Translation commentary on Ezekiel 46:13 - 46:14

Verses 13-15 describe the rules for the regular daily sacrifice. They list what animals and other offerings the king must provide every day for this sacrifice. Good News Translation inserts a heading here, but it is better to include these verses with 45.13–46.11.

He shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the LORD daily …: Each day he must offer a perfect one-year-old lamb to be burned completely. In verses 13-14 the Hebrew verbs rendered He shall provide are actually second person singular verbs, so New American Standard Bible says “you shall provide” (similarly New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, King James Version / New King James Version, English Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It is not clear to whom the singular pronoun “you” refers. Block says it is Ezekiel, but it is difficult to see how Ezekiel would be able to do this forever. Or it may be a general, impersonal “you,” which refers to “someone” who must do this regularly (compare the comments on 45.18). Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version take it in this way by using passive verbs. Others change the pronoun to third person “he” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Christian Community Bible, Moffatt, Septuagint), so that it refers to the king. It could refer to the king, even if the second person is retained, because there are often abrupt changes of person especially in speeches in the Old Testament. Although we cannot be certain, we recommend that translators make these verses refer to the king, whether they follow the Septuagint and change to the third person or they make it clear that the second person refers to him. For without blemish, see Ezek 46.4; for burnt offering, see Ezek 46.2.

Morning by morning he shall provide it does not mean that the king must bring a lamb to the Temple every morning. Rather, it means that he must provide the lamb that is used for the sacrifice each morning.

And he shall provide a cereal offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a cereal offering to the LORD: He must also provide for the cereal offering (see Ezek 46.5) every day. This is the first time in Ezekiel where the cereal offering is clearly identified as flour, not grain like wheat or barley. For one sixth of an ephah, which is equivalent to about 4 liters (1 gallon), see the comments on 45.10-12; for one third of a hin of oil, which is equivalent to about 1 liter (1 quart), see 45.24. The Hebrew word for moisten means “sprinkle” or “make wet,” but since the olive oil is probably mixed with the flour to bake bread or cakes, it is best for translators to make that clear. Good News Translation does this by rendering to moisten the flour as “for mixing with the flour.”

This is the ordinance for the continual burnt offering: Revised Standard Version changes the Hebrew here, which reads literally “perpetual ordinances continually” (Revised Standard Version footnote). According to the Hebrew text, which Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers, this clause does not refer to a burnt offering that is always burning, but to the ceremony that will be repeated every day without stopping. Translations that follow the Hebrew are “This law will never change” (Contemporary English Version), “The rules for this offering to the LORD are to be in force forever” (Good News Translation), and “That will be a law that will last for all time to come” (New International Reader’s Version).

A model for verses 13-14 is:

• 13 “Every morning the priests will offer to me [Yahweh] as a burnt offering a lamb with no fault. The king will provide these lambs for the daily worship. 14 He will also give the flour and oil for the offering every day, that is, one sixth of a container [or, one small container] of flour, and one third of a container of oil to mix with it for baking. This law will last for all time to come.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

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