Say, Thus says the Lord GOD: This repetition of the command to speak and the traditional prophetic formula (see Ezek 17.3) shows that the story has finished. Verses 9-10 invite the audience to consider the meaning of the story. This is done by means of a series of questions, so it may be more natural for some languages to use the verb “ask” here; for example, New Living Translation has “So now the Sovereign LORD asks” (similarly Good News Translation). Although these are rhetorical questions, it is best not to restructure them as statements but to retain them in the form of questions. This will allow modern readers also to consider the meaning of the story before the explanation is given in verses 11-21.

Will it thrive?: God asks whether the newly-planted vine will stay alive and continue to grow. This may be a simple question, but more likely, in the light of the next question, it expects the answer “No.” Translators may say “Will it live and grow?” The next questions clearly expect the answer “Yes.”

Will he not pull up its roots…?: The first eagle will pull out the vine, roots and all. This question may be rendered “Won’t the eagle pull it up by its roots?” or “He’ll pull it up by the roots, won’t he?”

And cut off its branches: Revised Standard Version has changed the Hebrew text here. Instead of branches, the Hebrew reads “fruit” (New International Version, New Century Version, King James Version, New American Bible), which some translations render more precisely as “grapes” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The meaning of the Hebrew verb translated cut off is uncertain, but most translations take it to mean “pull off” (Good News Translation) or “strip off” (New Century Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible). Another possible meaning of the verb is “cause [its fruit] to rot” (New Revised Standard Version). This clause may be a separate question by saying “Won’t he strip off its fruit?” Or it may be part of the previous question as follows: “He’ll pull it up by the roots and strip off its fruit, won’t he?” Translators should do whatever is most natural in their language.

So that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither: In Hebrew this clause contains two words meaning “wither,” and some translations omit one of them (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). There are two ways of following the Hebrew. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh does it one way by saying “so that its entire foliage withers? It [that is, the vine] shall wither.” The other way is to follow New International Version, which has “[stripped of its fruit] so that it withers? All its new growth will wither.” Grammatically, the first interpretation is more likely. According to the first interpretation, both the leaves and the vine itself will wither and die; according to the second interpretation, only the fruit and the leaves will die. It is important to note that, in both of these interpretations, the question ends before the second occurrence of the Hebrew word meaning “wither,” leaving it as a statement that answers the rhetorical question by saying that the vine will wither and die. Although it is also possible to take it as a question, it fits the context much better as a statement and provides a good introduction for the following clause. The Hebrew expression rendered all its fresh sprouting leaves may refer to “all its new leaves” (New Century Version; similarly Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible) or simply “all its leaves” (so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Wither means to shrivel up and die, and describes what happens to branches and leaves when they are cut off from a plant. A model for the second rhetorical question and its answer is “Won’t the first eagle pull it up by its roots and pull off its fruit? All the leaves will dry up and the vine will die.”

It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots: The previous clause says that the vine will wither and die, and this clause shows that the process of killing it will be easy, because the person who pulls it from the ground will not need to be very strong, and it will only take one person, not many, to pull it out. Pull it from its roots means to pull it out of the ground, roots and all.

A model for this verse is:

• “So I, the Lord Yahweh, ask: Will the vine stay alive? Won’t the first eagle pull it out of the ground, roots and all? Won’t it strip off its fruit? Won’t all its [new] leaves wither and die? Yes, the vine will wither and die, and then it will be easy to pull it up, roots and all. One person will be able to do it—there will be no need for a large group—and that person will not even need to be very strong.

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 .