And you shall do as I have done …: Verses 22-23 are God’s words to Ezekiel’s fellow exiles. They imply that God did not mourn for his dearest treasure, Jerusalem, in the same way that Ezekiel did not mourn for his wife when she died. Most scholars and many translations do not accept this picture of God doing the same things that people do, and they reinterpret the text to make these words refer to Ezekiel. Some translations move verse 24 to the end of verse 21, and assume that verses 22-23 are the words of Ezekiel (so New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Others change the pronoun I in the first sentence of verse 22 to refer to Ezekiel instead of God; for example, New International Reader’s Version renders this sentence as “So do what Ezekiel did” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). This approach is understandable because, up to now, there has been no mention of God wanting to mourn for the Temple. The only mention of mourning has been God’s command to Ezekiel not to mourn for his wife. But against this approach is what the text seems to say quite plainly. There can be no doubt that God is the speaker in verses 21 and 24, and there is no hint that the speaker changes at verse 22. Therefore we must assume that, just as God told Ezekiel not to mourn openly for his beloved wife, God himself did not mourn over the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem and Temple. It is a stunningly vivid picture of God’s great pain at having to punish the people for their sin and disobedience.

You shall not cover your lips: See verse 17.

Nor eat the bread of mourners: See verse 17.

Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet: The language here is similar to that in verse 17 (see the comments there). Instead of “binding on” turbans and “putting on” sandals, the text says simply they shall be on. There is no difference in meaning.

You shall not mourn or weep: See verse 16.

But you shall pine away in your iniquities: The Hebrew verb rendered pine away is translated “waste away” in 4.17, where it referred to the physical suffering of the people during the siege of Jerusalem (see the comments there). Here it refers to the spiritual distress of the exiles when they hear of the destruction of the city and they remember how their own sins contributed to it. So a good rendering for this clause is “But you will be greatly distressed because of your sins.”

And groan to one another: This clause balances the private mourning allowed for Ezekiel in verse 17. The Hebrew verb for groan, which sometimes refers to the low growling of a lion, suggests that the mourning will be quiet and subdued, not the loud wailing of conventional mourning rites. New International Version provides a good model for this clause, saying “and groan among yourselves.”

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 .