Then lie upon your left side …: God tells Ezekiel to lie down on the ground on his left side for three hundred and ninety days. This implies that Ezekiel was unable to move from his reclining position for thirteen months. However, God also commands him to “attack” the brick (Jerusalem), bake bread, and shave his hair during that time. Therefore it is likely that Ezekiel only had to lie on his side for a certain period each day. Since we cannot be sure exactly how long he had to lie like that, translations should render the text as it stands.

And I will lay the punishment of the house of Israel upon you: During the 390 days Ezekiel has to bear the punishment of the Israelites. The Hebrew word ʿawon rendered punishment is used four times in these two verses. This word has three closely related meanings, all of which are reflected in modern translations as follows:

(1) “sin,” “iniquity” (New International Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Anchor Bible);
(2) “guilt [felt as a result of sin]” (Good News Translation, New Century Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch);
(3) “punishment [for sin]” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

Probably there is a mixture of these meanings each time the word is used, so it is not possible in translation to use just one term in all four places (so Good News Translation). Nor is it possible to say that it means only “sin” in one place and only “punishment” in another, because all the meanings overlap every time the word is used. But as the model below shows, it is best to understand the term mainly in its first and third senses (that is, “sin” and “punishment”). When it refers to the Israelites (as in the punishment of the house of Israel and equal to the number of years of their punishment), it means the sinfulness of the people, but when it refers to Ezekiel (as in you shall bear their punishment and so long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel), it has the third meaning, that is, God punishes Ezekiel instead of the people. When translators choose a term for this third sense, they must keep in mind that lying on the ground was a symbolic action for Ezekiel. He was suffering on behalf of the people. Lying there for many days, unable to move, he was symbolically being punished for their sins. In this way he was atoning for, or taking away, their sins. This is very similar to the way in which the priests, and the scapegoat, used to bear the iniquity of the people so that the people’s sins might be taken away (see Exo 28.38; Lev 10.17; 16.21).

Instead of I will lay the punishment of the house of Israel upon you (similarly Good News Translation), the Hebrew reads literally “and you will place the punishment [or, sin/guilt] of the house of Israel on it [that is, on your left side]” (see the Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation footnotes). Although the Hebrew is difficult to understand, there is no textual reason to change it (so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). According to the Hebrew, God commands Ezekiel to take the Israelites’ punishment, or guilt, on himself voluntarily. God does not impose it. He only stipulates the length of time that Ezekiel will suffer like this. This time of suffering will last for three hundred and ninety days. This is equal to the number of the years of their punishment, that is, one day for each year that the Israelites sinned. An acceptable way of translating “you will place the punishment of the house of Israel on it” is to take the pronoun “it” as referring to Ezekiel as a whole, not just his left side: for example, New Jerusalem Bible says “take the guilt of the House of Israel on yourself” (similarly New International Version, Jerusalem Bible).

Most scholars understand the house of Israel to refer to the northern kingdom of Israel that was destroyed in 722 B.C. This is because “the house of Judah” is mentioned in verse 6. But if the house of Israel refers only to the northern kingdom, it is almost impossible to see what the 390 years refer to. In addition, Ezekiel never uses this phrase elsewhere to refer to the northern kingdom. He usually uses it to refer to all the Israelites, and especially those who were in exile with him. This is the meaning of the phrase in verse 3, and it is the meaning a reader would expect here in verses 4-5. Some scholars point to other verses in Ezekiel where the house of Israel may refer to the northern kingdom, but it is likely that, even in those verses, this phrase refers either to the people still living in Jerusalem, or to all the remaining Israelites, not to the northern kingdom (see the comments on 9.9 and 37.16). Thus it is best to understand the house of Israel here to mean all the people of Israel.

This conclusion is supported when we ask what the 390 years refer to. As already noted, if the house of Israel refers only to the northern kingdom, it is very difficult to see what these 390 years refer to. If the Hebrew word ʿawon means “punishment” in connection with this phrase, the 390 years presumably refer to the time the northern kingdom of Israel was in exile. But at the time that Ezekiel received this message from God, the northern kingdom had only been in exile for about 130 years. Probably this is the reason why the Septuagint used the numbers “150” and “190” in these verses, which are much closer in round figures to the time that the northern kingdom had been in exile (compare New English Bible, which has “one hundred and ninety”). But there are no Hebrew texts that read “150” or “190,” so that is not a good solution.

However, if we understand the Hebrew word ʿawon in the first sense, that is, iniquity or sin, the 390 years could refer to a time during which the people of Israel continually sinned and rebelled against God. According to chapter 20, the people of Israel continued to sin against God from the time they left Egypt and throughout the period they were living in the Promised Land. Therefore some scholars suggest that the 390 years could be the time of the Israelite monarchy, that is, when there were kings in Israel and Judah. Others suggest that it could be the time of the First Temple, that is, from the time Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem until it was destroyed by the Babylonians (so Zimmerli). Either of these views is a possible way of understanding the significance of the 390 years, even though the figure is not exact. Saul became the first king of Israel in about 1000 B.C., which was a little more than 390 years before the time that Ezekiel began writing. Solomon’s Temple stood for slightly less than 390 years. In both these suggestions the 390 years are close enough if Ezekiel was using an approximate figure and was not trying to be exact. So either of these views is the best way of understanding the 390 years, and they both fit well with the view that the house of Israel refers to the whole nation of Israel. In fact, the house of Israel cannot refer to the northern kingdom, because the northern kingdom only survived for less than 300 years from the time of Saul.

Verses 4-5 may be combined and rearranged for the sake of naturalness (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). A model that does this is:

• After that, lie down [on the ground] on your left side. Stay like that for 390 days. The people of Israel sinned for 390 years. You must take the punishment for those people of Israel on yourself for 390 days. I will punish you one day for each year that they sinned.

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 .