26and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 3:26:
Kupsabiny: “I shall make you be tongue-tied so that you cannot speak rebuking those people even though they are rebellious people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-cause- you (sing.) -to-be-mute so-that you (sing.) can- not -warn these rebellious people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Even though they are very rebellious people, I will cause your tongue to stick to the roof of your mouth, with the result that you will be unable to talk and to rebuke them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth: The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered and introduces an additional statement made by God. Some languages may prefer to omit it here (so Good News Translation, New International Version, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth is not to be taken literally. It is purely figurative language that says God will make Ezekiel dumb, that is, unable to speak. Contemporary English Version uses nonfigurative language, saying “I will make you unable to talk.” In many languages the meaning of the idiom here will be perfectly clear, but others will have their own idiom for this. It is not likely that Ezekiel’s tongue was actually “paralyzed,” as Good News Translation suggests.
So that you shall be dumb and unable to reprove them: You shall be dumb may be rendered “you will be unable to speak.” Reprove them means not only to point out the Israelites’ wrongdoing but also to condemn it and to warn them of its consequences. So that and and render two more occurrences of the Hebrew waw conjunction. As in verse 25, they can introduce a purpose, a result, or an additional statement here, so there are a number of acceptable models for these two clauses as follows:
(1) so that you will be unable to speak and you will not be able to warn the people (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, King James Version);
(2) and you will be unable to speak, so that you will not be able to warn the people (so Good News Translation);
(3) as a result you will be unable to speak, so that you will not be able to warn the people;
(4) so that you will be unable to speak; as a result you will not be able to warn the people;
(5) as a result you will be unable to speak and you will not be able to warn the people (so New Century Version);
(6) and you will be unable to speak and you will not be able to warn the people (so New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).
Number 1 emphasizes God’s purpose. It states that God deliberately made Ezekiel unable to speak so that he would not be able to warn the people of the coming judgment (compare Isa 6.9-10). Number 2 also expresses God’s purpose, but it focuses on the last clause. The previous two clauses are then basically synonymous and can be translated together (so Contemporary English Version with “and I will make you unable to talk”). Numbers 3 and 4 are a mixture of purpose and result. Number 5 emphasizes the results of God’s action. Number 6 makes the first three clauses of the verse independent, although related, statements. We prefer number 1, 2 or 3, since it was God who initiated the action by making Ezekiel’s tongue stick to the roof of his mouth.
It is not certain whether Ezekiel’s inability to speak is to be taken literally or not. After all, if he became dumb at this point and God only restored his speech in chapter 33, how did Ezekiel pass on all the messages from God in the intervening seven years? The answer probably is that Ezekiel only spoke to the people in that period when God gave him a specific message to pass on (see the next verse). During this time he was unable to converse generally with them, or to discuss the situation in Jerusalem or the future of the exiles. Possibly this was because he felt powerless to influence them, since they refused to listen to him. All he could do was to proclaim the messages from God and let the people accept or reject them. If nothing else, this was symbolic of the way God had withdrawn from his sinful, rebellious people (so Greenberg).
For they are a rebellious house: See the comments on 2.5. The reason that God made Ezekiel unable to warn the people successfully was that they were disobedient and always rebelling against God. Some translations tie this clause to the previous one without showing any relationship of cause or reason; for example, Contemporary English Version renders this whole verse as “and I will make you unable to talk or to warn those who have rebelled against me.” A possible model that places this clause at the beginning of this verse is:
• They are such a group of rebels that I am going to make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, so that you will be unable to speak and unable to reproach them for their sins.
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 .
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