In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month: Again Ezekiel carefully records the date of this prophecy (compare 1.2; 8.1; 20.1; 24.1; 29.1, 17; 30.20; 31.1; 32.1). He received it from God almost twelve years after the Babylonians had taken him and many other Israelites as prisoners. In the twelfth year means that it was at least eleven years but not yet twelve. Contemporary English Version says “Twelve years after,” which is incorrect. A good model for the whole date is “Eleven years after the Babylonians took Israel [or, us] into captivity, on the fifth day of the tenth month.” When translating the date, translators should follow the most natural order of recording dates in their own language. For those translators who include footnotes in their Bibles, it is appropriate to indicate that this date is probably January 8, 585 B.C. This is almost three years after the siege of Jerusalem began (see 24.1), and about five months after the fall of Jerusalem (see the comments on 24.27). Instead of In the twelfth year, some Hebrew manuscripts and ancient versions read “In the eleventh year.” For this same textual problem see the comments on 32.1.

A man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said: A fugitive from Jerusalem told Ezekiel about the fall of Jerusalem. A man who had escaped renders the same Hebrew term translated “a fugitive” in 24.26 (see the comments there). Came to me means the fugitive arrived in Babylonia where Ezekiel and the other exiles were.

The city has fallen: The city is Jerusalem. The city has fallen does not mean that it fell down to the ground, but that it was captured and destroyed by its enemies (compare International Children’s Bible “Jerusalem has been defeated”). Those languages that need to specify who destroyed it may say “[The army of] Nebuchadnezzar has destroyed the city [of Jerusalem].”

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 .