For Son of man, see Ezek 33.2.

The inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying: The speakers here are the people who still lived in the land of Israel after Jerusalem was destroyed. These waste places refers to “the ruined cities” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation) and “those broken-down buildings” (New International Reader’s Version) that were all that remained after the Babylonians had destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding villages. This clause may be rendered “The people who are living in the ruined cities in the land of Israel keep saying.”

Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land …: The people remaining in the ruined land of Israel were using this saying to claim the land as their own property. They looked back to the early history of Israel, when God promised to give the land to Abraham, even though he had no children at the time (see Gen 12.7; 15.18-20). He got possession of the land does not mean he bought the land or captured it in war. Those languages that need to explain how Abraham got the land may say that God gave it to him; for example, Contemporary English Version renders this sentence as “Abraham was just one man, and the LORD gave him this whole land of Israel.”

But we are many; the land is surely given us to possess continues the people’s saying. Their argument was that, if God had given the land to one man, Abraham, he would also give it to them as their own property, because there were many of them. Contemporary English Version continues with “There are many of us, and so this land must be ours.”

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 .