And he brought me to the door of the court: He brought me is literally “he caused me to come.” The form of the Hebrew verb here usually means “lead,” but it can also mean “carry.” In a vision like this, it is difficult to know what it means here, so we advise translators to use the most general expression they can for he brought me, for example, “He took me” (Good News Translation). To the door of the court means into the north gateway of the Temple’s inner courtyard, just inside the outside door. Translators may say “inside the door of the gateway to the inner courtyard in the Temple.”

When I looked, behold renders the same Hebrew expression as at the beginning of verse 2 (see the comments there). Here translators may say simply “And I saw.”

There was a hole in the wall: The wall here does not refer to the large thick wall that surrounded the Temple’s inner courtyard. Rather, it was the wall that separated the gateway itself from the rooms within the courtyard wall. It is not necessary in the translation to describe exactly which wall was involved, but translators should have it clear in their own minds, so that the translation is not confusing for the reader. The hole was apparently big enough to look through but not big enough for Ezekiel to climb through.

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 .