Or if I send a pestilence into that land …: For the fourth time the same pattern appears in verses 19-20 as in the previous verses. Here God’s punishment for the sinful nation is pestilence (see 5.12), which may be rendered “disease” (New Century Version), “deadly disease” (Contemporary English Version), “epidemic” (Good News Translation), or “plague” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible).

And pour out my wrath upon it with blood means God will kill many people and animals in his anger. For the imagery of God pouring out his anger as if it were a boiling hot liquid, see the comments on 7.8 and 9.8. With blood should not be translated as if God were pouring out blood and his anger from the same container. The blood is the means through which God will show his anger, so New International Version says “through bloodshed.” Blood refers to the people and animals dying from disease. Good News Translation expresses the sense of this clause by saying “and in my anger take many lives.”

To cut off from it man and beast: See verses 13 and 17. This clause may be combined with the previous one by saying “and in my anger I kill all the people and animals in the land.”

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 .