complete verse (Ezekiel 24:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 24:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Put choice meat inside like the hind leg or front leg and fill it up with meat with bones.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Put-in it with some fine portion of meat — shoulders and legs. Mix also the bones.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Put into the pot some pieces of meatfrom one of your best sheep:
    Put in the leg and shoulder, which are the best pieces.
    Then fill the rest of the pot with the best bones.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 24:4

Put in it the pieces of flesh means put into the pot pieces of meat cut from a slaughtered animal. Although the text says the pieces of flesh, they have not been referred to already, so translators may have “some pieces of meat.” These pieces are all the good pieces, that is, “the best pieces” (Good News Translation, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version), which are the thigh and the shoulder. They are the meatiest and best parts of an animal. Thigh may be rendered “leg” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible) or “rump” (New Living Translation).

Fill it with choice bones: This line summarizes the previous two. Although most translations take the Hebrew expression for choice bones to refer to bare bones, that is, bones with the meat cut off, it more likely refers to joints of meat, that is, bones with the meat still on. New American Bible says “the choicest joints,” New Living Translation has “the most tender cuts,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “the best cuts.”

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 .