I will make you pass under the rod: The punishment of the Israelites continues in this verse with the picture of a shepherd sorting his sheep. A shepherd stood at the gate of the sheepfold and, as the sheep were going in, used his rod, that is, a stick, to count the sheep and separate from the others those that he wanted to kill and eat and those that he chose to give to the Temple as his offering to God. Some translations take the imagery here to refer to severe discipline; for example, Good News Translation says “I will take firm control of you,” and Contemporary English Version has “I will force each of you.” But the content of verse 38, in which the rebels and sinners are separated from the others, fits the picture of the shepherd sorting his sheep much better.

And I will let you go in by number: Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint here, not the Hebrew, which is literally “and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant” (New International Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). We recommend that translators follow the Hebrew text here (so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). In this context the Hebrew word for “bond” has the sense of “obligation,” so this clause carries the idea of making the people obey the rules and regulations of the covenant. Good models for this clause are “and make you obey my covenant” (Good News Translation), “and will bring you in line with my agreement” (New Century Version), and “bring you to respect the covenant” (New Jerusalem Bible).

A model for this verse is:

• I will make you all obey the covenant. I will sort you, the good from the bad, just like a shepherd sorts his sheep.

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 .