Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: As in verse 5 (see the comments there), this prophetic formula gives weight to the following words. In this case the words are especially important because they contain the judgment of God on the people of Jerusalem and Judah. The conjunction Therefore shows that God’s judgment is a consequence of the disobedience of the people. For any language in which it is difficult for God to speak of himself in the third person, the first person may be used by rendering this clause as “Therefore this is what I, the Lord GOD, am saying” (similarly Good News Translation, Bible en français courant). It may also be helpful to indicate whom God is addressing here by saying “Therefore this is what I, the Lord Yahweh, am saying to the people of Jerusalem.” Good News Translation indicates the addressees by beginning God’s words to them with “Now listen, Jerusalem.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar with “You people of Jerusalem, listen.”

The declaration from Yahweh begins with the conjunction Because, and then in the next verse he continues with the connector “therefore.” That is, because of the way the people are in verse 7, God will punish the people in verse 8. In some languages the more natural structure is to state the situation in verse 7, as in “You have behaved more wickedly than…,” and then begin verse 8 with a statement such as “That is why I now say to you….”

You are more turbulent than the nations that are round about you: The precise meaning of the Hebrew verb rendered are … turbulent is not known because this is the only place it is used in the Old Testament. It is probably related to a word that means “be wild,” “be noisy,” or “be turbulent,” but others have suggested that it is connected to a word meaning “rebellious” (so Contemporary English Version, Jerusalem Bible, Zimmerli). This uncertainty about the word is reflected in the range of expressions used by the translations, for example, “caused … trouble” (Good News Translation), “caused … confusion” (International Children’s Bible), “insubordinate” (Revised English Bible), “ungrateful” (New English Bible), “unruly” (New International Version), and “sinned” (Targum). Whatever expression is chosen, the sense of this whole clause seems to be that the people of Judah had been worse than the nations around them. This probably refers to the way they worshiped idols and the immoral behavior that went along with that worship. More generally, it refers to the way they did not obey God. So this clause may be rendered more generally as “you acted more wickedly than the nations around you” or “you sinned more than the nations around you” (similarly Targum).

And have not walked in my statutes or kept my ordinances: See the comments on the previous verse. Kept my ordinances means to obey God’s Law. The Hebrew reverses the order of statutes and ordinances from the previous verse. It is not necessary for other languages to do the same if that is unnatural for them.

But have acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you: According to this rendering in Revised Standard Version, when the people of Judah disobeyed God and his laws, they followed the customs of the neighboring heathen nations (so also New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant (1982)). This reading makes good sense, there are many Hebrew manuscripts that support it, and Ezekiel says it again in 11.12. But the best Hebrew text includes the word “not” and has exactly the opposite meaning. It reads literally “and you have not [even] kept the laws of the nations around you” (similarly New International Version, New Century Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982), Septuagint, Targum). If this reading is followed, the clause is the climax of the verse. It was bad enough if the people of Judah disobeyed God’s laws and followed the laws of their heathen neighbors. But they did not even follow those laws. They were worse than their neighbors, and they sinned more. This is the preferred reading (so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). If desired, a footnote may be included to show that some Hebrew texts and some ancient versions support the meaning found in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

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 .