For Son of man, see Ezek 29.2.

Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre: For Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, see 26.7. He made his army labor against Tyre means he “made his army fight hard against” (New Century Version). As noted in the introductory comments on this subsection, the siege of Tyre lasted thirteen years. For the city of Tyre, see the introductory comments on 26.1–28.19.

Every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare: The thirteen years of fighting took a heavy toll on Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers. God pictures them with bald patches on their heads and the skin on their shoulders chafed and sore. Contemporary English Version says “their heads were rubbed bald, and their shoulders were red and sore,” New Century Version has “Every soldier’s head was rubbed bare, and every shoulder was rubbed raw,” and New Living Translation translates “the warriors’ heads were rubbed bare, and their shoulders were raw and blistered.” What happened to the Babylonian soldiers may have been due to the many heavy loads they had to carry (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), or it may have been caused by the armor they had to wear for such a long time (compare New International Reader’s Version, which says “Their helmets rubbed their heads bare. The heavy loads they carried made their shoulders raw”).

Yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against it: Soldiers normally took things from a city they captured and these would be like their wages. But in the case of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar and his soldiers got nothing, because they did not succeed in capturing Tyre. It was as if they received no wages for all the work they had done.

A model for this verse is:

• “Mortal man, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, attacked the city of Tyre. He and his soldiers fought against it for a long time. During the fighting, the soldiers carried many heavy loads. These loads rubbed away the hair on the backs of their heads and rubbed holes in their shirts, so that the skin of their shoulders was smooth from the rubbing. But they did not capture the city of Tyre, so they were unable to take away any precious things from the city. They worked very hard for a long time, but they did not receive any pay.

A model that does not make all the information explicit is:

• “Mortal man, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, attacked the city of Tyre. He and his soldiers fought against it for a long time, and the heads of the soldiers became bald and their shoulders were rubbed raw. But they did not capture the city, and so they could not get its wealth to pay themselves for their hard work.

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 .