/Babylonian wrath and punishment by dispersion (; ).

confront Jerusalem. That the allegory in ch. is intended as an invective is clear from the imperative with which it starts. her. The ancient Near Eastern custom of personifying cities as female and married to the patron deity may have influenced Ezekiel in presenting Jerusalem as a woman. The accusation of religious straying of the people of Jerusalem is expressed through the description of the shameless acts of a brazen prostitute (v. ), which draws some of its imagery from Canaanite practices but also contains a reminiscence of the Mesopotamian Ishtar festival. Exiled in Babylonia, Ezekiel could not have failed to be confronted with the grandiose and, in many respects, obscene Ishtar festival. He seems to draw heavily on the Ishtar cult as the epitome of idolatrous and religious straying of his own nation.

All of the actions described here would ordinarily be those of the midwife. She would cut and tie off the umbilical cord, rinse the placenta off the newborn, clean the baby’s skin with salt water, and finally wrap it in a blanket. The child would then be presented to the parents to be named. However, in this case the child is not accepted as a member of the household and instead is left in a field, where its fate is left up to God. The role of the midwife in preparing the birthing room and caring for the newborn is often attributed to deity in the ancient world—especially in metaphors. In a segment of the Babylonian Atrahasis epic, the fertility goddess Mami is the midwife of the gods who brings humanity into being. In the Egyptian Great Hymn to Aten, the sun-god presides as midwife over the lands of Egypt each morning. The midwife rituals involved provide for both the physical needs of the child as well as a symbolic transference from the realm of the womb to the living world.

thrown out into the open field. Both classical and ancient Near Eastern sources make mention of infanticide. Graphic evidence of this has been found in recent excavations at Ashkelon. The bodies of a hundred infants were uncovered that had been disposed of in a sewer drain dating to the Roman-Byzantine period. Infanticide was usually employed to dispose of female or malformed children. This was done as a means of either population control or economic necessity since many villages barely were able to feed and care for healthy children and adults. The fact that the infant was “thrown out” into a field has legal implications as well. The parents are renouncing all legal claims to the child and leaving it up to God and/or another person to “adopt” and thus save the child’s life. Among the examples of this practice are Moses’ exposure in the Nile () and the birth legend of Sargon of Akkad.

in your blood. This expression corresponds to an Akkadian adoption formula: “in birth fluid and blood.” One Neo-Babylonian Akkadian text describes an adoption procedure as abandoning a child still covered in his amniotic fluid and birth blood and giving him to the wet nurse. Interpreted in the light of ancient Near Eastern texts, the Hebrew expression signifies a formal declaration of adoption. Whoever takes a child while “in its blood” acquires full legal right to it. The Code of Hammurapi indicates that a child so adopted may never be reclaimed by the birth parents.

This verse speaks of a young maiden having reached the age of marriageability: her breasts are formed and her pubic hair has grown. These references should be taken as conventional tokens of marriageability in the ancient Near East, as attested by an almost identical text found in an Inanna/Ishtar hymn.

I bathed you with water . . . and put ointments on you. Marriage in ancient Mesopotamia, like marriage in ancient Israel, included ceremonies and rites. Bathing and anointing are part of a wedding ceremony in Old Babylonian and Middle Assyrian texts, as indicated as early as Sumerian sacred marriage texts.

embroidered dress. Among the bridal gifts is embroidered cloth for her gown. Only the finest cloth was embroidered, and it was considered a prize in war () as well as a luxury item suitable for trade with other countries (). On a more practical level, both the Code of Hammurapi and the Laws of Lipit-Ishtar from Mesopotamia list oil, grain and clothing as the items that husbands are required to supply their wives. sandals of fine leather. Ordinary sandals were made from woven fibrous material and secured with leather thongs (). Footwear entirely made of leather would be a luxury and a signifier of both wealth and power. Fine leather sandals are represented on the panels of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (ninth century BC) and on wall paintings from the time of the Assyrian king Sargon II (721–705 BC).

bracelets . . . necklace . . . ring on your nose . . . earrings . . . crown. The full array of jewelry provided by the husband consists of many of the types of jewelry regularly used to adorn a woman’s body and head (compare the more complete list in ). Like the bride gifts for Rebekah (), there are arm bracelets, possibly with animal heads at each end. The necklace may have been a strand of beads or linked metal rings similar to those in Assyrian reliefs or the Nimrud ivories depicting royal Assyrian women. Her nose ring again follows the style of Rebekah’s adornment (), and her earrings were probably ovoid loops inserted into pierced ears. Most striking of all is the golden crown, or tiara, on her head; it completes the ensemble of a ruler’s wife and has parallels in both Egyptian and Assyrian art.

prostitute. See notes on ; .

slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. See notes on ; ; ; ; .

mound . . . lofty shrine in every public square. These places of idolatrous worship were also erected “at every street corner” (v. ). mound. The Hebrew term means something rounded, thus possibly an artificially constructed elevation on which cultic actions were performed. This word is attested in Ugaritic and in Mari Akkadian literature. It designates the base or the pedestal on which was placed the stone statue (baetylus) representing one of the divinities.

You engaged in prostitution . . . you were not satisfied. The woman who incarnates the city of Jerusalem is so restless and dissatisfied that she roams the squares looking for new lovers. She is unable to achieve her role of a wife and a mother. She kills her children and abandons her husband.

Such a description may suggest to Israelites in Babylon the goddess Inanna, the patroness of prostitutes. As in this portrayal of Jerusalem, she is a restless and a perpetually dissatisfied goddess who abandons her lovers one after another.

you . . . exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers. This verse is part of a series of graphic descriptions of the sexual parts of both the harlot Jerusalem and her lovers. you poured out your lust. Has sexual connotations in the same vein as the verses speaking of a woman spreading her legs to passersby (v. ), of the Egyptians with their large genitals (v. ), and the baring of pudenda (vv. ). These expressions go hand in hand with the reference to lewdness (vv. , , ), whoredom and nudity (vv. , , ). Such details can be understood in the light of comparative texts related to the Ishtar festival and the liturgical texts sung in her honor. In one of the songs sung by the cultic singer, the sexual parts of the goddess Ishtar were praised. Unbridled licentiousness was part of Ishtar’s festival, and Ezekiel’s sexual imagery is probably a reflection of the orgiastic aspects of the Ishtar’s cult he witnessed in the land of his exile.

mounds . . . lofty shrines. See note on v. . strip you . . . leave you . . . naked. Ezekiel, who has taken over the marriage metaphor from Hosea, discusses in detail the punishment descending on an adulteress (v. ; ). In , where Babylon is depicted as a whore, her private parts are also uncovered as punishment for her transgressions. In the city of Nineveh is presented as an unchaste woman who will be uncovered on account of her many promiscuous acts. With the act of stripping, the husband is not only humiliating his wife in public but is also signifying symbolically that he brings to an end the commitments he has been bound to since the commencement of the marriage. According to parallel ancient Near Eastern texts, the public stripping of one’s wife represented a nonverbal gesture signifying a divorce. The act of stripping naked an adulterous wife is paralleled by a Middle Babylonian text from Hana and a text from Nuzi. In the Hana text, a woman who wished to divorce her husband must leave the house naked. The standard phrase runs “to strip off the garment and to drive out naked.” The parallels not only illustrate what was apparently a widespread custom but also suggest that this treatment inflicted on the wife was intended, in addition to shaming her, to emphasize her sudden lack of economic security.

Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Ezekiel’s reference is not only to these Canaanite peoples but also to the intermarriage that must have taken place over the centuries between them and the Israelites.

Samaria . . . Sodom. The warning is quite clear here. Both Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, and Sodom were destroyed by God for being corrupt (; ). The reference to Samaria as the older or “big” sister may refer to its relative importance as the capital of ten tribes. It was constructed by Omri () in the ninth century BC and thus was much “younger” than even David’s Jerusalem. God may have chosen Sodom simply because of the tradition of its destruction (). As a city, it probably predated Jerusalem’s founding, but it was probably smaller in terms of size given the ease with which it is said to have been captured in .

Edom. See note on . Given the apparent alliance between the Edomites and the Chaldeans/Babylonians at the time of Jerusalem’s siege (see ), the Edomites would be in a position to gloat over or even loot Judah once the Babylonians had conquered the capital. Philistines. During the seventh century BC they vacillated between antagonism and alliance with the Babylonians. Ashkelon, e.g., was sacked and burned by Nebuchadnezzar in 604 BC. In any case, Jerusalem’s capture in 597 and destruction in 587 would have been the basis upon which other states could chide the people of Jerusalem, considering that city to be the new Sodom and evidence of God’s righteous anger against a corrupt and disobedient nation.

Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you. The enduring covenant of which the Lord speaks resumes the initial marriage metaphor with which ch. began. In ch. the pendulum swings metaphorically from abandoned child of suspect parentage to princess bride with the Lord as groom, from royal wedding to prostitution, and from disgraceful conduct of an unfaithful wife to an everlasting covenant. The covenant stands here for marriage (as in ; ). The marital metaphor implies children, who attest to the love of the parents, guarantee the future of a nation, and ensure the continuation of the parental love.

Ezekiel uses a riddle of two eagles and a vine to refer to the relations of the kings of Judah to the kings of Babylon and Egypt.

A great eagle with powerful wings. The eagle is the symbol of royal strength and splendor. The Assyrian king Sennacherib (704–681 BC) calls the eagle “the prince of birds.” In the ancient Near East the eagle was also a common military symbol seen on ensigns as early as Old Babylonian times and as late as the Persian and Roman periods. Kings in battle were often described as eagles with outstretched wings. Another Assyrian king, Esarhaddon (681–669 BC), boasts of spreading his eagle-like pinions to destroy enemies. A near contemporary of Ezekiel, the prophet Habakkuk described the attack of the Babylonians in a similar manner: “They fly like an eagle swooping to devour” (). Here the great eagle most likely refers to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

broke off . . . carried it away . . . planted it. Transplanted cedars were a feature of Assyrian royal gardens. Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BC) and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) transplanted cedars from Lebanon and a series of other trees to their royal cities. This well-known feature of Mesopotamian kings who tended their royal gardens is metaphorically applied to Nebuchadnezzar, who arrived in Jerusalem (called “Lebanon” in v. ) ten years earlier in 597 BC. topmost shoot. King Jehoiachin, who, after a three-month reign, was carried away captive to Babylon, the “city of traders,” along with his family, other members of Judahite nobility, and the prophet Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah (renamed Zedekiah) in Jehoiachin’s place to secure the loyalty of the throne of Judah to the Babylonians.

a member of the royal family. Zedekiah; this description recognizes him as a member of the Davidic dynasty. The expression has an exact Akkadian counterpart, underlining the legitimacy of a king in contrast to a usurper, who was called “a son of nobody.” made a treaty . . . putting him under oath. These phrases derive from the realm of suzerainty treaties and loyalty oaths. These too have exact Akkadian counterparts. The use of such specific political terminology from the sphere of international treaties calls attention to Ezekiel’s main contention: Zedekiah’s breach of the vassal treaty with the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.

king rebelled. Zedekiah’s breaking away from Nebuchadnezzar appears to have coincided with the accession of Psammetichus II (595–589 BC) as king of Egypt. A papyrus from El Hibeh refers to a visit of the pharaoh to Syria-Palestine in his fourth year (591 BC) officially as a religious pilgrimage to Byblos. To conduct a pilgrimage under the nose of the Chaldean/Babylonian overlords carried with it a challenge to Babylonian suzerainty, which was not lost on the local rulers of the region. During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, Judah looked to Psammetichus II’s successor, Hophra (589–570 BC), for help—but to no avail (). Egypt did not take up arms to defend its former ally. Zedekiah’s pro-Egyptian policy was not a last-minute strategy concocted out of desperation but was a long-lasting tendency of the Jerusalem nobility that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel denounced as fundamentally wrong and hopeless.

