The sound of a carefree multitude was with her: A carefree multitude refers to a crowd of people having fun. The Hebrew word for carefree means “happy in a party mood” or “not worried.” It does not mean that they were “reckless” (New Century Version) or irresponsible—they were just enjoying themselves. The whole phrase fits a group of men who are visiting prostitutes and are drinking and singing. Some translations understand that the pronoun her refers to Oholah and Oholibah, so the noise was coming from their rooms (so Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation). Others say it was “in the city” (New Century Version, New American Bible), yet others do not specify the place; for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders this whole clause as “All around everything was filled with the festive noise of the crowd,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “And the noise of a carefree multitude was there.” The latter renderings are acceptable, but it is even better to retain the idea that the men were having a noisy party with Oholah and Oholibah, as in “People [or, Everyone] could hear the noise of the happy crowd who were with them [that is, the two sisters].”

And with men of the common sort drunkards were brought from the wilderness: Men of the common sort is literally “men from the multitude of humanity.” Some translations render this phrase as “men from the rabble” (New International Version; similarly New Revised Standard Version), but others have “ordinary folk” (Revised English Bible) or “Common people” (New Century Version). More likely it refers to a “[large] group of men” (Good News Translation), “crowd of men” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible), or “numerous men” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). These men were brought from the wilderness, that is, the two sisters had sent for them and told them to come. The wilderness refers to the dry area to the south and east of Israel. For wilderness (“desert” in Good News Translation), see 6.14. In many languages it will be easier to refer to these men coming from the desert before describing the noise that they caused. But who were these men from the wilderness? The Hebrew has a very unusual word here. It may come from a word meaning “liquor/wine”; if so, its spelling is wrong. Drunkards (so also New Living Translation, New Century Version, New American Standard Bible, Moffatt), that is, people who are drunk, reflects this possible reading. On the other hand, the Jewish scholars who copied the Hebrew text suggested it should be read “Sabeans” (New International Version, King James Version / New King James Version, Revised English Bible). The Sabeans were a tribe of nomads who lived in the desert areas of Arabia, southeast of Israel. In this context it is a possible reading. But another alternative is that the unusual word is a mistake that a copyist made when he accidentally repeated the previous Hebrew word that looks very similar (mubaʾim and sobaʾim). In that case the difficult word should just be omitted. That is what Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have done, and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that translators should do the same. Nevertheless, the verse is so obscure that any of these interpretations may be used. Models for each of these interpretations for the first half of this verse are:

• They [that is, the two sisters] sent for a big group of men to come from the dry country. All of these were drunk and happy, and were making a lot of noise with them.

• They sent for a big group of men to come from the dry country. These were Sabeans and all of them were happy and were making a lot of noise with them.

• They sent for a big group of men to come from the dry country, and all of these were happy and were making a lot of noise with them.

And they put bracelets upon the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns upon their heads: The men brought beautiful gifts for the two sisters. Bracelets (see 16.11) are bands of precious material or stones that people put on their hands, that is, their “arms” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “wrists” (New Living Translation, New Century Version). Here beautiful crowns probably refers to bands of expensive material that they wound around their heads like turbans (see 16.12). Translators need to be sure that readers will be able to tell who does what to whom by rendering this whole sentence as “The men put bracelets around the wrists of the women, as well as beautiful headpieces [or, decorations] on their heads.”

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 .