It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches: The tree was beautiful because of “its great size” and “its long branches” (Moffatt). A model for this sentence is “The tree was beautiful; it was tall and had long [or, spreading] branches.”

The tree was so beautiful for its roots went down to abundant waters, that is, “Its roots went down deep to where there was plenty water” (New International Reader’s Version). This abundance of water is a recurring theme in this chapter (see verses 4-5). A possible model here is “That was because its roots reached down to much water” (similarly New Century Version).

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 .