The hand of the LORD was upon me means the power of God took control of Ezekiel. For this figurative expression, see the comments on 1.3. Good News Translation says “I felt the powerful presence of the LORD.”

And he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD: Ezekiel does not say exactly how God brought him. By the Spirit of the LORD may refer to the way God brought him, namely, God’s spirit carried him somehow; for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “He took me in the spirit through the air” (compare 3.12, where the spirit lifted him up into the air, and 8.3, where the spirit carried him by the hair). It is possible that the Hebrew expression for by the Spirit means “by a powerful wind” (see the introductory comments on this subunit), but none of the major translations render it in this way. Alternatively, it may be better to translate it “in the spirit” to show that it was a visionary experience and Ezekiel did not physically move at all. On the other hand, some translations make the Spirit of the LORD the subject of the verb brought; for example, Contemporary English Version has “his Spirit carried me” (similarly Good News Translation). Since we cannot be sure exactly what this clause means, any of these alternatives are acceptable. Translators will need to find a very general expression for brought … out, such as “took” (Good News Translation), “carried” (Contemporary English Version), or “caused [me] to go.” For those languages that need to indicate where God brought Ezekiel from, we may assume that he was at his home (see 8.1), or somewhere else in the community of fellow exiles at Tel-abib (see 3.15).

And set me down in the midst of the valley: Set me down means “put me down” (New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version). It does not mean God dropped Ezekiel from a height. He put him in the middle of the valley. The definite article in Hebrew here implies that it was the same valley where Ezekiel had seen the vision of God’s throne (compare 3.22-23; 8.4). This was not a deep valley with steep sides, but the “plain” (Revised Standard Version footnote) through which the Euphrates River flows (see the comments on 3.22). It was a large enough area to be an ideal site for the vision of the dry bones, but many translations assume that it was another, unknown and unnamed, valley, and drop the definite article; for example, Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version say “a valley,” and Revised English Bible has “a plain.” There is no justification for this. It is better to keep the connection with the visions earlier in the book. If translators are working in a language where it would be necessary to make clear which valley this refers to, they may say “the valley where I was before” or “the valley where the spirit took me before.”

It was full of bones: The valley was covered with bones. Although the type of bones are not identified here, they were human bones, but translators should not identify them as human at this point unless forced to by the requirements of their own language. This clause may be rendered “Bones covered the valley floor” (similarly Bible en français courant).

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 .