For Son of man, see Ezek 24.2.
Behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke: Behold renders the Hebrew particle hinneh. Here it introduces a shocking message for Ezekiel. God says he will allow Ezekiel’s wife to die suddenly, but Ezekiel must not mourn for her in the usual way. Although the Hebrew expression for the delight of your eyes can be used of things (see 1 Kgs 20.5, where it is rendered “whatever pleases them”), here it clearly refers to a person (compare Song 5.16), but we are not told that it refers to his wife until verse 18. Most languages will have an indigenous idiom to refer to a beloved person. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version say “the person you love most,” Revised English Bible has “the dearest thing you have,” and New Living Translation translates “your dearest treasure.” Another possibility is “what [or, the person] you look at with love.” The Hebrew expression for at a stroke does not refer to the medical condition where the brain is injured by a blood clot or bleeding. Rather, it refers to something that happens “suddenly” (Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Jerusalem Bible; compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “through a sudden death”). Ezekiel’s wife probably died because of a quick-acting illness (so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It is often more natural to move this phrase to the beginning of the sentence, as in “Very suddenly I am going to take away from you the person you love the most.”
Yet you shall not mourn or weep nor shall your tears run down: Yet renders the Hebrew waw conjunction. Here it introduces something unexpected, so another possible connector is “but” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Mourn, weep, and tears run down render ordinary Hebrew expressions for the way a person reacts in grief when a loved one dies. Translators may use terms that are appropriate in their own cultures. A possible model for this sentence is “but you must not wail, cry, or shed any tears.”
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 .