Despite Good News Translation‘s claim that this verse is unclear in Hebrew, it is possible to draw satisfactory meaning from the Hebrew.

And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains: Only a few Israelites will survive on the day of God’s judgment. These two clauses may be translated “Anybody who does not die will escape to the mountains.”

Like doves of the valleys: The survivors will hide in the protected areas of the mountains where the doves live. Doves of the valleys were small, gentle birds that lived in caves and rocky crags of the mountains of Israel. If doves are not known, translators may say “small birds” or simply “birds.”

All of them moaning, every one over his iniquity: The survivors will moan like doves as they express their sorrow (compare Isa 38.14; 59.11; Nahum 2.7). The sound that doves make is a bit like people moaning in sorrow. They all will be sad and cry, not just because of the disaster they have experienced, but also because of their iniquity, that is, their own sin and guilt. Contemporary English Version changes from third to second person for the Israelites, saying “All of you will moan because of your sins.”

New Century Version provides a helpful model for this verse as follows:

• Those who are left alive and who escape will be on the mountains, moaning like doves of the valleys about their own sin.

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 .