You have not gone up into the breaches: In verse 4 God spoke to Israel. Now he addresses the false prophets since the pronoun for You is plural in Hebrew, referring to them. Translators may say “You prophets.” For some languages it may be very cumbersome and confusing to change the addressees like this. If so, the second person references to the prophets may be changed to third person, as in Good News Translation, which begins this verse with the pronoun “They” (so also Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Bible en français courant). Breaches are places where the walls of a city have broken down, or where the walls have holes in them. The verb gone up is used since anyone who wants to get to the holes has to climb up over the stones and rubble of the broken walls. This clause may be rendered “You false prophets have not climbed up to the places where the walls have crumbled.”

Or built up a wall for the house of Israel: The Hebrew expression rendered built up a wall can mean build a new wall or rebuild a wall that has been broken down. The wall provides safety and security for those inside it. For the house of Israel, that is, the Israelites, see the comments on 3.1. This clause may be rendered “and you have not built a wall to protect the people of Israel.”

The broken-down walls provide a figurative background for the actions of the false prophets. God does not mean that they should have stood on the broken-down walls of Jerusalem to guard it against the attacks of the Babylonian army, or that they should have rebuilt the walls to protect those who were living in the city. He uses the imagery here to show that the false prophets had not acted in the right way in the crisis. One of the tasks of a prophet is to tell the people of their sin and warn them of the judgment to come—this is the way to contribute to the security of the people like building a wall around them. Another part of his task is to intercede with God on behalf of the people. When Moses did this, it was described as “stood in the breach” (see Psa 106.23; compare 22.30). Since the false prophets had not passed on the true word of God as true prophets should, they had undermined the people’s trust in God. As a result, the safety of the nation was at risk.

That it might stand in battle in the day of the LORD: In chapter 7 God spoke about the coming time when he would punish sinners and bring history to an end. Here he uses the technical expression that occurs in earlier prophetic books to refer to that time, namely, the day of the LORD (compare Isa 2.2–4.6; Amos 5.18-20). The prophets preached that there would be a great battle on that final day of punishment. God’s words here imply that Israel (it) will not be able to stand, that is, survive, on that day of judgment. If the prophets had carried out their role properly, the nation may have been able to survive. This clause may be rendered as a separate sentence by saying “The people of Israel will not be able to survive the battle on the day when I, the LORD, will punish those who have sinned.”

Translators will need to decide whether to maintain the figurative language in this verse or whether to render its meaning explicitly (so Contemporary English Version). A model for retaining the imagery is:

• You false prophets have not gone up and stood in the holes in the walls, nor have you built a wall to protect the nation of Israel. As a result, the nation will not be strong enough to survive in the fighting on the day when I, the LORD, will come to punish sinners.

It is best to retain the imagery. However, if this is not possible, translators may say:

• You false prophets have not warned the people of Israel that I will punish them for their sin, and you have not prayed to me on behalf of them. So I, the LORD, will punish and destroy them completely. They won’t be able to avoid it.

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 .