The invective of this verse is addressed against King Zedekiah, who broke the vassal treaty with the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Here the prophecies concerning the breach of vassal loyalty have been “radicalized” in a unique way by presenting the offense against the king of Babylon as an offense against the Lord. Some scholars argue that according to the Babylonian practice of covenant making, the vassals had to swear by their own divinities. As implied by , the God of Israel was presumably appealed to by both Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar as a witness in the vassal oaths between them. Consequently, the Lord turns against the oath and treaty breaker, Zedekiah. Hittite practice normally required vassals to swear by the gods of both nations. Assyrian practice ignored the gods of the vassals, while the later Babylonians had vassals swear by their own gods.

According to , the king of Babylon “made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.” Both Mattaniah and Zedekiah are Yahwistic names (iah = Yah, short for Yahweh, i.e., the Lord). While his old name means “Gift of Yahweh,” the new one means “Righteousness of Yahweh.” Since this name was given him by his Babylonian overlord, one might assume that Nebuchadnezzar made the new king of Judah swear by the “righteousness” of the Lord that he would remain true to his word. Zedekiah, however, acted as a traitor toward his Babylonian overlord in contrast to the meaning of the new name given to him.

Stele of the Vultures depicts prisoners in a net, twenty-fifth century BC. The mention of the net as the Lord’s weapon () echoes this motif.

Kim Walton. The Louvre.

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spread my net. The mention of the net as the Lord’s weapon echoes a major ancient Near Eastern iconographic and literary motif. The net is the weapon that the gods used in punishing political perjury. Nets and snares are also used in metaphors for magical hexes that exercise power over their victims.

a splendid cedar . . . Birds . . . will find shelter. The concept of the cosmic tree or the “one tree” is common to many peoples and traditions. It stands as a representation of beauty and fertility, drawing its sustenance from the waters of the earth and providing shelter and food to all creatures that shelter under its boughs. Its symmetry and stability provide in ancient Near Eastern sources a check against death and a promise of the continuance of existence. Thus in Assyrian art is found a stylized “tree of life” that may have represented the role of the king to care for his people (see note on ).

The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. In ch. Ezekiel discusses the traditional belief in corporate guilt and responsibility. The doctrine of divine retribution or nemesis held that children would be punished for the crimes of their parents. The doctrine of transgenerational transmission of guilt is expressed in the second commandment of the Decalogue: “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” (). A similar idea is found in ancient Near Eastern texts. Faced with a plague that was affecting the people of his land, the fourteenth-century BC Hittite king Mursili II indicates in a prayer to the storm-god that though his father had sinned, he was innocent. He then acknowledges, however, that the father’s sin falls upon the son, and so he is suffering for his father’s sin.

The Bible interprets the fall of Jerusalem in the same manner. The removal of King Jehoiakim is described as an act of divine retribution “because of the sins of Manasseh” (), Jehoiakim’s dynastic ancestor. The idea of collective responsibility is found in the Hittite Laws, in which it is stated that the punishment for disobeying the order of the king will involve the culprit, the perpetrator of the offense, but also his entire household. It indicates that he and his whole family must be killed, so that there will be no continuance of his line.

A distinction must be retained between the reality that the choices made by one generation may bring continuing troubles for successive generations and the legal restriction that punishment for a specific crime by a parent should not be carried out on a child. For example, some Babylonian indications are that if a person caused the death of another’s son, his own son should be put to death. This is a different matter from recognizing that there are ongoing consequences for bad choices.

Ezekiel’s list of virtues and vices seems to have arisen in priestly and temple circles. There are several Egyptian parallels of such lists that were inscribed at the entrances to temples containing most of the cataloged sins found in Ezekiel’s list. Such lists were intended to inculcate Egyptian priests with virtue and devotion.

eat at the mountain shrines. Presumably, this is a charge of idolatry at local high places. Unfortunately, there is no parallel from Biblical or ancient Near Eastern law to help illumine this practice. It might be compared to the giving of Jerusalem’s children as food to the gods () and to the charge that the people of Judah are willing to worship “on every high hill” (; ) throughout the land. A similar condemnation of the use of hilltop shrines by the people of Israel can be found in . idols of Israel. It would appear that Ezekiel is using a stock phrase coined during the late monarchy or perhaps during the exile for the extreme impurity associated with idol worship. His language is intentionally vulgar as it characterizes the idols in the crudest possible way: they are best likened to feces or stools of excrement (see note on ).

lend . . . at interest. Consistent with Biblical law, Ezekiel considers the practice of charging interest on a loan an unrighteous act (see notes on ; ; ; ).

The one who sins is the one who will die. While the social structure of the ancient Near East was primarily oriented toward the group (tribe, clan, family), there is a strand of individual responsibility that appears in literary and philosophical works. Among the examples of this is a statement in the Gilgamesh Epic. The Mesopotamian god Ea berates the chief god Enlil for bringing on the great flood without just cause, insisting that the sinner is the one who should be punished for his own sin.

a strong lion . . . became a man-eater. In ch. , by using the special genre of a dirge, Ezekiel evokes the melancholic atmosphere of a lament over the rulers of Israel and Judah presented as lions. The lion was a common symbol for royalty in the ancient Near East.

he was trapped in their pit. Lion hunting was one of the favorite sports of many kings in the ancient Near East. The method of using a pit to capture a lion reflects ancient lion-hunting techniques. An eighteenth-century BC letter from northern Syria describes how once the lion was trapped in the pit, wood was thrown into it and set on fire, thus killing the lion.

cage. This Hebrew word occurs only here in the Bible and is a loanword from Akkadian. Though originally thought to be a cage for transporting war prisoners, it is now certain that both the Akkadian word and its Hebrew counterpart denote a “neck-stock” or “(wooden) collar” used to transport both animals (lions) and prisoners of war. A comment from Ashurbanipal’s annals illustrates the use of this device for both humans and animals as it talks about putting a pillory on a captive’s neck together with a bear and a dog at the gate of Nineveh.

seventh year . . . fifth month . . . tenth day. Based on the year in which Jehoiachin and his court were taken into Babylonian exile, this date formula would correlate to Aug. 15, 591 BC. It is possible that it could refer to 593 if one were counting from the beginning of the year that Jehoiachin became king in Jerusalem. inquire of the LORD. Messages were sought in troubled times. In Babylonian religious practice the occurrence of an omen might lead someone to go to a prophet or priest to ask for an interpretation. At other times, it may be a historical event that would make it desirable to have a word from God. It may be that the elders hoped to demonstrate their trust in Yahweh by this act. However, there is also evidence in Jeremiah of representatives of the king seeking out the prophet and virtually ordering him to speak a message of salvation for Jerusalem (). There is no indication in the text what may have motivated this visit to Ezekiel. Since his speech goes back to the wilderness situation and makes frequent reference to Israel’s early history with Egypt, it may well be a potential agreement between Egypt’s pharaoh Psammetichus II and Judah’s king Zedekiah that prompted concern among the elders. It is believed that Psammetichus made overtures to Zedekiah in 592 BC.

swore with uplifted hand. There are many references in the Bible to taking an oath by raising up a hand to heaven (e.g., ; ). Ezekiel uses the phrase ten times with God being the one to take an oath by raising his hand. Since God has no need to raise a hand toward himself, we can assume that it is just being used here as a stock phrase for making an oath.

flowing with milk and honey. See notes on ; .

statutes . . . laws. The Hebrew terms used here are extremely important to a proper understanding of Ezekiel’s controversial statement. This is not a reference to the law given at Mount Sinai, and the Hebrew word torah is not used. The Hebrew word the NIV translates “statutes” is the same Hebrew word that is translated “decrees” in v.  except that in v.  it is feminine (as usual) rather than masculine (as here). The Hebrew word the NIV translates “laws” is the word for God’s judicial decisions. The consequence of Israel’s unfaithfulness, then, was that God decreed events that were not in their favor, and he made judicial decisions that threatened their survival. This resulted in God’s use of forces that devastate Israel such as war, famine, plague, foreign armies.

Burning of conquered cities () was common in the ancient world and archaeologists can often easily detect the burn layer like this one at Hazor.

Kim Walton

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set fire to you. This verse describes the kind of phenomenon that the Babylonians of Ezekiel’s time attributed to Erra, the god of fire, plague and destruction, and to Erra’s lieutenant, Ishum.

I will draw my sword. As early as the end of the third millennium BC, the invasion of armies is interpreted as the intentional actions of a patron deity who has been angered by the behavior of the people (e.g., the Gutian invasion that brought an end to the Empire of Agade in the “Curse of Agade”). In Mesopotamia this traditional theology is represented also in Cyrus’s rhetoric concerning the overthrow of the Babylonians because of Marduk’s displeasure with Nabonidus.

cut off the righteous and the wicked. The announcement that both righteous and wicked will be cut off reflects the intensity of the divine judgment. The statement rules out any hope for Judah and Jerusalem. Since historical reality does not confirm total destruction of the population of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, this hyperbole may be seen as a deliberate rhetorical device intended to shock his audience and to awaken them out of their spiritual lethargy. The same inclusion of the righteous with the wicked occurs in the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum,” describing the result of indiscriminate destruction that befell the inhabitants of Babylon. Erra himself admits that he made no distinction between the righteous and the wicked. Yet in Babylon too a remnant was left, allowing the city to continue to live.

sword. While this term occurs no fewer than 89 times in Ezekiel as one of the principal key words of the book, the greater part of ch. is dedicated to this term, where it occurs 15 times. Therefore ch. is usually called the song of the sword. The Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” describes a similar event to the one described in Ezekiel. It deals with the destruction of the city of Babylon on account of the cultic and social crimes of its inhabitants. The agent of destruction is Erra’s lieutenant, Ishum, who incarnates the ravaging effect of fire. This composition first addresses him as “torch” and then as “sword.” In Ezekiel’s song of the sword, where he identifies fire with the sword, the prophet appears to have adopted a Babylonian literary motif for his own rhetorical purposes.

