Verses 22-30 list six countries that used to be powerful and great, but now they have been destroyed and gone down into the underworld before Egypt. There is much repetition in the list.

Assyria is there, and all her company, their graves round about her, all of them slain, fallen by the sword: The first country on the list is Assyria, a once-powerful empire that had fallen only twenty-five years earlier (see the comments on 31.3). Assyria is there means it is in the underworld. All her company refers either to the whole Assyrian “army” (New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, Christian Community Bible; similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Jerusalem Bible) or to all the Assyrian “people” (New Living Translation [1996]; similarly New Jerusalem Bible, Moffatt). “All her people” is the preferred interpretation. Their graves round about her means Assyria “is surrounded by the graves of all of its people” (New International Reader’s Version). All of the Assyrian people are slain, fallen by the sword, that is, they have been killed in war (see verse 12).

All her company, their graves round about her is repeated in each of the next four verses, with minor differences as follows:

“her company is round about her grave” (verse 23)
“all her multitude about her grave” (verse 24)
“all her multitude, her graves round about her” (verse 25)
“all their multitude, their graves round about them” (verse 26)

Apart from the words company and “multitude,” which both mean “people” or “soldiers,” the rest of the meaning of each phrase is almost identical. Even the minor differences in verses 23 and 24, where the dead soldiers are buried “round her [that is, Assyria’s and Elam’s] grave,” carry the same meaning as verses 22, 25 and 26, where the dead soldiers are buried “round about her [that is, Assyria and Elam]” or “round about them [that is, Meshech and Tubal].” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project notes that there are minor differences in the Hebrew words used, which give rise to various different English renderings. However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and most commentators allow minor changes to be made to the Hebrew text for the sake of consistency. By doing this most translations end up with renderings that substantially agree with the Revised Standard Version list above. We recommend that translators do the same and use Revised Standard Version as a guide.

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 .