And he said to me: Once again God spoke to Ezekiel, which New Century Version makes clear by saying “Then the LORD said to me.”

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

These are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city: This sentence may describe the two named leaders only, but more likely it refers to all twenty-five men. It is not clear what their iniquity and wicked counsel were, but it had something to do with what they were saying in verse 3. This city is Jerusalem. Good News Translation provides a helpful model here, saying “these men make evil plans and give bad advice in this city.” In many languages it is not possible to say give wicked counsel without saying who is being advised. If so, translators may say “these are the men who are making evil plans and are giving bad advice to other people in this city” or “these are the men who make bad plans and advise the rest of the people in this city to do wicked things.”

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 .