You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations: The Hebrew pronoun rendered You is emphatic. It draws attention to this statement of God’s punishment of Jerusalem. This emphasis may be expressed by beginning with “But you, you bear….” Bear the penalty of is literally “carry.” The context requires the addition of a word such as “penalty” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible), “consequences” (New International Version, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), or “punishment” (New Living Translation, New Century Version). Good News Translation renders this phrase as “must suffer for,” and Contemporary English Version has “must pay for.” Some translations imply that Jerusalem has already paid the penalty for her sin (so King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible), but the context makes it clear that God is imposing the punishment that the people will have to bear. The form of the Hebrew verb used here is often translated as a past, but here it means that the full punishment has now been imposed, even though the penalty still has to be paid. For the Hebrew word rendered lewdness, see the comments on verse 27, where it is translated “lewd behavior.” For abominations see Ezek 16.2. Contemporary English Version renders your lewdness and your abominations as “the vulgar and disgusting things you have done.”

Says the LORD: The judgment of Jerusalem ends with the formal declaration of God (see Ezek 16.8).

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 .