God pronounces judgment on the false female prophets in verses 20-23.

Wherefore thus says the Lord GOD: For this traditional prophetic formula, see Ezek 13.3.

Behold renders the Hebrew word hinneh. Here it calls attention to God’s message of judgment on the female prophets.

I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls: I am against may be rendered “I hate” (Contemporary English Version). Your magic bands with which you hunt the souls refers to the magic amulets that the women used to trap people (see verse 18). Revised Standard Version indicates in a footnote that it has omitted a Hebrew word at the end of this clause. The root of this word means “to fly.” This same word occurs at the end of the verse, where it is rendered like birds. This idea makes perfectly good sense in the picture of the women using magic charms to trap people as if they were birds. Good News Translation omits this word both times, but it is better to include it. New Century Version keeps it here by saying “I am against your magic charms, by which you trap people as if they were birds.” Another possible model is “I hate your magic wristbands by which you ensnare people like birds.”

And I will tear them from your arms: God will tear the magic charms from the arms of the women like someone pulling a shirt off his friend and ripping it to pieces. Good News Translation provides a helpful model here, saying “I will rip them off your arms.”

And I will let the souls that you hunt go free like birds means God will set free the people that the women caught in their magic “net.” In its footnote on this clause, Revised Standard Version indicates that it has changed the Hebrew text here, which New Revised Standard Version follows by saying “and let the lives go free, the lives that you hunt down like birds.” Since the meaning of the Hebrew text is exactly the same as Revised Standard Version‘s corrected version, translators can ignore the footnote. New Century Version says “and I will free those people you have trapped like birds” (similarly Osty).

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 .