Ezekiel 23:14-21
New English Translation
14 But she increased her prostitution. She saw men carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans carved in bright red,[a] 15 wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, the image of Babylonians[b] whose native land is Chaldea. 16 When she saw them,[c] she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.[d] 17 The Babylonians crawled into bed with her.[e] They defiled her with their lust; after she was defiled by them, she[f] became disgusted with them. 18 When she lustfully exposed her nakedness,[g] I[h] was disgusted with her, just as I[i] had been disgusted with her sister. 19 Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. 20 She lusted after her lovers there, whose genitals were like those of donkeys,[j] and whose emission was like that of stallions. 21 This is how you assessed[k] the obscene conduct of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled[l] your nipples and squeezed[m] your young breasts.
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- Ezekiel 23:14 tn The only other occurrence of the Hebrew term is in Jer 22:14.
- Ezekiel 23:15 tn Heb “the sons of Babel.”
- Ezekiel 23:16 tn Heb “at the appearance of her eyes.”
- Ezekiel 23:16 sn The Chaldeans were prominent tribal groups of Babylonia. The imagery is reminiscent of events in the reigns of Hezekiah (2 Kgs 20:12-15) and Jehoiakim (2 Kgs 23:34-24:1).
- Ezekiel 23:17 tn Heb “The sons of Babel came to her on a bed of love.”
- Ezekiel 23:17 tn Heb “her soul.”
- Ezekiel 23:18 tn Heb “She exposed her harlotry and exposed her nakedness.”
- Ezekiel 23:18 tn Heb “my soul.”
- Ezekiel 23:18 tn Heb “my soul.”
- Ezekiel 23:20 tn Heb “She lusted after their concubines (?), whose flesh was the flesh of donkeys.” The phrase “their concubines” is difficult here. The pronoun is masculine plural, suggesting that the Egyptian men are in view, but how concubines would fit into the picture envisioned here is not clear. It is possible that the term refers here to the Egyptians’ genitals. The relative pronoun that follows introduces a more specific description of them. Some suggest that Ezekiel uses the term in an idiomatic sense of “paramour,” which is reflected in the translation above.
- Ezekiel 23:21 tn Or “you took note of.” The Hebrew verb פָּקַד (paqad) in the Qal implies evaluating something and then acting in light of that judgment; here the prophet depicts Judah as approving of her youthful unfaithfulness and then magnifying it at the present time. Some translations assume the verb should be repointed as a Niphal, rendering “you missed” or by extension “you longed for,” but such an extension of the Niphal “to be missing” is otherwise unattested.
- Ezekiel 23:21 tn Heb “when (they) did,” but the verb makes no sense here and is better emended to “when (they) fondled,” a verb used in vv. 3 and 8. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:43.
- Ezekiel 23:21 tn Heb “for the sake of,” but the expression is awkward and is better emended to read “to squeeze.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:43.
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