Once again God addresses Ezekiel as Son of man (International Children’s Bible “Human being”). For this phrase

Thus says the Lord GOD is the prophetic introduction. Lord renders the Hebrew word ʾadonai, and GOD renders “Yahweh” (YHWH in Hebrew). New Century Version renders this clause as “This is what the Lord GOD says.” Translators may prefer to tie this clause closely with prophesy, and say in one of the following ways: “prophesy and announce what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying” (Good News Translation), “prophesy and give this message from the Sovereign LORD” (New Living Translation), “tell the people of Egypt that I, the Lord Yahweh, am saying” (similarly Contemporary English Version), or “give the people my message and say this is what I, the Lord Yahweh, say.”

Wail refers to the loud crying of people in distress (see 21.12). New International Reader’s Version says “Cry out,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “Howl.” The Hebrew verb here is plural, so it is a command to the people of Egypt (compare King James Version “Howl ye”). Translators may need to make this explicit by saying “Cry out loudly, you people of Egypt.” Good News Translation says “You are to shout these words,” but this rendering is very confusing, because the pronoun “You” in English can be either singular or plural, so there is no way of knowing whether this pronoun refers to Ezekiel or to the people of Egypt. Since there is no indication at all that it refers to the Egyptians, most readers misunderstand Good News Translation here and assume that it refers to Ezekiel. So translators need to be careful of trying to follow Good News Translation too closely.

Alas for the day!: Alas is an exclamation of great distress, for which many languages have an appropriate term. For the day indicates the reason for the distress. A time of punishment is coming for the Egyptians. Many translations leave out the exclamation and describe why the day will be distressing, saying “A day of terror is coming!” (Good News Translation), “A terrible day is coming!” (New International Reader’s Version), or “Disaster day!” (New Jerusalem Bible). Translators can often retain the exclamation by saying “How terrible for that day!” In many languages it will be awkward to use direct discourse for what the people of Egypt are to cry out loudly. If so, translators may use indirect speech here by saying “You people of Egypt, you should cry out in distress, because a time of punishment is coming for you.” A model that keeps the embedded quotation is “You Egyptians, cry out loudly and say, ‘How terrible for that day!’ ”

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 .