calamity for many / destructive fire

In Gbaya, the notion of a calamity affecting a large groups of people at the same time and/or a destructive fire is emphasized in the referenced verses with the ideophone gbɔyɛɛ.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

complete verse (Ezekiel 23:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 23:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those people removed the clothes from that woman to leave her naked. (They) caught/took her sons and daughters and then killed the woman with a sword. Women talked about that woman everywhere.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They took-off- her -clothes, killed by sword, and took-captive her children. What happened to her as-punishment is what the women were-talking-about.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They stripped all her clothes off her. They took away her sons and daughters. And then they killed her with a sword. Other women started talking about what had happened to her, about how she had been punished.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 23:10

These uncovered her nakedness means the Assyrians stripped Oholah naked. This was a way of punishing adulterers (see the comments on 16.37). Good News Translation is clear with “They stripped her naked.”

They seized her sons and her daughters refers to the exile of the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. This clause may be rendered “they captured her sons and daughters.”

And her they slew with the sword refers to the final destruction of Samaria and the rest of the northern kingdom. Good News Translation renders this clause well with “and then killed her with a sword.”

And she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed upon her means women “talked about” (Contemporary English Version) Oholah’s fate as a “warning” (Moffatt) to others not to be wicked like her. For byword see 14.8 and 16.56, where different Hebrew words are used. When judgment had been executed upon her tells why women began to talk about Oholah—they spoke about the way she was punished for her sinful behavior. A good model for this sentence is “Women everywhere began talking about how she had been punished” (New Century Version) or “Women everywhere gossiped about her fate” (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 .