In their sight you shall lift the baggage upon your shoulder, and carry it out in the dark: This sentence does not say from where Ezekiel picked up the baggage, or where he carried it to, but it probably refers to what Ezekiel did after he had crawled through the hole in the wall. It is unlikely that the hole was big enough for him to get through with the bag already on his back. So he probably had to push the bag through the hole and then climb through himself. Then he picked it up and carried it out of the village. As in the previous verse, New Jerusalem Bible changes the Hebrew text to read “go out” instead of carry it out, but Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers the Hebrew again. The Hebrew expression rendered in the dark does not refer to the full darkness of night, but to the “dusk” (New International Version, Revised English Bible) that follows the sunset (compare Gen 15.17). So there was no problem with the people still being able to see what he was doing. In some languages it may be helpful to restructure this sentence slightly by saying “When dusk falls, while people are watching you, put your bag on your shoulder and set off [or, depart].”

You shall cover your face, that you may not see the land means Ezekiel must put on a veil or a blindfold, so that he does not see the land he is leaving. Translators may say “Put something [or, a cloth] over your face….” They should be sure that readers do not think it means simply to cover the eyes with the hands. Some scholars have seen this action as depicting the shame or grief of the prisoners when they were being taken away. Others think it refers to the blinding of Zedekiah (see 2 Kgs 25.4-7). More probably it was symbolic of the fact that the prisoners who were being taken away would never see their homeland again (compare Jer 22.11-12). Good News Translation and Bible en français courant render that you may not see the land as “so that you can’t see where you are going,” and New Century Version has “so you cannot see the ground.” However, both these renderings do not give quite the right sense. Contemporary English Version is better with “so that you cannot see the land you are leaving.”

For I have made you a sign for the house of Israel: See 4.3. Just as Ezekiel’s actions in 4.1-3 were a sign or “warning” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) for the Israelites of what would happen, so were his actions here. In this context the Hebrew particle ki rendered for may be a logical connector (so Revised Standard Version) or an emphatic marker (so Bible en français courant, which renders it “Indeed”). Good News Translation provides a helpful model for this sentence, saying “What you do will be a warning to the Israelites.”

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 .