From the floor to above the door cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall: Verse 20 repeats some of the information in verses 16-18 (see the comments there). Instead of on the wall, the Hebrew text has two words that read literally “and the wall of the main room [of the Temple].” Good News Translation has omitted these words. Revised Standard Version changes the Hebrew text by following verse 25, but it is not necessary to do so. Here the two Hebrew words should be taken as an additional comment to remind the reader that even the wall of the Holy Place had the pattern of cherubim and palm trees carved on it (compare English Standard Version “similarly the wall of the nave”). New International Reader’s Version provides a good model for this verse, saying “Cherubim and palm trees decorated the wall of the Holy Room. They were carved from the floor all the way up to the area above the entrance.” In languages where it is more natural to make the participants explicit, translators may say:

• People had even carved cherubim and palm trees on the walls of the Holy Place, from the floor all the way up to the area above the entrance.

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 .