And he said to me: After Ezekiel saw the bones, God spoke to him. Since a question follows this quote frame, the verb said may be rendered “asked” (New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation).

For Son of man (International Children’s Bible “Human being”),

Can these bones live?: Helpful models for this question are “can these bones come back to life?” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) and “can these bones become living people again?” (New Living Translation).

And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest”: Ezekiel did not know the answer to God’s question, so he replied that only God knew it. Lord renders the Hebrew word ʾadonai, and GOD renders “Yahweh” (YHWH in Hebrew). Good News Translation renders Ezekiel’s response as “Sovereign LORD, only you can answer that!” (similarly Contemporary English Version), and New International Reader’s Version has “LORD and King, you are the only one who knows.”

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 .