When he brought me there: The verb phrase he brought me is repeated for the third time in this subsection, so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch omits it. This is acceptable if this whole clause is simply understood as a summary of Ezekiel’s movement described in the previous verses, in which case the meaning is “When I arrived there.” But other translations see a progression here; for example, New Century Version says “He took me closer to the buildings” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation), New English Bible and Revised English Bible have “He led me towards it [that is, the city],” and Complete Jewish Bible translates “That is where he took me.” This latter interpretation is preferable.

The Hebrew word hinneh rendered behold is used four times in this chapter (verses 3, 5, 17, 24) to make the narrative vivid and dramatic. Block renders it “I noticed,” and Good News Translation has “I saw.” Translators are encouraged to use whatever means are available in their languages to make the narrative lively, like someone going from place to place, seeing one new and interesting thing after another. Some say “and then I saw.”

There was a man, whose appearance was like bronze: Ezekiel saw a man who was bright and shining like polished metal. This man was similar to the one Ezekiel saw in the vision in chapter 8. For bronze see 1.4. New Century Version renders this clause as “a man who looked as if he were made of bronze” (similarly New International Reader’s Version), but what he was made of is not as important as the way he was shining brightly. Considering what he looked like, this was not an ordinary man, so some languages may have to say “a figure that looked like a man, which was shining like polished metal.”

With a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand: The man was holding two items for measuring things. Flax is a plant that grows about 1 meter (3 feet) tall. Its seeds contain oil, known as linseed oil, and its stalks are dried, beaten and woven into fine material, called linen, or string and rope. A line of flax refers to a string made of flax. Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Christian Community Bible say “a flax cord,” but many translations use the more familiar term “linen,” saying “a cord of linen [thread]” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “a linen cord” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, English Standard Version, New American Bible). However, the actual material of the cord is less important than its purpose as a tape measure, so better renderings are “a linen measuring tape/cord” (New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation), “a [linen] tape measure” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), and “a [linen] string for measuring” (similarly New Century Version). Presumably the linen cord was used for measuring the size of large items, such as buildings and land (compare Zech 2.1). We do not know whether this cord was a certain length, as the measuring reed was, or whether it had measurements marked on it, like modern tape measures. In any case, Ezekiel does not describe the man using this linen cord at any stage in the vision. The measuring reed was probably a papyrus stem, or the stem of a giant reed that grows profusely in the Nile River. Both these plants grow 5-6 meters (16-20 feet) long. However, by the time of Ezekiel the reed may already have become a recognized unit of measurement, 6 cubits long (see Ezek 40.5), so it may have been made of any sort of wood. Therefore it is probably best to render measuring reed as “measuring stick” (Contemporary English Version) or “measuring rod” (Good News Translation, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New King James Version , Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Christian Community Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt).

And he was standing in the gateway: The pronoun he refers to the man shining like polished metal. Since there were three gateways into the Temple area (see verses 5-27), we do not know which one the gateway refers to. Therefore Good News Translation renders in the gateway as “by a gateway,” and Contemporary English Version has “near one of the gates.” Translators will need to render this phrase in the most appropriate way in their languages. The gateway here was not a simple gate or door, as we know it, but a large building that provided access to the Temple area (see the comments on 8.3). The gateways Ezekiel describes in this chapter were 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide, that is, about 25 meters (or 84 feet) long and 12.5 meters (or 42 feet) wide (see verses 13 and 15). A better rendering for gateway here is “gatehouse,” which indicates that it was a building, not just a gate. Another possible model is “entry house.”

In some languages the sense of this verse might flow more smoothly if the final clause is placed earlier in the verse. A model that does this is:

• When he brought me closer to the buildings, I saw a man standing at a gateway. The man shone brightly like polished metal and he was holding a [linen] tape measure and a measuring rod.

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 .