According to v. , Nebuchadnezzar hesitated at Damascus, wondering whether to attack Rabbah of the Ammonites or Jerusalem in Judah. As was customary in ancient Near Eastern war campaigns, he resolved the issue by using divinatory techniques to determine which route to take. In v. , he applies three methods of divination: (1) He shakes the arrows, a practice known as belomancy or rhabdomancy, which consists of tossing inscribed arrows and drawing one, as one would draw a lot, on the assumption that the selected arrow shows the advice of the gods (see note on ). (2) He consults his idols, here called the teraphim. While the term teraphim occurs only 15 times in the OT, the scholarly bibliography on these objects is voluminous without completely dissipating the mystery that surrounds their exact use. They are associated with the protecting and counseling spirits of the ancestors to whom one turns for advice when faced with a difficult decision (see the article “

turban . . . crown. Based on descriptions in Mesopotamian texts and artistic renderings on Assyrian palace walls, it seems that the “crown” of a king was in fact more like a turban. A cloth was wound around the head several times and it in turn was encrusted with jewels and golden ornaments and elaborately embroidered with symbols of the king’s majesty. Ezekiel, in calling for Zedekiah to remove his headgear, is commanding the king to relinquish his primary symbol of power because he no longer deserves to wear it. The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low. This statement is not a call simply for a change in the occupant of the throne of Jerusalem, where Zedekiah replaces Jehoiachin. The prophet uses a well-known topos of ancient Near Eastern literature, announcing a wholesale revolution and a radical social upheaval that serves as a corrective affecting all strata of Judahite society.

polished to consume. The Hebrew is an idiomatic expression “to open the mouth in murder.” This unusual expression reflects the manner in which the ancients spoke about the sword as a devouring animal. It is part of an important literary and iconographic motif present in the ancient Near East and reflected in the Bible. The sword is seen as having a mouth, as in another common Biblical expression: “to put to the mouth of the sword.” The sword is often presented under the metaphor of a devouring monster that “eats” flesh and “drinks” blood (see ; ; ). A similar conception of the sword is found in Akkadian texts such as the vassal treaties of Esarhaddon (680–669 BC) and numerous Egyptian texts. This idiomatic expression finds its explanation in the evidence of archaeology. In excavations throughout the Middle East swords and battle axes have been found in which the blade is represented as the tongue sticking out of the open, ravenous mouth of a lion or a dragon, which constitutes the base of the sword hilt or the handle of the ax.

treated father and mother with contempt . . . oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. The particular responsibility of the king to prevent the abuse of parents and the helpless is a requirement of just rule in the ancient Near East. See notes on ; ; ; ; , .

dross. In the smelting process, silver is separated from lead and other alloyed metals (copper, tin and iron) through a two-stage process. During the second stage, after all vestiges of sulfur have been removed, the silver is liquefied and the lead dross floats on the surface, allowing it to be skimmed off. Ezekiel’s metaphor suggests a further purification of Judah is necessary (i.e., the exilic experience) so that the dross of its lawless, covenant-breaking nature can be removed by God’s hot wrath (see ). See note on .

not . . . rained on in the day of wrath. In the Babylonian Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” one finds a unique reference in Akkadian literature of the city of Sippar being spared the great flood. Some have argued that this singular reference to the day of wrath in connection with the great flood in Ezekiel may stem from the awareness of Ezekiel and the exiles in Babylon of the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum,” a work that perhaps dates to the eighth century BC (at the earliest). Numerous points of contact exist between the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” and the book of Ezekiel by way of allusions and motifs. There is an additional similarity concerning the way in which the literary motif of the preservation from the great flood is used in the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” and in Ezekiel. In the former, the god Marduk tells Erra that the city of Sippar has been spared the deluge. The city survived that great calamity, but it did not escape a subsequent destruction provoked by Erra and Ishum, whose name means “Fire.” Here in , the land of Israel had been spared the rains of the great flood in the day of wrath. The evildoers, however, will not be spared the subsequent destruction by fire: “So I [the LORD] will pour my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger” (v. ).

warriors. Or “guardsmen”; the Hebrew term corresponds to the Akkadian word for “bodyguard.” Shortly after the fall of the northern kingdom, some Israelite warriors were integrated into the Assyrian military forces. In an Assyrian document from that time, this same term is applied to a man with an Israelite name.

clothed in blue. Assyrian warriors, colorfully attired, are pictured on Assyrian reliefs. mounted horsemen. Since the time of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC), organized cavalry became important as the chief assault force of the Assyrian army.

prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians. Under the metaphor of Oholah’s prostitution, the prophet castigates Israel’s political alliances. The northern kingdom’s “liaison” with Assyria began with the tribute Jehu paid to Shalmaneser III in 841 BC (see the article “

men portrayed on a wall. One of the standard means of decorating the walls of Mesopotamian palace gates and walls was with the figures of soldiers, kings and symbolic beasts (such as the dragons on the Ishtar Gate in Babylon). The Assyrian palace in Nineveh has preserved scenes of siege warfare, hunting, and royal and divine figures. Much of what we know about the appearance, clothing and military techniques and weapons come from these reliefs. Although much of the paint has now worn away, it is evident that these figures were once brightly colored, in some cases larger than life size, and undoubtedly intimidating to subject peoples. Such power by association might have also been enticing to the leaders of Judah, as Ezekiel suggests.

chariot officers. Assyrian and Babylonian chariots generally carried three men: (1) a driver; (2) the commander, who wielded bow and spear; and (3) a shield-bearer, who also handed weapons to the commander as needed. The Akkadian term for chariot officers is shalshu; this may be a cognate for Hebrew shalishim, which is used here (the Hebrew root makes it likely that there is some connection to “three”). An alternative suggestion is that the term refers to an officer of the third rank.

This verse enumerates a series of invaders, instruments of God’s judgment on Israel. Pekod. See note on . They are mentioned several times in the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC) and Sargon II 721–705 BC). The name is found listed in “The Court of Nebuchadnezzar” document, which mentions the names of 11 senior officials who acted as district officials of Babylonia, simply designated by their tribal association. Shoa and Koa. Identified with Aramean tribes called Sutû and Qutu in Akkadian literature. In the ninth-century BC Babylonian Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum,” the Sutû and Qutu are the principal invaders coming down from the mountains and attacking various cities in the Mesopotamian valley. The presence of these Aramean tribes in the Northwest Semitic region is attested since the time of Mari (eighteenth century BC).

cut off your noses and your ears. In the ancient Near East this was done to a variety of subordinates who broke faith, such as Egyptian officials who were false to their commission or slaves who received stolen goods from their master’s wife (while the thieving wife’s nose or ears may also have been cut off). An adulteress’s nose could be cut off at her husband’s wish.

Tomb painting of Nefertari showing eye makeup (), 1298 to 1235 BC.

Wikimedia Commons

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eye makeup. Women throughout the ancient Near East regularly enlarged and darkened their eyes with a mixture of olive oil and malachite (green) or galena (black) (see note on ). Babylonian sources mention eye paint that included stibnite (antimony trisulfide). Decorated palettes were used to grind the ore and mix it for application. These palettes have been found at many Iron II sites in Israel, including Megiddo.

elegant couch. The adulteress Jerusalem is portrayed in much the same light as the prostitute in . Both seduce their lovers with an inviting couch, incense and persuasive words. Prior to the Hellenistic period, all references to the couch are associated with a sleeping chamber (see ; ), not the banqueting room. incense and olive oil. As part of the anticipated sexual activity, the adulteress Jerusalem has perfumed her bed chamber with incense (; ; see note on ) and has sweet smelling oils at hand for anointing their hair and bodies (). Similar images are found in the Cairo Love Songs discovered by archaeologists in the Karnak temple complex in Luxor (Biblical Thebes).

ninth year . . . tenth month . . . tenth day. Basing his dating scheme on the accession year for Zedekiah (596 BC), then the date for the beginning of siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s army would be Jan. 5, 587 BC; alternatively, this has been reckoned as Jan. 15, 588.

cooking pot. Usually a wide-mouthed ceramic jar, though here it is made of copper (v. ). When manufactured for temple use the vessel would be made of silver or gold. Available in various sizes, they could be used over a fire if placed on a platform or tripod of stones, as in the narrative in . For the use of a cooking pot as part of a prophetic message, see Jeremiah’s “pot that is boiling” in .

pot now encrusted. Ezekiel probably describes not the pot itself but the contents of the pot (“choice” pieces of meat, v. ) as tainted or diseased. in whatever order it comes. The casting of the lot would be done to decide which pieces would be reserved for special use (perhaps to be gifts to the temple). But in this analogy, though they were choice pieces of meat, they had gone bad and were not eligible for holy use.

spices. In recipes from eighteenth-century BC Babylonia, seasonings for meat dishes and stews included salt as well as onions, leeks, mint and garlic. In these ancient preparations, the cooks added distinctive flavor with anise, coriander, cumin and dill. Given the metaphoric nature of this meal, the well-cooked meat may even refer to bodies of the people being prepared for burial with spices. let the bones be charred. The meat is cooked so thoroughly that it easily comes off the bones. The bones then are broken so that the marrow will mix with the other ingredients and add flavor to the broth. Once this has been poured off, what remains is a virtually useless mass of carbonized bits. For easy disposal they will be burned so completely that they literally fall apart and can be scattered over the refuge heap (cf. ). A thorough job of either purification or destruction could be drawn from this metaphor, though the context favors the former (v. ).

Tomb wall showing a funeral procession. Saqqara, 1550 to 1292 BC. See note on .

© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin. Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin.

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You will not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners. Here (and in v. ) Ezekiel exhorts the exiled Judahites not to mourn for the fall of Jerusalem and its temple. The breakdown of mourning rites in the face of universal grief is portrayed in a passage from the ancient Egyptian Prophecies of Neferti, which describes the collapse of the social order of the Old Kingdom and extreme introversion of the grief-stricken people. In that context mourning is absent in the face of denial and a concern for oneself. If this offers any direction, Ezekiel is not commanding the people not to mourn (his own lack of mourning was the response to God’s instructions) but is saying that, in fact, the people will not mourn. The Judahite survivors in exile will be able only to groan in self-absorbed, inward-turned grief.

people of the East. In this prophecy against Ammon, Judah’s neighbor across the Jordan River, southeast of Jerusalem, the expression “people of the East” refers to tent-dwelling Arabic nomads of the Syro-Arabian desert. Their incursions were a constant threat to the settled populations on which they bordered. In (see note there), they are identified with the Arab tribe of the Kedarites, who were in turn destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BC. milk. Represents a staple food of nomadic herdsmen. In the Egyptian Story of Sinuhe, while exiled among nomadic Bedouin tribes, the Egyptian official was supplied with “milk in every (kind of) cooking.” The standard benediction is that one should enjoy the fruit of one’s own labors/vineyards (; ). In this case, however, what has been worked for will become the property of invaders (cf. ).

