Thus says the Lord GOD: This traditional prophetic formula again reinforces the importance of the words here (see Ezek 36.2).

Because men say to you is literally “Because they are saying to you.” In Hebrew this clause does not refer to any specific men but has an indefinite reference to people in general. New Century Version provides a good model here with “People say about you” (similarly New International Reader’s Version).

You devour men is literally “You eat people” (New Century Version), but the verb “eat” is figurative language for “destroy” or “kill” (compare 7.15). Translators need to assess whether the picture of the land eating people will be clear to their readers and choose an appropriate idiom for their language. This clause means almost the same as and you bereave your nation of children (see the comments on the previous verse). Contemporary English Version uses indirect discourse for this quote, saying “It’s true that you have been accused of not producing enough food and of letting your people starve” (similarly Good News Translation). Other languages may find this model helpful.

Instead of your nation, many Hebrew manuscripts and some translations read “your nations” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly King James Version). This reading makes perfectly good sense, referring to the two nations of Israel: the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. The consonants of the Hebrew text read “your nation.” The editors of the Hebrew text were really unsure whether this reading was correct, so they inserted the vowels of a different word, and placed that other word in the margin. The incorrect vowels in the text alert the reader to read the alternate word instead of the one in the text. The reading with the “incorrect” vowels in the text is called ketiv, which means, “[what is] written,” and the reading in the margin is called qere, which means “[what to] read.” In this way the compilers of the text made sure that they preserved the original consonantal text, even though they thought that it was probably wrong. It is never easy to decide whether the ketiv or the qere is the better reading. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says that this situation applies here (and in the next two verses), but is unable to decide which reading is better. We believe it is usually wise to follow the consonantal text, and that is why we recommend that translators use singular here, but, as Hebrew Old Testament Text Project notes, the choice is so uncertain that it is acceptable to use the plural instead.

The connector Because goes with “therefore” in the next verse, which gives the result of this verse. Some languages may want to avoid the complicated subordinate clause here by rendering this verse as follows:

• This is what I, the Lord Yahweh, say: People say that you eat people and cause the children of those people who live in your land to die. Yes, that’s true!

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 .