complete verse (Ezekiel 39:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 39:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “When (they) find bones of a person there in the open land, they shall place a sign there until the people who dig graves/holes can remove (them) so as to bury (them) in the ‘Valley of the soldiers of Gog.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Whenever they see bones of a man, they will-mark it so-that the ones-who-bury will-know and they can-bury in the ‘So-Called-Valley/Plains of Many Men of Gog.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When they go through the land, when one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it. When the gravediggers see the markers, they will pick up the bones and bury them in the Valley of Gog’s Huge Army.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 39:15

And when these pass through the land is literally “And those who pass through the land will pass through,” which may be rendered “So the inspectors will go throughout the land” (compare New Revised Standard Version “As the searchers pass through the land”).

And any one sees a man’s bone, then he shall set up a sign by it: The Hebrew expression for a man’s bone refers to “a human bone” (New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible), not necessarily the bone of a male. If any of the inspectors sees a human bone, that person will set up a sign by it, that is, “put a marker beside it” (Good News Translation, New International Reader’s Version, Revised English Bible; similarly Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Century Version, New King James Version , New American Standard Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). We do not know exactly what this “marker” was, but it could have been “a pile of stones” (Christian Community Bible).

Till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog: The inspectors will put markers next to bones so that those whose job it is to bury the bones will be able to find them and bury them. The markers will stay next to the bones until the bones are buried. The buriers, or “gravediggers” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), are the full time workers who will go around with the inspectors looking for all the remaining bones in the land. For the Valley of Hamon-gog, see the comments on verse 11.

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 .