Heap on the logs means put on a lot of firewood. Although God says he will put on the firewood in verse 9, here he uses general impersonal commands. They may be understood as orders to an unnamed servant, or as God talking to himself. If a language cannot use commands without specifying the agent, it is acceptable to rephrase them in the first person with God speaking of his own actions; for example, this clause may be rendered “I will heap on the logs.” Some translators will find it necessary to add “for the fire.”

Kindle the fire means make the wood start to burn. New Century Version says “light the fire.” Good News Translation has “Fan the flames,” which implies that the fire is already burning and needs to be fanned to burn more strongly. The other interpretation is preferable.

Boil well the flesh: The Hebrew verb rendered boil well is different from the word for “boil” in verse 5. The word here actually means “to complete/finish,” so this clause has the sense of “Cook the meat well” (New International Version, New King James Version ; compare New Century Version “Finish cooking the meat”). However, it could have another meaning of cooking the meat until it is all gone; for example, Revised English Bible says “make an end of the meat.” This meaning would be particularly threatening to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, if they saw themselves as the choice pieces of meat in the pot (see Ezek 24.6).

Empty out the broth: New English Bible, Revised English Bible, and Moffatt are similar with “pour out [all] the broth.” Broth is the juicy part of a stew, that is, the sauce or gravy. Revised Standard Version changes the Hebrew text, which reads literally “mix the [spicy] mixture.” Many translations follow the Hebrew by saying “mix in the spices” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, New King James Version , New American Standard Bible; similarly New International Version, King James Version, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible). To many scholars this reading makes no sense, so they rearrange the Hebrew letters and delete several letters to come to the meaning found in Revised Standard Version. Other scholars follow the Septuagint, which reads “so that the gravy be reduced” (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “until the broth boils away”; similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New American Bible). They argue that the Hebrew can also mean “boil down the spicy mixture [that is, the broth]” (so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). This interpretation makes the best sense and leads well into the final clause and let the bones be burned up, which New International Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh render as “and let the bones be charred” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), and New International Reader’s Version has “Let the bones be blackened.”

This verse gives a picture of a cook boiling the stew for so long that all the moisture and gravy boils away, and the bones and bits of meat left in the pot start to burn and become black. Taken as a whole, this picture is very threatening for the people of Jerusalem, because the big fire and the long cooking process show that the coming punishment will be severe, and the end result of the boiled-away stew and blackened bones holds out little hope for those who saw themselves as the chosen people of God. Models for this verse are:

• Pile up the logs and light the fire. Cook the meat well, keep stirring the gravy [until there is nothing left] so that the bones are burned.

• Pile up the logs and light the fire. Cook the meat well, boil away the gravy so that the bones are burned [and there is nothing left].

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 .