Verses 15-20 consist of three pairs of verses that follow the same basic pattern as verses 13-14. In each pair there is a long, complicated conditional sentence, which refers first to the punishment God threatens to bring on the land, and then states that not even the virtue of the three good men, Noah, Danel and Job, would be able to save any of the people living in the land. So the message is exactly the same as in verses 13-14; only some of the details have changed. The main change is that the first clause of verse 13 (“a land sins against me by acting faithlessly”) is missing from verses 15, 17 and 19. However, the message of each pair in verses 15-20 depends on that clause. It gives the reason for the punishment that God describes in verses 15-20. In many languages translators may need to repeat something about the nation turning to sin at the beginning of each pair of verses; for example, Contemporary English Version refers to “a sinful nation” in verses 17 and 19 to remind the reader of this fundamental fact. New Century Version shows the connection by beginning each pair with the conjunction “Or.”

If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land …: The punishment described in verse 15 is wild animals roving throughout the land, killing the people and destroying the land, making it impossible for people to live there. Pass through the land does not mean to go across the land and leave. A better rendering here is “rove through the land.”

And they ravage it is literally “and it [the wild animals] make it [the land] childless.” New International Version says “and they leave it childless,” New Jerusalem Bible has “to rob it of its children,” and New Century Version translates “leaving the land … without children.” However, it is acceptable to translate this clause more simply as “to kill the people” (Good News Translation) or “to destroy the population” (Revised English Bible).

And it be made desolate means the land will be in ruins, empty and deserted. All its buildings will be ruined, and no one will live in the land. For the Hebrew word rendered desolate, see the comments on 12.20, where it is translated “desolation.” It is going too far to say the land will become “a barren desert” (Contemporary English Version; similarly New Jerusalem Bible).

So that no man may pass through because of the beasts means the land will be too dangerous to travel through, probably because the wild animals will be so numerous and fierce that people will be afraid of them. This clause may be rendered “People will not be able to travel there because they will be afraid of the wild animals.”

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 .