In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness: To uncover someone’s nakedness usually means to have sexual intercourse with the person (compare 16.36), but here their fathers’ nakedness is generally taken to mean “their father’s wife” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) to avoid the implication of homosexuality. Although this phrase may refer to their own mother, it probably refers either to a stepmother or another wife of their father. In a footnote New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh suggests that it may refer to a former wife of their father. Translators should not try to make it explicit in their translation which of these is meant. This clause may be rendered simply “Your men have sex with their fathers’ wives.”

In you they humble women who are unclean in their impurity: Women who are unclean in their impurity are women who are considered ritually unclean because they are having their monthly menstrual period (see 18.6). Because it was against the Law to have sex during this time, men who made women do so were guilty of a crime almost as bad as rape. This expression may be translated “women who are impure because of their monthly period.” For their impurity, referring to their menstruation, translators may use a local euphemism, as long as the meaning is clear. The verb humble focuses on the humiliation the women suffered (compare “violate” in New Revised Standard Version and New International Version), but the Hebrew verb here focuses on the abusive action of the men, so Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible are better with “force,” and so is New American Bible with “coerce.” A helpful model for this clause is “Your men force women who are impure because of their monthly period to break the law by having sex with them.” The text continues to emphasize that this takes place in you, that is, in the city itself.

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 .