And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols: This clause may have the same sense as the last clause in the previous verse, that is, I will kill the people in front of their idols (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), but in this context it is better to understand that, in verse 4, God says he will kill those who worship false gods, and in verse 5 he says he will let the dead bodies of the worshipers lie in front of the statues of the false gods like rubbish. Good News Translation renders the verb lay as “scatter,” but “place” and “lay out” are really more accurate.

Before their idols may be translated “in front of their idols” or “in front of the idols they worship.”

And I will scatter your bones round about your altars: God will throw the bones of dead Israelites around the altars where they worship their false gods. Your bones implies that God is now addressing the people of Israel, but this may be the case only in this sentence. In verse 6 God may be addressing either the people or the land. Round about your altars may be rendered “around the altars where you worship.”

There is no hint of ancestor worship or worshiping the spirits of the dead in this section. In cultures where this practice is known, it may be necessary to explain that God will do what he said in order to punish those who sinned and to defile the shrines of the false gods so that they could not be used any more; for example, this verse may be rendered as follows:

• I will defile [or, spoil] the idols and altars of the people of Israel by laying the corpses of the people in front of them and scattering their bones around them.

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 .