Rabbah. See note on .

Moab. Among the states represented at Zedekiah’s strategy meeting in 597 BC (). Although it apparently survived and served as a place of refuge for Judahites fleeing Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem in 587, its role as potential troublemaker in the region was not forgotten. Josephus records a later campaign by the Babylonian king in 582–581 BC to reduce both Ammon and Moab. There is not sufficient evidence to demonstrate how effective this campaign actually was, but, like Ammon, the nation of Moab probably survived to become a part of the Persian Empire at the end of the sixth century BC.

Edom. See note on . It apparently stayed neutral or pro-Babylonian () during the conflicts that lead to the destruction of Jerusalem. does indicate that Edom accepted Judahite refugees after 587 BC. Nebuchadnezzar apparently did not extend his Transjordanian campaign of 582 BC as far as Edom, but his successor, Nabonidus, records in the Nabonidus Chronicle a siege of the Edomite city of Bozrah in 552 BC. Archaeological excavations at Buseira and at Tell el-Kheleifeh indicate destruction levels during this period followed by a quick rebuilding and a resumption of economic activity along the southern range of the King’s Highway.

Teman. See note . Dedan. See notes on ; .

Philistines. The omission of the cities of Philistia from the list of states represented at Zedekiah’s meeting in 597 BC () suggests that this area was firmly in the control of the Babylonians at that time. This region had been badly weakened by the late seventh-century BC campaigns of Pharaoh Psammetichus I as Assyrian control waned there (see ; ). The sons of the king of Ashkelon, an important city in Philistia, are recorded in Babylonian ration lists dating to 592 BC, indicating their hostage status. When the Philistine states joined in the Judahite revolt of 588, Nebuchadnezzar deported them and apparently settled them near Nippur. By the Persian period, little of the indigenous Philistine population remained in Philistia.

Kerethites. Ezekiel creates a poetic parallelism between Philistines and Kerethites, but it is still unclear whether these two peoples were actually related ethnically or historically. The Kerethites are most often associated with the island of Crete, and it would appear these people became mercenaries shortly after their migration to the southern coast of Palestine near Gaza (see ; ). See notes on ; ; .

Tyre. The island capital of Phoenicia (present-day Lebanon). See notes on ; .

Nebuchadnezzar. His correct Hebrew name is Nebuchadrezzar (see ), reflecting his Akkadian name Nabû-kuddura-usur (“[the god] Nabû, protect the eldest son (or heir)!”). Spelling his name Nebuchadnezzar is a disobliging pun on the name of this king who destroyed Jerusalem. This spelling with a nun instead of a resh presupposes Akkadian Nabû-kudana-usur (“Nabû, protect the mule!”). The mule, being a hybrid animal, is incapable of producing offspring. This scurrilous etymology, therefore, expresses the opposite of what was intended with the original meaning of the name (see the article “

This description of the stages of the siege is the most detailed one in the Bible and is based on the repeated experience of victims of Assyrian and Babylonian attacks. See the article “

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lament. A technical term for a dirge sung at the death of an individual (as in for the princes of Israel) or after the destruction of a city and its people (as here). The book of Lamentations represents such a lament over the fall of Jerusalem. Beginning with Old Babylonian times, the Mesopotamian literary tradition produced a specific genre of lengthy city laments (see the article “

Your domain was on the high seas. Tyre was a maritime power. An Assyrian relief dating from the time of Sennacherib depicts Phoenician ships and a city, probably Tyre. A parallel Akkadian phrase is similarly used for the location of Tyre.

Senir. According to , Mount Senir is the Amorite name for Mount Hermon, the southernmost spur of the Anti-Lebanon range lying to the east of the Beqaa Valley. It is mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions as Saniru. Senir and Hermon are placed side by side in ; .

Cyprus. Hebrew Kittim, which is equated with Kittion, an important Phoenician colony in southeast Cyprus. Cyprus trees still abound in the forests of Cyprus.

Elishah. The location of the islands of Elishah is uncertain. Elishah was a son of Javan in . It was known as a Tyrian colony famous for its dyes. Elishah is probably the Alashiya of the Amarna tablets, usually designated as Cyprus. Seven Amarna tablets mention a king of Alashiya who wrote letters to the Egyptian monarchs in the thirteenth century BC.

Sidon and Arvad. Phoenician cities that lay on the Mediterranean coast north of Tyre. Sidon was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Tyre (see note on ). Arvad was about 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Tyre. They appear at this time to have been subordinate to Tyre. Both cities are often mentioned in the Amarna letters and Assyrian annals.

Byblos. The site of ancient Byblos (Arabic Gebeil) is located 25.5 miles (41 kilometers) north of modern Beirut.

Persia, Lydia and Put. Signifies the peoples living at the outermost parts of the known world. Persia was in western Iran, Lydia was in central Turkey, while Put may have been the Libyans west of Egypt.

Tarshish. In the Bible, it symbolizes the farthermost location reachable by the Mediterranean Sea. It has been identified with Tartessus, in Spain, on the Guadalquivir River. Jonah fled from the coast of Israel on a ship bound for Tarshish (). In the Biblical perspective, the two extremes of the world are Sheba to the south and Tarshish to the west (). In a similar vein, the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) speaks of the span between Iadnana (Cyprus in the northeast) and Tarsisi (in the west on the coast of Spain). See note on .

Greece. Hebrew yawan; refers to the Ionians, the Greeks of western Asia Minor mentioned in cuneiform texts as Iamani. Tubal and Meshek. Mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions as Tabali and Muški, peoples of central and southeastern Asia Minor and most probably of Greek origin (Phrygia).

Beth Togarmah. Corresponds to Hittite Tegarma, Assyrian Til-garimmu, a city in the region of the Tabali. The area supplied horses as tribute to the Assyrians.

Rhodes. The mention of Rhodes here is problematic in the earliest manuscripts of the OT. The Septuagint, the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT, reads Dedan. Others read Danuna, a region north of Tyre mentioned in the Amarna letters.

Aram. Refers to the Syrian hinterland from Upper Mesopotamia in the north to Damascus in the south.

Minnith. Identified with Maanith, four miles (6.4 kilometers) out of Heshbon on the road to Rabbah of the Ammonites, a region rich in wheat. The Ammonites paid a large wheat and barley tribute to King Jotham of Judah (). confections. Instead of translating the Hebrew word pannag as “confections,” it may more accurately be rendered “millet.”

wine from Helbon. Famous in antiquity, for it is mentioned not only in Ezekiel but also in Akkadian chronicles of Nebuchadnezzar. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, the kings of Persia continued importing wine from Chalybon (Geography, 5.735). The city corresponds to modern Syrian Qalbun, a town north of Damascus.

Izal. Probably equated with Izalla, a site in the Anatolian foothills of Cilicia. Greeks (or Ionians) may have had a relationship with the site, but this is otherwise unattested. cassia and calamus. The city of Damascus traded in qiddu (probably cassia), a costly perfume native to east Asia. Calamus was an aromatic grass used in perfume, cosmetics, flavoring and medicine. This particular type of calamus probably came from India.

Dedan. A central Arabian oasis from which Tyre received its special riding gear. It is identified with the modern site of al-Ula, which is situated on the “Incense Road” from Yemen to Palestine.

Kedar. See note on .

Sheba. See note on . Raamah. Mentioned in the OT only in conjunction with Sheba. It may be associated with Rgmt (the vowels of the ancient name are not certain), a city in the district of Najran in central Arabia.

Harran, Kanneh and Eden . . . Sheba, Ashur and Kilmad. All of these areas were in the north and east of Tyre. Harran. Situated on the Balikh River in Upper Mesopotamia. Kanneh. Probably Assyrian Kannu, the location of which is unknown. Eden. Bit Adini, an Aramean state west of the Balikh River in Syria. Sheba. See note on . Ashur. The name of the old capital city of Assyria, as well as the name of the primary god of Assyria. Kilmad. Otherwise unknown.

The merchandise listed here is very rare and exotic. Many of the words are attested only here in Scripture. Cognates with Akkadian have somewhat helped in shedding light on their meaning.

ships of Tarshish. Although the note on v.  denotes a specific region for Tarshish (i.e., Spain), the designation “ships of Tarshish” seems to imply a Phoenician provenience similar to what is found in (see note on ). Thus, they may have been ships bound for Tarshish.

sprinkle dust on their heads and roll in ashes. See the article “

I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas. Apparently the king of Tyre had a role in the ritual of the “Awakening of Melqart,” the chief god of Tyre (mlk qrt, “king of the city”), in which the king was attributed divine status. Second-century AD Roman author Aelian reports that the Tyrian Phoenician royal dynasty claimed descent from the gods (Varia Historia, 14.30). Moreover, this verse seems to allude to a sea-girt divine abode, a prominent motif of ancient Near Eastern literature. The Ugaritic god El has his abode at the mouth of the rivers, i.e., “at the sources of the floods, in the midst of the Headwaters of the Two Oceans.”

In Sumerian texts, the gods of creation, Enki and Ninhursag, dwell on the paradisiacal island of Dilmun, which is situated at the junction of two seas. In Arabic the region is called Bahrain, which means “two seas.” The same motif was later applied to the city of Eridu in southern Mesopotamia, located at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and not far away from Nippur, where Ezekiel is stationed.

The Greek historian Xenophon (c. 430–354 BC) mentions that in the Persian period royal palaces were built at river sources (Anabasis, 1.4.7,10), implying that kings attempted to imitate gods in their choice of the location for their dwellings. In applying this ancient motif to the king of Tyre, who boasts of sitting on such a divine throne chosen by the gods, Ezekiel castigates this expression of hubris.

Daniel. The Hebrew spelling (dnl) suggests a person other than the prophet Daniel (Hebrew dnyl) (see note on ). It is widely accepted that a reference is made here to the Ugaritic Dan’el, renowned for his justice, who by Ezekiel’s time had acquired the aura of the great sage of the past. A counter argument favoring the Israelite Daniel, a contemporary of Ezekiel, is that Dan’el is not distinguished by his wisdom in the known literature.

because of your wealth your heart has grown proud. Tyre’s commercial affluence has gone to its head. The inhabitants of the city are guilty of hubris and are going to be struck down in reprisal. The message is reinforced with a wordplay, a technique that exerted much influence on the ear of ancient Near Eastern hearers. Tyre’s pretension of divine prerogatives is an act of profanation against deity.

shining splendor. A king’s shining splendor or radiance points to a concept well documented in ancient Near Eastern literature. The sanctity of a king is often said to be manifest by an awe-inspiring radiance or an aura characteristic of deities and divine beings. The Mesopotamians used the Akkadian term melammu (“awe-inspiring luminosity”) in order to describe this concept (see the article “

die the death of the uncircumcised. To be uncircumcised was a disgrace to the circumcised Israelites () and Egyptians. This descriptor is not uncommon in the ancient world. For example, one text describes princes from the northern shores of Egypt as being uncircumcised. The term used is motey, a word occurring only here that can mean either “impure” or “uncircumcised.” The text says that the various lords from the north could not enter the royal palace because they were uncircumcised and they ate fish, both features seen as an abomination by the pharaoh. The Egyptians, who practiced circumcision like the Israelites, counted the killed uncircumcised enemy soldiers by cutting off their private parts (cf. ). Contrary to the Philistines, the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon practiced circumcision as attested by Herodotus, who records their assertion that they adopted it from the Egyptians (Histories 2.104). The expression would therefore be as insulting to the Tyrian as to an Israelite.

