They will set apart men to pass through the land continually and bury those remaining upon the face of the land …: Although the general sense of the first sentence of this verse is fairly clear, it is hard to be sure of the details. The general meaning is that people will be appointed to go throughout the land to find and bury any dead bodies that are there, so that the land will be ritually clean again. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation capture this general sense but are not very faithful to the Hebrew in the details. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes two renderings, which we use as our base text.

Hebrew Old Testament Text Project‘s first alternative is “and men will be assigned to give their full time to going throughout the land and to burying those invaders (lit. travelers) whose bodies are left lying on the ground.” The Hebrew phrase rendered “men will be assigned” is literally “they will set apart men” (so Revised Standard Version; compare Good News Translation “men will be chosen” and New Living Translation “teams of men will be appointed”). There is no mention of who assigns the men, and languages without passive verbs will need to use an indefinite “they” or “people.” “Men … to give their full time” is literally “men of perpetuity” (compare King James Version “men of continual employment”). This phrase refers to men who will work full time on the job assigned to them. Their job will be “going throughout the land,” searching for, finding, and “burying” dead bodies. These dead bodies are the corpses of “those invaders,” that is, Gog and his army. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project adds in parentheses “(lit. travelers),” because the word it renders “invaders” actually means “those who pass through.” The Septuagint, which is followed by many translations including Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, omits this word. “Whose bodies are left lying on the ground” explains that they will not bury all the invaders, because many of them have already been buried. This group of men will only have to bury those that remain unburied.

Hebrew Old Testament Text Project‘s second alternative is “the travelers in the land will destine men with full time, who, while they accompany the travelers, will bury those who are left on the surface of the land.” In this rendering “the travelers in the land” are the ones who “destine,” that is, appoint or choose, people to work “full time.” “Travelers” is a misleading term because it suggests foreigners or people on holiday, but the required meaning is “people who [will] pass through the land.” It is their job to go through the whole country looking for dead bodies that still need to be buried. They may be called “inspectors.” These inspectors will chose the full time workers who will bury “those who are left on the surface of the land,” that is, the dead bodies that are lying around on the ground unburied. “While they accompany the travelers” means that the group of full time workers will go around the country with those whose job it is go around looking for corpses.

Both of these renderings by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project try to reflect the Hebrew text as it stands, in contrast to Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, which leave out a word that is difficult to understand. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project thinks that the second alternative is preferable, but both are acceptable.

So as to cleanse it: This clause gives the reason for the people going throughout the land to find and bury the corpses of Gog’s army. They will do it to make the land ritually clean (see verse 12). This clause may be rendered “so that they can make the land clean” (Good News Translation) or “so that the land will be acceptable to the LORD.”

The program to bury the corpses of Gog’s army in verse 12 will last seven months. At the end of seven months they will make their search means that the group mentioned in this verse will begin their job of going throughout the country, looking for the remaining corpses and burying them, when the seven months of verse 12 is finished. Most of the dead bodies will be buried during that time, and this clause refers to finding those that are missed.

Models for the first interpretation of this verse are:

• At the end of the seven months they will appoint [or choose] people to work full time going around the country to look for the bodies of those who had passed through (that is, invaded) the land and bury them. They will bury those bodies that are still lying on ground unburied. They will do this to make the land ritually clean again.

• After seven months people will assign men to work full time. These men will go throughout the land looking for dead bodies, and they will bury them. These are the bodies of the invaders whose bodies are still lying on the ground. They will do this to make the land acceptable to the LORD again.

Models for the second interpretation are:

• At the end of the seven months the inspectors [that is, those whose job it is to go through the country looking for corpses] will appoint a group of full time workers. These workers will go with the inspectors, and they will bury the bodies that remain unburied on the ground. They will do this to make the land ritually clean again.

• After seven months people will go throughout the land looking for the bodies still lying on the ground. They will choose people to work full time to bury these bodies. In this way the land will be fit for the LORD again.

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 .