And you shall take some of its blood: Next Ezekiel must take some of the blood of the young bull that he gives to the priests. It may be necessary for some languages to say that the bull has been killed first; for example, the beginning of this verse may be rendered “After they kill the young bull, take some of the blood.”

And put it on the four horns of the altar, and on the four corners of the ledge, and upon the rim round about: God tells Ezekiel to put, that is, “daub” or “smear” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation), probably with the finger, the blood on three areas of the altar: the four horns of the altar (see verse 15), the four corners of the ledge (presumably the top ledge; see verse 17), and the rim round about (probably the rim around the top ledge; see verse 17).

Thus you shall cleanse the altar and make atonement for it: By putting blood on these three areas of the altar, Ezekiel will make it ritually clean. The Hebrew verbs rendered cleanse and make atonement both refer to purifying the altar. Usually the word for make atonement refers to forgiving the sins of people who have become ritually unclean (see 16.63), but here it refers to removing the uncleanness from an object (compare Exo 29.36-37; see also the comments on Lev 1.4 in A Handbook on Leviticus). Contemporary English Version renders this clause as “That will purify the altar and make it fit for offering sacrifices to me,” Good News Translation has “In this way you will purify the altar and consecrate,” Block says “Thus you shall decontaminate it and purge it,” New International Reader’s Version uses “That will make the altar [ritually] pure and clean,” and New Century Version translates “This is how you will make the altar pure and ready for God’s service.”

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 .