As in verse 4, Ezekiel mixes the parable and the historical situation here.

And he ravaged their strongholds, and laid waste their cities: These actions apply to a person, not a lion. He ravaged their strongholds means he destroyed the strong walls and other fortified places of cities that were supposed to protect the people who were being attacked. Good News Translation says “He wrecked forts,” and New Living Translation has “He demolished fortresses” (similarly Contemporary English Version). Their strongholds may be rendered “the strong places [or, walls] that protected people.” Laid waste their cities means he destroyed the buildings of the cities and killed all the people in them (see the comments on 6.6, where the Hebrew verb rendered laid waste is translated “be waste”). These are the actions of a strong and aggressive king. Although there is no specific indication in the text to whom the pronoun their refers, it probably refers to Judah’s enemies among the surrounding nations. Some translations omit this pronoun, which is acceptable; for example, Contemporary English Version renders these two lines as “He destroyed fortresses and ruined towns” (similarly Good News Translation).

And the land was appalled and all who were in it at the sound of his roaring: Everyone was terrified whenever the lion roared. Here Ezekiel returns to the parable of the lion. Contemporary English Version reverses the order of these two lines, saying “His mighty roar terrified everyone.” Another possible model is “When he roared, everyone in the land was terrified.”

For this verse most translations reflect the interpretation in Revised Standard Version, but to do so they must change the Hebrew text of the first line, as the footnotes in many of the translations show. The first line in the Hebrew text reads literally “And he knew his widows.” Since the Hebrew here is so difficult to understand, most translations have changed it to produce a text that has an easier meaning. But it is possible to make sense of the Hebrew in a way that fits the context, both of the parable of the lions and of the political historical situation that the parable represents. The Hebrew verb meaning “knew” is a frequent Biblical euphemism for sexual intercourse; “his widows” are the wives and concubines of the previous king who was now dead. In the ancient world it was the custom of kings who had defeated a rival to have sex with his rival’s wives and concubines to show that he was now in charge (compare Absalom’s actions in 2 Sam 16.22). Similarly, when a new lion becomes the dominant male in a pride, he mates with all the females to establish his status. So this line in Hebrew means the second lion cub became the dominant male, or the mother’s second son became king of Judah. A model of the verse that reflects this understanding is:

• He mated with the females and became dominant,
and he destroyed their towns.
The land and everyone in it were terrified
when they heard him roaring.

By following the Hebrew of the first line, the second line does not fit very well, because only a person, not a lion, can destroy towns. Yet this reading maintains the lion parable longer than the majority reading, and does so with subtlety and ambiguity. It is good to keep the ambiguity if possible.

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 .