At the head of every street you built your lofty place: This clause summarizes the previous verse (see the comments there). However, at the head of every street replaces “in every square.” This phrase has been rendered “at every crossroad” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) and “At every street corner” (New American Bible, Moffatt; similarly New Living Translation), but it actually refers to the place where a road starts, or where it forks into two roads (compare 21.21). So it is better translated “at the beginning of every street.” Some translations abbreviate the text here and only mention the location in verse 24 (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). This is acceptable as long as the expression chosen implies that there were many shrines and the people built them in prominent positions throughout the land.

And prostituted your beauty: The Hebrew verb rendered prostituted comes from the same root as the word for “abominations” in verse 22 (see the comments on 5.9). It is not the same verb translated “played the harlot” in verse 15. Its meaning is very strong, and it is better translated “defiled” (New Living Translation; similarly Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible), “degraded” (New International Version), “sullied” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “debased” (Revised English Bible). For this whole clause Good News Translation has “You dragged your beauty through the mud,” and Contemporary English Version says simply “you disgraced yourself.”

Offering yourself to any passer-by: Revised Standard Version and most other translations use a euphemism here to protect the sensitivities of their readers. The Hebrew reads literally “and you spread your legs to everyone who passed by” (similarly New American Standard Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), which means the girl exposed her genitals as an invitation to sex. King James Version says “and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by,” which is too obscure to be meaningful. Both the action here and its description are extremely coarse, and it will be difficult for translators to reflect this accurately but sensitively. Many translators will simply retain what the Hebrew has literally if they think the meaning is clear. But other possible models are “You showed your genitals to everyone who passed by, inviting them to have sex with you” and “You dropped your pants and exposed yourself to everyone who passed by, inviting them to have sex with you.” The language here in Hebrew is very coarse. It is best to soften the language as little as possible.

And multiplying your harlotry means the girl was involved in prostitution more and more each day. Good News Translation says “and you were more of a prostitute every day,” and New Century Version has “so your sexual sins became worse and worse.” For harlotry see verse 15.

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 .