For Son of man (International Children’s Bible “Human being”),

Write down the name of this day, this very day: The emphasis on this very day shows that the date was particularly important for Ezekiel. Translators need to retain this stress; for example, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “record this date, this exact day.”

The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day: The reason why that day was so important is given here. It was the day on which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia began to attack Jerusalem. It is acceptable to begin this sentence with the conjunction “because” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation) to connect it with the previous sentence. In this context Babylon refers to the country “Babylonia” (Good News Translation; see the comments on 12.13). Laid siege refers to the way Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem (see the comments on 4.2 for a description of a siege). The Hebrew verb used here is not the normal one for a siege. It actually means “lean on” or “put pressure on” something. New Jerusalem Bible renders this verb as “began his attack,” New International Reader’s Version has “surrounded … and attacked,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says simply “surrounded.”

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 .