They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common: One of the main tasks of the priests was to teach the people of Israel the instructions of God, that is, what God was telling them. They were to teach them the difference between the holy and the common, that is, the difference between those things that were set apart for God’s use and those things that were for ordinary use. This was precisely what the priests failed to do in the time before the exile (see the comments on 22.26).

And show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean: They were also to teach them what was ritually unclean and what was ritually clean, that is, what was fit for God’s service and what was not acceptable for God’s service, and how to tell the difference between them.

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 .