For the seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live, that is, if people sell their land, they will never be able to get it back because they will soon be taken into exile for the rest of their lives. New Century Version says “Sellers will not return to the land they have sold as long as they live,” and Parole de Vie has “The seller cannot retrieve his goods, even if he remains alive.” Either model is acceptable. Many translations omit the Hebrew word ki rendered For (so New International Version, New Century Version, Parole de Vie). It may function here as an emphatic particle, so another possible rendering is “Indeed.”
For wrath is upon all their multitude renders a changed Hebrew text that is identical to the last clause in verse 12. Good News Translation and some other versions also follow this reading. However, the Hebrew has the word for “vision” (chazon) instead of the one for wrath (charon). “Vision” refers to the vision of judgment and destruction that the prophet has seen, in which God says he will punish all the people of Israel. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers this reading by rendering this clause as “for the vision (threatening) its whole multitude.”
It shall not turn back means God has made his decision to punish the people and he will not change his mind. New Century Version provides a good model for this clause and the previous one, saying “because the vision against all that crowd will not be changed” (similarly La Bible Pléiade). BNT is also helpful with “it is not revocable, the prophecy of their annihilation.”
And because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life: The Hebrew is obscure here, but it seems to emphasize that God’s judgment will come upon everybody. This sentence may be translated either “Because of their sins, no one will be able to hold on to his life [that is, avoid being killed]” or “Because of their sinful lives, no one will be able to remain strong.”
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 .