This verse describes the reaction of people to the disaster—they will be paralyzed with fear. Ezekiel gives two traditional images for this fear.

All hands are feeble means that everybody will feel weak and helpless, especially their hands and arms, which they will drop listlessly at their sides. New Century Version is clear with “All hands will hang weakly with fear.”

And all knees weak as water is literally “and all knees walk [with] water,” which is a euphemism for the way people under great stress or in great danger often lose control of their bladder and involuntarily urinate. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “and all knees shall turn to water,” and Parole de Vie has “their knees have no strength,” but these two renderings really miss the sense of the Hebrew idiom here. It means they will be so afraid that they will lose control of their bladder. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch expresses it well with “from fear they can no longer hold their water.” Another possible model is “From fear, water runs down their legs [or, knees].” In those languages where it would be offensive to be as explicit as Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, translators may be able to find an equally powerful, yet acceptable, way of describing the effects of such fear.

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 .