They were haughty, and did abominable things before me: They were haughty means the people of Sodom were proud as in verse 49. Abominable things are the things that God hates (see Ezek 16.2). Before me shows that God saw and knew everything they did. This whole sentence may be rendered “They were proud and in my sight did things that I hate.”

Therefore I removed them refers to the time God destroyed Sodom with fire (see Gen 19.23-29). This clause may be rendered “And so I destroyed them” (Contemporary English Version; similarly Good News Translation) or “So I got rid of them” (New Century Version).

When I saw it: Translations are almost evenly divided in their understanding of the Hebrew clause here. Those who follow Revised Standard Version (namely, New Revised Standard Version, New Century Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, Moffatt, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) feel that it is meant to remind the reader of the way God went down to see what the people of Sodom were doing (see Gen 18.21). Other translations understand it to mean “as you have seen” (New International Version, New Living Translation; similarly Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Bible en français courant). The form of the Hebrew verb here can be first person, but it may also be an old form of the second person (Ezekiel uses such old forms of the second person often in his work). Some manuscripts of the Septuagint have the second person, but Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends understanding it as first person. Either interpretation is possible.

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 .