I will do this that they may lack bread and water is literally “so that they will lack bread and water.” Revised Standard Version adds the words I will do this to make clear the purpose of God’s action in cutting off the food and water supply in Jerusalem, which is that they may lack bread and water. This verse in Hebrew begins with the conjunction that normally indicates purpose. Yet only the Septuagint, the Targum, King James Version / New King James Version, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh follow the same interpretation as Revised Standard Version. Other translations understand this conjunction in different ways. Some take it as introducing the result of God’s action (so Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). Others understand it as introducing the reason for rationing the food and water (so New International Version, New Century Version, New American Standard Bible, Jerusalem Bible) or the reason for the anxiety and distress of the people (so New Revised Standard Version). Still others omit the conjunction and leave it to the readers to make whatever connection they can between the two verses (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). It is best to follow Revised Standard Version here since this conjunction does show purpose. This clause may be rendered “I will do this so that they won’t have any food or water” or “I will do this so that they will face starvation.”

When the people realize their plight, they will look at one another in dismay. Some translations seem to imply that the people will be dismayed at the sight of the others because they look so gaunt and haggard; for example, New Century Version says “The people will be shocked at the sight of each other.” But translators do not need to include any idea of people looking at each other. The dismay is the growing realization that the city is doomed, and they are going to die. Revised English Bible captures the sense of this clause well with “dismay spreads from one to another.” Another alternative is “everyone will be shocked and horrified.”

And waste away under their punishment: This clause makes it absolutely clear that God will cut off the food supply to punish the people of Jerusalem for their sins. The Hebrew verb rendered waste away means “decay and rot away.” Normally things only decay and rot after they are dead, so this is a very vivid picture of the haggard bodies of the starving inhabitants of Jerusalem. If necessary, translators may say “become very thin,” or as one language put it, “become bone nothing.” The Hebrew word for punishment is ʿawon, as in verses 4-6 (see the comments there). The same ambiguity applies here. It may be best to try to cover that ambiguity by including two of the senses of ʿawon in the translation of this clause as follows: “and they will become very thin and die as punishment for their sins.”

A model for this verse is:

• I will do this [that is, stop the supply of food into the city] so that there will not be enough food and water for the people. They will all be shocked and horrified, and they will become very thin and die. In this way I will punish them for their sins.

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 .