Then he said to me: Once again God speaks to Ezekiel. Contemporary English Version has simply “God said.”

Son of man, dig in the wall: For Son of man, see Ezek 8.5. Dig in the wall may be rendered “dig through the wall” (New Revised Standard Version, New Century Version). God wants Ezekiel to make the hole in the wall bigger, so that he can climb through it. Contemporary English Version says “Make this hole bigger.” In the Hebrew the particle of entreaty is used again. Revised Standard Version omits it, but New International Version renders it “now.”

And when I dug in the wall, lo, there was a door: After Ezekiel made the hole bigger, he saw a door in front of him. Lo renders the Hebrew word hinneh. Here it introduces another surprising thing for Ezekiel. Parole de Vie renders the Hebrew word for door as “passage,” but most translations say “door.” This door appears to have been a secret entrance to the rooms on the other side of the wall. It is unusual for a door to be on the other side of a blank wall, but such a thing is quite understandable in a vision or dream. To avoid this problem, some translations understand that Ezekiel made an “opening” big enough for him to crawl through by enlarging the hole in the wall; for example, New Jerusalem Bible renders this whole sentence as “I bored through the wall, until I had made an opening” (similarly Revised English Bible). While this second understanding is acceptable, the first one is preferable.

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 .