Eden, the garden of God. This is one of the few references to Eden outside of the early chapters of Genesis (see also ). It is clearly understood as a garden, though v.  also understands it as a mountain. It is clearly portrayed as sacred space as God’s presence is evidenced. No parallel images are known in the rest of the ancient world. Interpreters have come to a variety of conclusions about the force of the metaphor here developed concerning this individual. every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. In the ninth tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, the hero leaves Uruk in search of the immortal Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah. Pressing on to the end of the world, he comes to the mountains where the sun sets and rises and to the tunnel under the mountains. Gilgamesh reaches the far end of the tunnel just in time, before the sun can catch up with him, and he finds himself in a garden of jewels, where the immortal survivor of the flood lives. Such parallels only offer partial similarity to the description of the paradise-like garden in the Bible.

In the history of interpretation some have construed this passage as referring to Satan’s fall. Satan is not referred to in this passage, and he is never identified in the Bible as either having been a cherub (a guardian of sacred space, not an angel) or as having a role in the Garden of Eden. The passage tells us who it is talking about (), and the background available makes perfect sense of that identification and the metaphoric analogies that the text uses. Sound interpretation calls on us to refrain from adding ideas into the text that are not there. Instead, when we enter the world of the Israelite author and audience we can fill gaps in our understanding with information that the cultural context provides. ◆

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guardian cherub . . . walked among the fiery stones. The growing collection of Phoenician ivories attests to the prominence of the cherub motif in Phoenician art and iconography. Especially noteworthy is the carving of a king-cherub whose face appears to be the portrait of the king and under whose feet are seen alternating patterns of stylized tulip flower gardens and mountains.

desecrated your sanctuaries. In Ezekiel, the temple of Israel is desecrated when it is despoiled by the Babylonians (). Something can also be “desecrated” by failure to treat its property as holy. In this verse the prince is being charged with pillaging sanctuary treasuries or misappropriating temple funds, whether of Tyre or of surrounding territories.

Sidon. This great trading city had been defeated and its king, Luli, had been deposed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 BC for joining an anti-Assyrian coalition. Under Abdimilkutte, Sidon again revolted against Esarhaddon of Assyria in 677 BC. The city was destroyed to its foundations and its king was beheaded. The Assyrians rebuilt the city and named it Kar-Asarhaddon, which became the center of Assyria’s administration of the area. In , envoys from Sidon were included in the conspirators that met in Jerusalem in 594 BC. A few years later Sidon was forced to submit to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and many of its people were deported. There is no record of this, but some Sidonian exiles are known from the city of Uruk in Babylonia in this period. Herodotus reports that in 588 BC the Egyptians fought against Sidon in an attempt to gain control of the Phoenician coast, but it is likely that Sidon was already a Babylonian vassal at this time.

tenth year . . . tenth month . . . twelfth day. When compared to the date given in , this appears to be one year later; however, it has often been concluded by commentators that the notation in is made in accordance with a nonaccession-year system rather than an accession-year system (see notes on ; ; ). If this is so, this prophecy occurs only two days after the siege of Jerusalem has begun. This is more likely because the Egyptian response to the siege took place that first summer.

great monster lying among your streams. This appears on the surface to refer to a crocodile (see “scales” in v. ). Crocodiles populated the Nile and so make an appropriate image, but they were also on the periphery of the conjunction with chaos creatures, which would also be suitable imagery here.

Esarhaddon stele (671 BC) depicting ropes that seem to end in a ring that goes through the lips of the prisoners ().

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hooks in your jaws. Herodotus (History, 2.70) describes the procedure of catching a crocodile in the Nile: “The hunter baits a hook with a chine of pork, and lets it float into the middle of the river; he himself stays on the bank with a young live pig, which he beats. Hearing the cries of the pig, the crocodile goes after the sound, and meets the chine, which it swallows; then the hunter pulls the line.” In this context, however, even if Pharaoh is equated with the crocodile, the “great monster” crouching in the Nile (v. ), the focus of the verse is on the manner of leading prisoners with hooks in their mouths or jaws. This is a practice portrayed in Assyrian reliefs as a means of humiliating captives and taking them into exile.

I will give you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky. In this prophetic oracle, the scattered, exposed corpses suffer the ultimate disgrace: they are eaten by animals, a common threat in ancient Near Eastern curses. The Assyrian king Esarhaddon tells of not properly burying his enemies but instead allowing wild animals to devour them. Not to have a proper burial implied that the descendants could not perform the usual religious duties for their dead ancestors. The person left to die in disgrace became a roaming spirit unable to find rest. What Ezekiel is announcing in this verse would have been frightening for his hearers. One of the fundamental duties of the descendants was to honor their ancestors. See note on .

staff of reed. In 720 BC, Sargon II of Assyria characterized the pharaoh as “a king who cannot save,” although he had been “bribed” by a coalition of little states. Sargon had to put down a rebellion that began in Philistine Ashdod together with Judah and other allies. In the time of Ezekiel, King Jehoiakim was raised to the throne of Judah by Pharaoh Necho (). He rebelled against his new Babylonian overlord, Nebuchadnezzar, hoping for Egyptian support that never came. In the last days of Judah, Pharaoh Hophra dispatched an army to relieve besieged Jerusalem. The intervention proved futile as he retreated without even engaging a battle with the Babylonians. calls the Egyptians a “splintered reed of a staff.” For Judah, Egypt incarnates betrayed promises and disappointed hopes. Such an attitude of betrayal is universally condemned in ancient literature.

Migdol. See note on . It appears in the exodus story (). Aswan. Means “market, trading post.” It is the ancient southern border of Egypt and corresponds to modern Aswan, at the first cataract of the Nile (see note on ). Beyond it lay Cush, the Egyptian designation of territory south of Egypt.

forty years. A rhetorical way of talking about a period of one generation. The Israelites had a 40-year period of wandering in the desert (). In Northwest Semitic texts it also designates a period of temporary national punishment. King Mesha of Moab gives 40 years as the length of Israelite occupation of part of his land during the time of his god’s anger.

Upper Egypt. Upper Egypt (or the land of Pathros) designated all of Egypt south of Memphis. An ancient Egyptian tradition asserted that the nation had originated in the south, in Upper Egypt. Esarhaddon of Assyria claimed to be the king of Musur (northern Egypt) and Paturisi (Pathros). The table of nations in (see also ) treats “Pathrusites” (people of Upper Egypt) as descendants of “Egypt” (mitsrayim, Lower Egypt).

hard campaign against Tyre. The complete destruction of the city of Tyre prophesied in ch. did not come to pass under Nebuchadnezzar. In Ezekiel’s time Nebuchadnezzar blockaded the city and severely curtailed Tyre’s trade. The siege lasted 13 years (Josephus, Against Apion 1.156). In the end the two sides must have come to a compromise. King Ethbaal III of Tyre was deposed. He probably corresponds to “the king of Tyre” who appears among other royal captives deported to Babylon in “The Court of Nebuchadnezzar” document. A Babylonian royal high commissioner was appointed over the town. The city, however, remained intact and was not even subjected to habitual looting. The kind of thorough destruction of Tyre as described in this chapter was achieved only by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Alexander’s soldiers worked for seven months to build a causeway linking the island with the coast. Whereas Alexander usually treated his prisoners fairly humanely, he made a hideous example of Tyre. Alexander’s final attack on the city was said to have cost 8,000 Tyrians their lives. Moreover, crosses were hewn for 2,000 male citizens and set up along the shores of the land. According to the sources, 30,000 women, children and older people were sold into slavery, though we cannot say whether that is hyperbole. Alexander was not only taking a town but also destroying a myth. The world would learn that the Phoenician lords of the sea had been vanquished by him, the lord of the earth, and that there were no other demigods but the demigod Alexander of Macedonia. no reward. Soldiers usually received plunder in the form of persons, animals and possessions. However, Tyre was able to get an exemption from destruction by yielding to Babylon. Thus, there was no pillaging of the city.

I . . . give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar. God is promising Nebuchadnezzar the land of Egypt as compensation for his failure in plundering Tyre. Both in the Bible and in the ancient Near Eastern texts, plunder is represented as a gift from the national deity (cf. ). Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, referring to the enlargement of the Review Palace at Nineveh, state that it was used for storing battle equipment as well as goods plundered from the enemy by the power of the god Assur. Closer to ancient Israel, king Hazael of Damascus states in an Old Aramaic inscription dating from the end of the ninth century BC that the plunder he captured was given to him by his national god Hadad. He will loot and plunder. It was inevitable that Nebuchadnezzar would eventually have to invade and attempt to conquer Egypt. The Medes had united the territory east of the Tigris, effectively cutting Babylon off from direct trade with the east, and the Egyptians, with their Phoenician allies, were constantly causing political and commercial problems in the west and along the Arabian trade routes. An extended siege (13 years according to the fourth-century BC Greek historian Menander) bottled up Tyre and devastated much of Phoenicia (584–571 BC). A fragmentary portion of Nebuchadnezzar’s annals from his 37th year, Herodotus and refers to the invasion of Egypt in 568 BC, but no details are given other than victories over desert tribes. It is likely that some Babylonian garrisons were installed in the fortresses of the Sinai following this campaign.

horn. The horns of an animal were considered tokens of their power, and thus were a figure of strength. Many of the deities of Mesopotamia were depicted with horns. Thus, making a horn to sprout signifies a return of Israel’s power. Additionally, it must be noted that occasionally the crowns of kings also often featured horns, and a horn could therefore refer more specifically to a king.

Cush and Libya, Lydia. lists Cush, Put (i.e., Libya) and Lydia in the same order as foreign components of Pharaoh Necho’s army at the battle of Carchemish. From extra-Biblical sources it is known that the army of the Saite dynasty comprised, besides Egyptians, Greeks, Ionians, Rhodians, Carians, Libyans, Phoenicians and Jewish mercenaries. In the campaign of Psammetichus II against Nubia (591 BC), Carian, Ionian, Rhodian and Phoenician soldiers commemorated their involvement in the event by inscribing their names on the colossus of Rameses II at Abu Simbel. the people of the covenant land. A case can be made for this being a treaty of mutual assistance concluded between Zedekiah () and the Saite Egypt. Several sources point to Jewish mercenaries in Egyptian military campaigns. The second-century BC Letter of Aristeas speaks of Psammetichus I having dispatched confederate Jewish troops to fight against the king of the Ethiopians.

ships. This Hebrew term (an Egyptian loanword) refers to military boats, not reed boats or merchant ships. frighten Cush. Nubia (called “Cush” here) felt that having Egypt as a buffer zone offered a certain amount of protection from any of the powers from the east that would arise. Though the Egyptian pharaoh, Psammetichus II, campaigned against Nubia in 593 BC, it is not attack from Egypt that is threatened in this passage. The Persian king Cambyses invaded Nubia in 525 BC, and from that time it was counted as part of the Persian Empire. Nubians served as mercenaries in the Persian army.

