He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls …: Many translations follow the text closely in saying that He, that is Nebuchadnezzar, will break down the walls and towers. This is normally acceptable if readers understand that what really happened is that he ordered his troops to do this. But in some languages translators will need to say “He will order his soldiers to….” Two unusual Hebrew words occur in the phrase rendered the shock of his battering rams. The word for shock comes from a root meaning “to strike/hit” (compare Good News Translation “pound in” and New International Reader’s Version “knock down”). The word rendered battering rams is not the usual Hebrew word for this weapon, that is, a large wooden log or heavy tree trunk, carried by soldiers (see 4.2). It may have been a different type of weapon that soldiers used to break apart a stone wall. It is acceptable in translation to describe the function of these weapons; for example, New International Reader’s Version renders this clause as “He will use huge logs to knock your walls down,” and Contemporary English Version says “He will command some of his troops to use large wooden poles to beat down your walls.” Another possible model is “His soldiers will use sharp weapons to break down your stone walls.”

And with his axes he will break down your towers: This rendering assumes that the towers (see Ezek 26.4) were made of wood, but they could equally have been made of stone for which axes would be inappropriate. The Hebrew word for axes normally means “swords” and there is evidence that soldiers sometimes used swords and daggers to dislodge the brickwork of the walls they were attacking (Greenberg). Although many translations use “axes” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt), it is better to say “iron bars” (Good News Translation, New Century Version), “iron rods” (Contemporary English Version), or “iron hooks” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). New Living Translation has “sledgehammers,” which implies a different process of demolition and is not recommended. We recommend a general word such as “weapons” (New International Version, Today’s New International Version, New American Bible).

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 .