For Son of man (International Children’s Bible “Human being”),

Make known to Jerusalem her abominations: God tells Ezekiel to confront the people of Jerusalem concerning all the wicked things that they have done. God’s command does not imply a simple telling of a story here. Rather, it has the sense of informing the people of a legal charge against them. Make known to is better rendered “point out to” (Good News Translation) or “confront” (New International Version, New Living Translation, New Jerusalem Bible). Throughout this chapter Jerusalem stands for the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel. For those languages in which it is not possible to tell anything to a city, translators may expand Jerusalem to “the people of Jerusalem [or, Judah].” Abominations usually refers to idols and false gods (see 5.9), but here it has a wider sense of “hated actions” (New Century Version) or “disgusting sins” (Contemporary English Version). Such sins included worshiping idols, mistreating fellow Israelites, forsaking God, and relying on foreign nations for safety. It was God who hated these actions.

A model for this verse is:

• “Human being, point out to [the people of] Jerusalem the things they have done that I hate.

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 .