So it towered high above all the trees of the forest: The connector So introduces the result of the abundant water for the cedar tree. Because it was well-watered, it was the tallest tree in the bush. Towered high may be a rendered “grew taller” (New International Reader’s Version) or “was taller” (New Century Version). For forest see the previous verse.

Its boughs grew large and its branches long: The Hebrew words for boughs and branches may be treated as synonyms here, so Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version combine them, saying “branches” (see the comments on 17.6, where the second term is rendered “foliage”). The Hebrew verb translated grew large may refer to the size of the branches (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, English Standard Version), but more likely it refers to the number of branches; for example, New International Reader’s Version renders its boughs grew large as “It grew more limbs” (similarly King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt). Most languages will not have two synonymous terms for branches, but they can retain the two features of those branches by expressing these two lines as “it had many branches, and they spread out very far.”

From abundant water in its shoots: As noted above, the connector So relates the reason for the great height of the tree to the great amount of water it received in verse 4, but here at the end of verse 5, from abundant water in its shoots repeats this idea. Many translations ignore the connector So to avoid the repetition, but Good News Translation combines the two references to ample water by reordering the verse and beginning with this last line, saying “Because it was well-watered.” This is a good model to follow. However, other languages will keep this line at the end, but as a separate sentence, such as “It grew like that because it had plenty of water while it was growing” or “It had plenty of water, so it grew like that.”

The Hebrew word rendered in its shoots (literally “in its sending”) is quite obscure, and many translations omit it (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, New American Bible, Christian Community Bible, Septuagint). It may refer to the time when the tree was “sending out” its branches, that is, growing. The cedar tree grew very large because it had plenty of water while it was growing. New International Reader’s Version follows this interpretation by rendering the last line as “They [the branches] spread because they had plenty of water.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers this interpretation, but Greenberg and Block suggest that the word means “in its channel [or channels].” This suggestion involves changing the vowels of the Hebrew word and results in the meaning that the cedar tree grew very large because an irrigation channel supplied plenty of water to it (compare Revised English Bible “for water was abundant in the channels”). The main point of both interpretations is that the cedar tree had plenty of water to make it grow. Either interpretation is acceptable.

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 .