Thus says the Lord GOD: Lord renders the Hebrew word ʾadonai, and GOD renders “Yahweh” (YHWH in Hebrew). New Century Version renders this clause as “This is what the Lord GOD says.”

I will throw my net over you: In this picture of the Egyptian king as a sea monster, God says he will use a net to capture him. The Hebrew word for net refers to a net that hunters use to catch animals or birds (see 12.13). One model for this clause is “I will throw my net over you to capture you.”

With a host of many peoples means that God will not do this alone but will “use a large group of people” (New Century Version).

And I will haul you up in my dragnet: Haul … up means to “pull up” (New Century Version) out of the water. The Hebrew word for dragnet refers specifically to a fishing net (see 26.5, where it is rendered “nets”), in contrast to the earlier net, which is a general hunting net. This word is appropriate when talking about capturing a sea creature. As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, the Hebrew text has the pronoun “they” as the as the subject of this clause, not the pronoun I (so Septuagint). It is better to retain the Hebrew here, in which the pronoun “they” refers to the host of many peoples. Some translations tie this phrase closely to the previous clause (so Revised Standard Version). Others tie it to this clause; for example, Contemporary English Version renders both clauses as “I … will catch you in my net and let a crowd of foreigners drag you to shore.” In fact, the phrase applies to both clauses, which New International Reader’s Version expresses as “I will use a large crowd of people to throw my net over you. They will pull you up in it.” New Living Translation is similar with “I will send many people to catch you in my net and haul you out of the water.” Another possible model is “I will use a large crowd of people to throw my net over you and capture you. They will pull you out of the water in it.”

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 .