Nebuchadnezzar . . . and his army . . . against Egypt. See note on .

Nilometer (marks in wall) measures the depth of the Nile at Elephantine. Egyptian agriculture depended on the annual inundation of the Nile, so if it were to dry out (), it would create a national crisis. In ancient times they were aware of their dependence on the inundation and devised measuring devices to keep their records.

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sell. In the ancient world the concept of selling something did not emphasize getting money for it, as it might in today’s economy; rather, the emphasis was on the transfer of ownership. In Akkadian the word for “sell” is also the word for “give.” also shows flexibility in the use of this Hebrew term (see “selling” in ). As a result, it is not pertinent to ask what Yahweh is receiving in return. That is not the issue. He is transferring possession of the land from Egypt to Babylon.

Memphis. The royal residence during this period and the center of the cult of the god Ptah, a creator deity and patron of the craft guilds. It was the city in which kings were enthroned.

Upper Egypt. See note on . Zoan. An important administrative center in the eighth and seventh centuries BC. See note on . Thebes. The chief city of Upper (southern) Egypt.

Pelusium. Sin, usually identified with Pelusium, was an important fortress town in the northeast frontier of the delta region. It held a strategic position in Egypt’s defense against invaders from western Asia.

Heliopolis. Aven (Hellenized as Heliopolis, “city of the sun-god”) was at the apex of the Nile delta region, just north of the city of Cairo. It normally appears in Hebrew as On (see , ). Bubastis. Pi-beset (Hellenized as Bubastis) was a town in the Nile delta region. It is modern Tell Basta, located 35 miles (8 kilometers) south of Cairo on the Tanitic branch of the Nile. It was the residence of Sheshonq (Biblical Shishak), a powerful monarch of the Twenty-Second Dynasty in the tenth century BC.

Tahpanhes. Tahpanhes was an outpost in the eastern delta region of the Nile, bordering the Sinai. It was later known as Daphne by the Greeks, who inhabited the outpost as mercenaries by the seventh century BC. The Greek historian Herodotus states that Daphne was one of three outposts set up by the Egyptians to stop the Assyrian invasion. The Judahites in flight from the Babylonians may have stopped there in the early sixth century BC.

eleventh year . . . first month . . . seventh day. Apr. 29, 587 BC.

broken the arm of Pharaoh. A scene from the reign of Amenhotep II depicts the pharaoh holding locks of his enemy in one hand and the other hand poised to bludgeon the man. The scene is common in Egypt, and in this case includes an accompanying inscription identifying the pharaoh as a god whose arm is great. The figure of the broken arm of the pharaoh may be an ironic echo of royal epithets from the Saite dynasty. Hophra, the pharaoh of Ezekiel’s time, uses as a royal epithet the expression “possessor of a strong arm.” This title was the second formal name of his tutelary.

eleventh year . . . third month . . . first day. June 21, 587 BC, nearly two months after the date mentioned in . Since there is no firm information concerning the date of the Egyptian interference, it is difficult to relate this prophecy to the timing of the event.

Pharaoh. As in , Ezekiel is probably addressing the office of pharaoh in general. Hophra was the reigning monarch in 587 BC.

The power of the Assyrian state waxed and waned for nearly three centuries (c. 900–612 BC). At its height its geographic range was enormous, ranging from Iran in the east to central Egypt, central Anatolia, and Cyprus in the west. It covered much of the Arabian Desert in the south, and ranged as far north as modern day Armenia. In Ezekiel’s time it had passed off the scene rather recently (about 20 years earlier), so it served as a perfect image of a long-standing super power that had crumbled to nothing.

The tree used for the metaphor here is the cedar, a well-known ancient Near Eastern symbol of majesty (see notes on ; ; ). It was used for the construction of many important palaces and temples. Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian kings all recount how they cut down the cedars of Lebanon in order to construct their mighty edifices. The myth of a cosmic tree is also found in Mesopotamian contexts. Its roots are fed by the great subterranean ocean and its top merges with the clouds, and thus it binds together the heavens, the earth and the netherworld. The Sumerian Gilgamesh Epic has a motif of a great tree offering shelter to animals. The Sumerian goddess Inanna discovered the sacred cosmic tree on the banks of the Euphrates and transplanted it in her sacred garden at Uruk, where it attracted the mythical Anzu (a birdlike chaos creature), a snake, and Lilith (an evil demon). In the Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum,” Marduk speaks of the meshu tree, whose roots reach down through the oceans to the netherworld and whose top is above the heavens. In Assyrian contexts, the motif of a sacred tree is also well-known. Some have called it a tree of life, and some also associate it with this world tree. It is often flanked by animals or by human or divine figures. A winged disk is typically centrally located over the top of the tree. The king is represented as the human personification of this tree. The tree is thought to represent the divine world order, but textual discussion of it is lacking. As is often the case in Ezekiel, this mythical motif is transformed to a political image.

garden of God. Identified as Eden here; however, it is not invoking the image of a utopian home that humans had been driven out of. Unlike the paradise motif in the Bible, the Mesopotamian garden of the gods was not a paradise that humans had occupied and then lost, but it was the beautiful protected property of the gods that humans trespassed at their peril. Such was the cedar forest that Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu gained access to when they defeated the divinely appointed guardian of the forest, Huwawa. These gardens, like the royal gardens of this period, were wooded parks featuring beautiful and exotic trees. This description is also appropriate for the Biblical Eden.

cut it down. The fall of the great Assyrian Empire has been described by modern scholars as a “historical scandal.” It was at its height in the early seventh century BC, when it successfully conquered Egypt. However, a great civil war in 652–648 BC showed the inherent weakness of the huge state. After the devastation of the civil war, Assyria quickly weakened. By the end of Ashurbanipal’s reign (either 631 or 627 BC) all economic and other textual sources disappear from Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. By 626 BC the Chaldeans of Babylonia had declared their independence. Within 14 years all of the major Assyrian cities had been destroyed, the monarchy had fled to Harran in Syria, and the army was in chaos. The Assyrians may have participated in the battle of Carchemish against Nebuchadnezzar but were never heard from again. Thus, within the 40 or so years after the great civil war, Assyria had been consigned to oblivion.

Lebanon . . . Eden. This comparison draws together the Biblical motif of Eden, as the protected property of Yahweh, and the Mesopotamian motif of the cedar forest, as the protected property of the gods. See note on v. .

twelfth year . . . twelfth month . . . first day. Mar. 3, 585 BC, a few months after the report of the fall of Jerusalem had reached Ezekiel.

like a lion. The Egyptian pharaohs compared themselves with the lion. Seti I (1318–1301 BC) attacked a fortified palace and on the wall of the temple in Karnak describes himself as victor who prevailed over them like a fierce lion. Rameses III (1195–1164 BC) describes his battle against the Sea Peoples (i.e., the Philistines) in a similar vein. monster in the seas. The monster in this case is not located in the Nile River but “in the seas.” This reference is probably to the cosmic monsters destroyed by God (see the article “

haul you up in my net. In both “Erra and Ishum” and Enuma Elish, the creature representing the forces of chaos (Anzu and Tiamat, respectively) are captured in a net.

all the birds . . . and all the animals . . . gorge themselves on you. In the Labbu Myth, Labbu is described as a monster that is 50 miles (80 kilometers) long and a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide.

In his description of carnage and destruction, Ezekiel uses some stereotypical formulations and literary motifs found in Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions. Kings such as Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BC) and Ashurnasirpal I (1049–1031 BC) claim to have piled up corpses and dyed the mountains red with blood. In Tiglath-Pileser’s inscription, as in vv. , one finds the three terms of “mountains” (v. ), hollows (“ravines,” v. ), and plains (“valleys,” v. ). As in the Assyrian formulas, body and blood may be either in highland or lowland (vv. ; ; ; ; , ). In describing scenes of carnage, Ezekiel seems to follow a well-established ancient Near Eastern literary pattern. Besides these links with the language of royal inscriptions, in the Labbu Myth, the blood of the slain monster is said to flow for three years and three months.

These cosmic effects reflect the world-upside-down motif that is well known in the ancient world (see notes on ; ). It additionally strikes at the heart of the Egyptian religion that features the sun-god most prominently.

twelfth year . . . fifteenth day. Mar. 17, 585 BC, two weeks later than the date mentioned in .

laid among the uncircumcised. Egyptian priests and kings were circumcised. The disdain the Israelites felt for the uncircumcised is well attested in the Bible (; ). This verse reflects the view that Egypt’s rulers felt the same. To be buried among the uncircumcised was an additional affront, adding insult to injury.

They will fall among those killed by the sword. Pharaoh and his hordes will die on the battlefield and be subject to ignominy. Battle-fallen corpses were stripped, plundered and sometimes beheaded by the victors. Ancient Near Eastern reliefs often depict naked and headless bodies. Their remains were buried in mass graves ().

The nations listed in vv.  all suffered significant devastation. Ezekiel probably has in mind the final defeat and destruction of the Assyrian Empire at the end of the sixth century BC. The Assyrian armies were destroyed at the battle of Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Thus, the imagery sees that the final end of Assyria is in Sheol, the “realm of the dead” (v. ).

Elam. It, with its capital Susa, was located on the Iranian plateau. It was devastated by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal during a two-year campaign (647–646 BC). Ashurbanipal boasts of having devastated Elam to such a degree that the country returned to its original condition of wild, uninhabited land. The beasts could roam freely, unafraid of humans, who were no more. In the mid-sixth century BC, Elam was absorbed in the empire of the Medes and Persians.

