And I did as I was commanded: Ezekiel did what God told him to do. In many languages it is better to render the passive verb was commanded with an active one by saying “So I did what God commanded me to do.”

I brought out the baggage by day, as baggage for exile: See Ezek 12.4.

And in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands: See Ezek 12.5.

I went forth in the dark, carrying my outfit upon my shoulder in their sight: See Ezek 12.6. The Hebrew here is literally “in the darkness I brought [it] out, I lifted [it] on [my] shoulder in their eyes.” As in verse 5, Revised Standard Version changes the Hebrew from “brought [it] out” to went forth to simplify the difficulty in following the sequence of events. See the comments on Ezek 12.5 for the best way of handling this difficulty. Revised Standard Version adds the phrase my outfit for naturalness in English. Since my outfit and my baggage refer to the same thing, translators may prefer to use the same expression both times.

Good News Translation abbreviates this verse a little and may be misleading. A better model is:

• So I did what the God commanded me to do. In the daytime I took outside [my house] my basket [or, container] with the things I had packed for leaving as a captive. Then in the evening I dug through the wall [of my house] with my bare hands. At dusk I brought my basket [or, container] outside [through the hole], lifted it on my shoulder, and left, while the people were watching me.

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 .