He put forth the form of a hand: The pronoun He refers to the fiery figure of God. As in chapter 1, Ezekiel is reluctant to identify any part of the divine figure explicitly, so he says the form of a hand. Good News Translation expresses this clause well with “He reached out what seemed to be a hand.”

And took me by a lock of my hair: The divine figure grabbed Ezekiel by the hair. New Century Version says “and caught me by the hair on my head,” and Contemporary English Version has simply “and grabbed my hair.”

And the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven …: Although the divine figure grasped Ezekiel by the hair, he did not carry him to Jerusalem. Rather, it was done by the Spirit, which is better rendered “a spirit” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “a wind” (see the comments on 3.12). Lifted me up between earth and heaven means Ezekiel was lifted high into the sky. New Century Version says “lifted me up between the earth and the sky,” but Good News Translation is more natural with “lifted me high in the air.”

And brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem: In many languages the verb brought is better rendered “carried” (Contemporary English Version) in this context. Ezekiel was carried to Jerusalem in visions of God. As in 1.1 (see the comments there), some translations retain the plural word “visions” (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Century Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), while others prefer the singular (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Revised English Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Here the plural form is intensive, so it means “a great and wonderful vision.” Visions of God can mean “a vision of God” (New English Bible), that is, a vision about God, or “a vision from God” (Revised English Bible), which is the more likely meaning. It is unlikely that Ezekiel was taken bodily to Jerusalem, but in a trance or dreamlike state he saw everything in the next few chapters as vividly as if he had actually been there. Several translations find it more natural to put the phrase in visions of God earlier in the verse; for example, Parole de Vie renders this clause and the previous one as “Then, in this vision that came from God, the spirit lifted me up between the sky and the earth and took me to Jerusalem.”

To the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north …: Scholars disagree about exactly where in Jerusalem Ezekiel was taken. The details here about the Temple and in verses 7, 14 and 16 are difficult to follow and sometimes seem inconsistent. The biggest problem is that Ezekiel was taken to the north gateway of the Temple’s inner courtyard in verse 3 and then again in verse 14. The following comments and diagrams are based on one possible interpretation. The Temple stood in a courtyard, the inner court, which was surrounded by a wall. This wall was like city walls that were not just one or two bricks thick, but were wide enough to contain rooms for storage or rooms where people lived (see, for example, Josh 2.15). The gateway of such a wall was quite a large building that was used for public meetings and markets (see, for example, Deut 21.19; 2 Kgs 7.1). There was an entrance, or door, on each side of the gateway, and there may have been rooms, or at least a roof, over the gateway (see 2 Sam 18.24, 33).

First Ezekiel was taken to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, that is, to the door on the outside of the gateway in the wall that surrounded the inner courtyard (G3 in the detailed plan of the gateway below). This gate faced north. Ezekiel was probably just outside the gate in the outer court (E1). Translators may say .”.. outside the door of the gateway in the inner wall that surrounded the inner courtyard of the Temple. This gateway faced to the north.” In verse 4 he looked in through the gate and saw “the glory of the God of Israel.” In verse 5 he was told to turn around and look away from the Temple, toward the north, where he saw “the image of jealousy” (J). Then in verse 7 Ezekiel was taken into the gateway, just inside the outside door (E2). There he saw “a hole in the wall” (O), which led to the rooms inside the wall (R), where he saw more evil things the Israelites were doing. In verse 14 he was taken back to the gateway, but this time to “the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD,” that is, the inner door of the gateway, which opened directly into the inner courtyard (E3). The fact that it was “the north gate” shows that it was the same gate as the one he was at before. Finally, in verse 16 he entered “the inner court of the house of the LORD,” that is, the courtyard in which the Temple stood (E4).

Just north of the north gate was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy (J). This was a statue of the Canaanite goddess Asherah. It was standing in the outer courtyard in front of the gate where Ezekiel was carried. Because it was immediately outside the main gate of the Temple, the Israelites would worship it when they came to the Temple to worship God. This made God angry because the people were breaking the covenant and were worshiping an idol of a false god. The Hebrew noun rendered jealousy and its related verb translated provokes to jealousy refer to God’s anger in this context. The traditional translations use the word jealousy, that is, God was jealous of his people worshiping other gods; for example, New Century Version has “the idol that caused God to be jealous.” The Hebrew word for jealousy refers to a strong and intense emotion that includes anger and jealousy (see the comments on 5.13). But for some languages the word “jealous” is restricted to the suspicion of unfaithfulness between spouses. If so, translators can focus on God’s anger at the people for their actions. A model for the whole clause that does this is “There stood a terrible statue that made God very angry.” Compare Contemporary English Version, which says “where there was an idol that disgusted the LORD and made him furious.”

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 .