Meshek and Tubal. At the end of the eighth century BC, these two Anatolian kingdoms were ravaged by internal warfare, conquered by Sargon II of Assyria, and invaded by the Cimmerians (from what is today southern Russia). Unfortunately, little of their history survives from the seventh and early sixth centuries BC. It is thought that Meshek and Tubal were incorporated under Lydian control after the conclusion of the Cimmerian wars. In the spring of 585 BC, the Lydians are at war with the Medes (see note on v. ; see the article “Gog, of the Land of Magog”). Meshek and Tubal are mentioned again in the Persian period as separate ethnic identities. They are known to the Assyrians as Mushku (central Anatolia) and Tabal (eastern Anatolia) and to Herodotus as Moschi and Tibarenoi (subject states of the Persian Empire). At the end of the eighth century, the king of Mushku was Mita, known to the Greeks as Midas, the king with the golden touch. His tomb has been identified at Gordion and excavated. hordes around their graves. Ezekiel’s tour of the netherworld resembles a similar description found in “The Vision of the Netherworld by an Assyrian Crown Prince.” In this cuneiform composition from Ashur dating from around 670 BC, an Assyrian prince in his dream tours the netherworld during a night vision. He sees 15 different underworld divinities and describes each one in great detail. The Assyrian prince is sent back to earth with a specific mission: to proclaim to the living what he had seen. It therefore seems that in his vision of the netherworld, Ezekiel draws on a well-established ancient Near Eastern genre: descriptions of the denizens of the netherworld and the prophetic commissioning of warning the living about the frightening conditions that reign there. Contrary to the polytheistic description of the netherworld in the Assyrian text, in Ezekiel’s vision of the realm of the dead, there are no distinctive divinities charged with managing the realm.

swords placed under their heads. In the netherworld the dead warriors lay down their swords, insignia of their power. In the Gilgamesh Epic, the dead kings also have to lay down their crowns. There Enkidu describes what he sees in the netherworld, the House of Darkness, the abode of Irkalla: “In the House of Dust, which I entered, I looked at [rulers], their crowns put away” (7.4.40–41).

Edom. A Semitic-speaking neighbor of Judah, it was south and east of the Dead Sea (see note on ). In the eighth century BC Edom fell under the control of the Assyrians, as noted in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC), and continued under their rule until the death of Ashurbanipal a century later. During that time the Edomites were often conscripted into the Assyrian armies, and thus they figure often in the annals. During the Babylonian period Edom evidently sided with the great empire, although there are not extra-Biblical records to verify this. It is likely that they submitted themselves to Nebuchadnezzar’s rule in 605 BC. Although some Judahite refugees may have found shelter in Edom, it apparently remained passive as Jerusalem was destroyed (see ; ). The Babylonian campaign against Ammon and Moab in 594 BC seems not to have affected Edom. It is likely that they remained unscathed until the time of Nabonidus’s campaign in 552 BC.

princes of the north. Most likely Aramean rulers or sheiks. There were a number of hostile Aramean kingdoms north of Israel/Judah, the largest was centered in Damascus.

watchman. He stands at the place in the city where he has the most strategic view of the surroundings and watches for any approaching enemy army. He either reports by word of mouth or by trumpet. His task is simply to sound the alarm of the approaching enemy. He is absolved of responsibility if the city dwellers refuse to heed his call. Ezekiel’s portrayal of himself as prophetic watchman is similar to Isaiah’s () and Jeremiah’s charges (). Though no similar label has been found attached to prophets in the ancient Near East, the concept is familiar enough. The prophets were expected to be able to warn the king of impending situations (in military or cultic realms) that might jeopardize his person or the stability of his kingdom. The spiritual sense used in vv.  is picked up (probably from Ezekiel) in the Dead Sea Scrolls sectarian documents where the leader of the community is on the lookout for the judgment of God.

trumpet. See note on .

pledge for a loan. Pledges for loans were customary throughout the ancient Near East. Thousands of loan contracts have been uncovered from Mesopotamia, showing that it was quite an ordinary procedure. At Terqa in Middle Bronze Age Syria, a certain Puzurum made a loan at the local temple of the sun-god Shamash. He retained one half of a cuneiform contract, while the temple (functioning in this case as a bank) retained the other. Thus, the half retained by the temple functioned as a receipt. When Puzurum paid off the loan, the temple returned to him the temple’s half of the contract. The return of a pledge by a repentant wicked person suggests that an oppressive debt situation was resolved with the debt being forgiven.

twelfth year . . . tenth month . . . fifth day. Jan. 19, 585 BC. It is about five months after the fall of Jerusalem. a man who had escaped from Jerusalem. Most commentaries agree that this is not a fugitive, or even a refugee, but one of the survivors who has been brought captive to Babylon with the first wave of exiles from the destruction.

you eat meat with the blood still in it. Although every major translation uses the same phrase in this verse, in context it should read “you eat over the blood,” referring to a pagan rite mentioned in (see note there) and formally banned as a form of divination. Documents from the second and first millennia BC attest to a similar practice throughout the ancient Near East. A pit or a hole was dug in order to call up the spirits of the netherworld. The diviner poured libations around the pit and sacrificed an animal. Its blood was poured into the pit and the spirits of the netherworld were invoked.

wild animals. They were a constant source of fear for city dwellers throughout the ancient Near East. In Assyrian texts and reliefs of this period the kings are seen hunting lions to symbolically rid the city of the scourge of wild beasts. Sometimes invading armies were represented metaphorically as wild beasts.

love songs. Love (or erotic) songs had long been sources of entertainment for city dwellers. The itinerant singer of songs traveled from town to town, entertaining the people. Many of these songs were eventually written down in the cuneiform record. Portions of the Gilgamesh Epic may well have been sung to the city dwellers in Sumer in much the same way that Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were sung by traveling poets before being written down centuries later. Love songs are connected to ritual marriage texts (the Tammuz liturgy) in Sumerian times and were popular in Egypt during the second half of the second millennium BC (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties). It is a severe indictment that the people have reduced the role of the messenger of God to mere entertainment.

shepherds of Israel. The association of kingship with shepherding is a typical ancient Near Eastern manner of viewing monarchy. Royal authority belonged to God or the gods; the king exercised it on behalf of the gods. The sheep belonged to the divine ruler; the king was the earthly caretaker. The people as a flock were given in trust, and eventually the king was called to account for his exercise of the office of shepherd. The judgment against the shepherds of Israel in ch. indicates that Israelite kings often came up short in meeting the demands of their divine commissioning as shepherds of their people. See notes on ; .

The three staple by-products of sheep and goats (goats’ milk/curds, sheep’s wool, meat) are used here to extend the metaphor of the leaders gleaning all the benefits but not fulfilling their responsibilities. Royal and priestly administrations were of necessity supported by the population through taxations of various sorts, but it was expected that the population would in turn benefit rather than be exploited.

Verse concerned the privileges of the shepherd (see previous note). Verse turns to the neglected responsibilities. The metaphor goes beyond the normal responsibilities of making sure that the sheep are protected and fed. Instead it focuses on the remedial duties, caring for the sick and finding the lost. These equate to the need for kings to bring about justice for alienated and disenfranchised people such as the widow and orphan (see notes on ; ; see also the articles “

I look after my sheep. The portrayal of the Lord in the role of a shepherd follows a common Near Eastern notion of deities, such as the Semitic sun-god Shamash, functioning as shepherds over their people. This perception is also reflected in divine epithets, such as Marduk being “the shepherd of the people,” and Akkadian personal names like “Marduk has shepherded me” and “Shamash is my shepherd.” All of this readily brings to mind the imagery of . The idea of the God of Israel being a shepherd of his people goes back to the time of the nomadic existence of the patriarchs, who, like Jacob, acknowledged God as “my shepherd all my life” ().

I will . . . gather them from the countries. The imagery of gathering the people of Israel from among the countries where they have been scattered has a long history in the ancient Near Eastern royal ideology. In the prologue to his law code, the Babylonian king Hammurapi (1792–1750 BC) boasts of being the one who gathers together the scattered people of Isin, a city in southern Mesopotamia. He further declares concerning other parts of Mesopotamia that he gathered scattered populations and pastured them with blessing and prosperity. To gather the scattered people is the prerogative of the patron deity of a city or nation. It is a symbol of recovered prosperity and security. See note on .

I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David. Ezekiel’s hope of a divinely appointed king in the context of national restoration agrees with a common Near Eastern pattern of restoration prophecies. The Akkadian Marduk Prophecy ends with an announcement of restoration and predicts the arrival of “a king of Babylon.” The latter will preside over the renewal of the city and of its population. Other Akkadian prophecies announce the arrival of a series of kings, bearers of renewal. In these prophecies, however, no names of kings are given. They are usually referred to with generic terms like “king” or “prince.” Nevertheless, in some prophecies there are enough circumstantial details to identify the kings in question. In a piece of Babylonian literature called the Dynastic Prophecy, behind the archaic title “King of Elam” one can identify the Persian king Cjebelyrus.

Mount Seir. The ancient name of the mountainous region south of the Dead Sea on both sides of the Rift Valley running south to the Gulf of Aqaba. The name Seir is found in the fourteenth-century BC Amarna letters from Egypt. According to Scripture, the mountains of Seir were occupied first by the Horites (, ), who were later displaced by the Edomites. Seir became synonymous with the entire country of Edom.

ancient hostility. This verse addresses the long-standing dissension between Edom and Israel. Elsewhere in Scripture the Edomites are said to cheer when Nebuchadnezzar I destroyed Jerusalem (e.g., ; ; ). This is the only text that implies that the Edomites played an active role in the conquest.

clean. The Hebrew term occurs three times in this verse. It serves to underline the action that the Lord will perform in order to cleanse his people and their land from defilement. Both ancient Israel and ancient Near Eastern societies attest to the use of water as a means of ritual purification. In , water is used in the consecration of priests and Levites (cf. ). , , describes the ablutions of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. A Neo-Babylonian tablet describes the purification of a temple in Babylon with the use of water.

heart. Considered the seat of the mind and its will, or inclinations (see note on ). heart of stone. See notes on ; ; see also the article “

The hand of the LORD was on me. See note on .

valley . . . full of bones. The large amount of bones described here implies it was the scene of a major catastrophe. The depiction of a large number of corpses that were denied a proper burial is reminiscent of many battle scenes and descriptions of battle scenes found in the earliest periods of Mesopotamian and Egyptian history. Furthermore, the Assyrian annals describe the destruction of Assyria’s enemies in similar terms. A typical ancient Near Eastern curse has the corpse of the cursed victim exposed to the elements.

the four winds. “The breath” will blow on the bones in the valley and bring them to life. The source of this breath is “the four winds,” meaning “the four directions.” In both Hebrew and Akkadian the expression stands for the division of the world into four quadrants, a typical ancient Near Eastern manner of speaking of the world in its totality.

, open your graves and bring you up from them. The concept of resurrection was known in some parts of the ancient Near East. The Egyptians believed that some of the deceased rose as stars and took their places in the heavens. In general, the only awakening that took place in the ancient worldview was the calling up of spirits of the dead (which is not permanent and not a bodily presence) or the awakening of the fertility gods of nature cycles. These fertility gods died annually when the agricultural cycle came to an end, and they “wintered” in the netherworld. Then they were ritually awakened in the spring. None of this bears any resemblance to a theological doctrine of resurrection that is first hinted at in . Occasional revivifications or indications of national return to life as found in this passage are not representative of a doctrine of resurrection. See the article “

take a stick of wood and write on it. It is likely, since this wood is being written on, that Ezekiel is using two wooden tablets. It was a common practice to use wooden boards coated with a beeswax concoction for the writing of messages that were formal but did not need to be archived and preserved. See the article “

My servant David will be king . . . They will follow my laws. The Ptolemaic Demotic Chronicle attempts to explain Egyptian history from 404 BC to the time of its composition through the operation of the law of divine retribution (see the article “

The name “Gog” seems to derive from Gyges, the name of the king of Lydia in Asia Minor, mentioned in several inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC). Gyges has a legendary reputation of having invented coinage (Herodotus, Histories 1.813). The name “Magog” recurs in as the name of a people. It is found again in the table of nations in and its parallel , where Magog is identified as the second son of Japheth (i.e., the ancestor of the Greek tribes), alongside other Indo-European ethnic groups like Gomer, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras. Josephus (Antiquities 1.123) identified Magog with the Scythians. Magog is often interpreted as a contraction of an original Akkadian mat Gugi (“land of Gog”) and as referring to the territory of Lydia in western Anatolia.

Ezekiel makes use of genuine ethnic names that recur in the enumeration of peoples who traded with Tyre (). Meshek is the Assyrian Mushku, which under Sargon II designated Phrygia, in Asia Minor. Tubal is the Assyrian Tabal, the region between the Halys River and the Taurus Mountains. Gomer is the Assyrian Gimirri, the Cimmerians of the Greeks, who in the seventh century BC raided all Anatolia. The Akkadian column of Darius’s Behistun inscription renders Persian Saka (Scythian) with Gimairaia.

Territories in .

The Old Babylonian “Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin,” copied in Neo-Assyrian times, has been compared with Ezekiel’s Gog prophecy. The following parallels have been pointed out:

1. In both, the invading horde is set apart by God/the gods in a remote area of the north.

2. In both, this area lies in Anatolia.

3. In both, the horde is led by several princes under the supreme command of one of them.

4. In both, a historical royal name is utilized without regard for actual history.

5. In both, the horde goes out for a long march of plunder and devastation.

6. In both, the horde is constituted of many peoples.

This parallel suggests that Ezekiel is using an ancient Near Eastern literary cliché in order to designate the invading hordes. The names in Ezekiel’s list form a geographic pattern: Meshek, Tubal, Gomer and Beth Togarmah (, ) represent the northern extreme of the world known to Israel, while Persia, Cush and Put () represent the eastern and southern extreme—suggesting that the whole neighboring world is involved in this attack against Israel. A similar rhetorical strategy occurs in a Neo-Assyrian inscription of Sargon II.

It is often suggested that this prophecy may include an example of cryptography, one of the techniques elaborated by the Mesopotamian scribes and adopted by the later rabbinic Midrash. Written backward, Magog (m-g-g) becomes Gagam (g-g-m). Applying the procedure of cryptic writing, where each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is replaced by the preceding one, the result is Babel or Babylon (b-b-l). The use of cryptography or coded messages is well documented in Mesopotamian texts.

The recognition of the technique of cryptography in would result in understanding this prophecy as being directed against Babylonia, the only major nation that is absent from Ezekiel’s prophecy. It is particularly significant that this kind of cryptography is amply attested in Babylonian incantations.

could be perceived as containing some incantatory elements announcing the doom over the Babylonians and other enemies of Judah who destroyed Jerusalem and plundered the remaining population. Ezekiel may have used some ancient names of peoples who lived in the seventh century BC in order to create a cipher for Babylon. ◆

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Meshek and Tubal. See note on .

hooks in your jaws. The Assyrians typically put hooks in the jaws of defeated enemies, either for the purposes of humiliation or to deport them to other lands. This practice is often described in their annals and graphically depicted in their wall reliefs. Esarhaddon is depicted on a stele from Zinjirli in Syria as leading Baal of Tyre and Tirhakah of Egypt by a rope tied to a ring through their lips. Ashurbanipal claims to have pierced the cheeks of Uate (king of Ishmael) with a sharp-edged tool and put a ring in his jaw. large and small shields. Body shields and hand shields, respectively (see notes on ; ).

Persia, Cush and Put. See the article “Gog, of the Land of Magog.”

Gomer. Equated with the Gimirrai of the Assyrian annals and the Cimmerians of Greek sources. In Homer’s Odyssey they lived on the north shore of the Black Sea. They attacked the kingdom of Urartu from the north and caused problems for the Assyrians in the eighth century BC. Sargon died in battle against them in Tubal. They appear to have been driven through the Caucasus Mountains into Anatolia according to Herodotus. They came to be involved with the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia in the seventh century BC. They overran the Phrygians and sacked the capital at Gordion, the royal seat of the famous King Midas in 676. In 644 they overthrew Sardis, the capital of the Lydian state. This was when Gyges met his death. During Ezekiel’s time the Cimmerians had been driven out of Lydia by Alyattes. They later came under the control of the Medes. Beth Togarmah. Most likely the capital city of Kammanu, a central Anatolian kingdom. It was known in Hittite sources as Tegaramara and in Assyrian sources as Til-garimmu.

unwalled villages. This Hebrew term is used also in (“villages”); (“city without walls”). Unlike fortified cities, they have normally been defined as rural settlements without walls, bars or gates. They are defenseless and vulnerable.

center of the land. Lit. “navel of the earth.” Jerusalem’s situation in the center of the nations reflects her theological significance as the centerpiece of God’s actions in the world and the object of God’s covenant care. This motif of “the navel of the earth” occurs in Sumerian and Akkadian literature under the term “Bond of Heaven and Earth,” applied to the temples at Nippur, Larsa and Sippar, or “Bond of the Lands,” applied to Babylon. A circular sixth-century BC map of the world from Babylon locates this city in the center, surrounded by neighbors, some positioned irrespective of their actual location.

Sheba. This kingdom was a great trading center in southwestern Arabia that exported precious stones, gold and incense (see note on ). This kingdom is known as Saba in native sources and in the Assyrian annals. It had a very advanced urban civilization in the first millennium BC. Dedan. A central Arabian oasis where Tyre received its special riding gear. It is identified with the modern site of al-’Ula, which is situated on the “Incense Road” from Yemen to Palestine. merchants of Tarshish. In this context they appear to represent merchant peoples who did their trade on the overland routes across the Arabian Desert to Sheba and Dedan, and on to the Mediterranean Sea.

by my servants the prophets. Lit. “of whom I spoke by the hand of my servants.” An almost exact parallel is found in the eighth-century BC Aramaic Zakkur Inscription, where the god Baal Shamayim speaks by the hand of seers and messengers. Both the Hebrew and the Aramaic idioms mean “by the agency of.”

The correlation between divine anger (v. ) and calamities of cosmic proportions (vv. ) is found in Neo-Assyrian texts. These were neither apocalyptic nor eschatological predictions but simply stereotypical literary descriptions of major political upheavals affecting Mesopotamia. After enumerating a series of evils perpetrated by the Babylonians, the annals of Esarhaddon describe Marduk’s anger and the result that all balance and order (including the courses of the stars) was disrupted; flooding turned cities into wasteland.

great earthquake in the land of Israel. This appears to be a cosmic earthquake, similar to ones described in ; ; ; ; ; (see note on ). This type of imagery is also found in the annals of Esarhaddon of Assyria. The Levant was prone to earthquakes, but Israel is on the edge of the zone that has its center in Anatolia. The well-known, historical quakes occurred in 760 and 31 BC. In the Christian era, the region has averaged about one major quake per century.

hailstones. See note on . The occurrence of hailstones as divine judgment in conquest accounts is not unique. In a letter to his god (Assur), Sargon of Assyria reports that in his campaign against Urartu (714 BC) the god Adad stormed against his enemies with “stones from heaven” and so annihilated them. This battle included a coalition that fled through the passes and valleys pursued by Sargon, with the enemy king hiding at last in the clefts of a mountain. burning sulfur. Brimstone; it is a yellow crystalline substance that ignites in air and is often found in volcanic regions. See note on . It has no connection with hailstones except they were both calamities that would befall the area.

use the weapons for fuel. Passages that speak of the destruction of weapons of war usually focus on using them for practical and beneficial purposes. The wooden parts could be burned in place of firewood, as here (this sometimes extended even to the clothing, as in ), and the metal parts could be recycled into agricultural use (; ).

burial place. An absolute identification is uncertain. Scholars have identified it as the “Valley of Travelers” or, based upon an Ugaritic parallel, “those who have passed on.” The latter makes the most sense. Gog has desired to be identified with the great kings of old; now he is, since they are all dead. Ugaritic texts refer to a group called the Rephaim, who are beings of the netherworld (see note on ). Valley of Hamon Gog. The dead bodies of the defeated army that invaded the land and people of Israel will be buried in the valley that means “hordes of Gog.” This valley appears to play on the name of a valley next to Jerusalem, the Valley of Hinnom, notorious for the child sacrifices performed there (see notes on ; ; ; ; ). The explanatory note in v.  adds a clue in the localization of the burial ground for the enemies of the Lord and Israel. The association of the term hamon (“clamor, hubris”) with Jerusalem in three earlier judgment prophecies is especially instructive. The form Hamonah (v. ) is linked with (NIV “the whole crowd”), where hamona had functioned as shorthand for all of Jerusalem’s riotous, defiant and wicked behavior. In , the prophet denounced Jerusalem’s hamon, which exceeded the tumult and wickedness of all surrounding nations. Some of these nations appear in , bringing their own depraved and boisterous ways into the city of Jerusalem, at her invitation. Hamonah therefore stands for the capital of Judah in a skillful unfolding of the divine judgment on Jerusalem and the nations.

Hamonah. See previous note.

Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals . . . come . . . eat flesh. The practice of throwing bodies out into the open to be eaten by wild animals is well attested in ancient Near Eastern texts. This treatment amounts to a curse. This punishment is applied in particular to those who have broken treaties. In the light of these parallels, the punishment God inflicts on the nations that have invaded the land of Israel should probably be seen as an outworking of a curse in retribution for a broken agreement, i.e., a betrayal of a pact of nonaggression.

I hid my face. The anthropomorphic notion of the Lord hiding his face occurs three times in ch. (vv. , , ) and heightens God’s involvement in Israel’s fate. In Ezekiel, the nation’s disaster is expressed with a typical expression found in numerous ancient Near Eastern texts. The origin of the expression is found in ancient court language for looking favorably or unfavorably on someone. For a king to turn his face from a subject spelled disaster. The hiding of the face therefore appropriately describes the disposition of the deity, as in a Neo-Babylonian text entitled “A Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar.” The person praying expresses the feeling of being abandoned by the divinity and wonders whether the god is angry and has turned her face away.

restore the fortunes of Jacob. The idiomatic expression “to restore the fortunes” encountered earlier in (where “Sodom” is a reference to Jerusalem) and in (with reference to Egypt) represents a technical reference to a model of restoration. It indicates the Lord’s reversal of his judgment. The same expression occurs in the eighth-century BC Aramaic Sefire Stele III.

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