Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: In this verse God gives another message to Ezekiel for the mountains of Israel. The connector therefore introduces this additional message as a response to what Israel’s enemies were saying. For prophesy see Ezek 36.1; for Thus says the Lord GOD, see Ezek 36.2.

Because, yea, because they made you desolate …: The rest of this verse gives another reason for the action God is about to take against Israel’s enemies. Because, yea, because renders an emphatic logical connector in Hebrew (compare Anchor Bible “For the very good reason that”), which most translations do not try to reflect (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). However, it is important for translators to make this causal link explicit in some way. The pronoun they refers to Israel’s enemies. They made you desolate means they destroyed the land of Israel (see 25.3). New Century Version says “They have made you an empty ruin,” and Contemporary English Version has “They ruined … you.”

And crushed you from all sides: The Hebrew verb for crushed has the idea of “trample down [under foot]” (similarly Revised English Bible). New Living Translation uses the verb “attacked.” From all sides is not to be taken literally; this figurative expression shows that there was no way in which the land of Israel could have avoided defeat. In some languages it may be better to reverse the order of this clause and the previous one by saying “your enemies attacked you from all directions and destroyed you.”

So that you became the possession of the rest of the nations …: The rest of this verse gives two results of Israel’s defeat. First, other nations took over the land. The rest of the nations refers to neighboring countries, such as Ammon and Edom, that were not defeated and destroyed by the Babylonians. This clause may be rendered “So other nations took over your land” (similarly New International Reader’s Version).

And you became the talk and evil gossip of the people: This is the second result of Israel’s defeat. You became the talk renders a vivid expression in Hebrew, which is literally “you have been taken up on the lip of the tongue,” meaning that everyone was talking about the mountains of Israel. Christian Community Bible says “you became the subject of talk,” and New International Reader’s Version has “People talked about you.” Evil gossip (also Moffatt; similarly Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, Christian Community Bible) renders well the Hebrew word here. Other possible renderings are “slander” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Living Translation), “lies” (New International Reader’s Version), and “jibes” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The Hebrew word for people does not refer to any specific people here but is a general term that means people in general, people anywhere and everywhere. Revised English Bible translates evil gossip of the people as “common gossip,” and Anchor Bible has “popular defamation.” Some translations take this “malicious talk and slander” (New International Version) in the sense of “made fun of” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). In those cultures where this might be understood as light-hearted joking, this interpretation is not appropriate. An acceptable model for this whole clause is “and you became the object of much mocking and slander” (similarly New Living Translation).

A model for this verse that avoids the connector Because at the beginning of the sentence is:

• Therefore give the mountains my message and say to them, ‘Here is what the Lord Yahweh says: “Your enemies attacked you from all directions and made your land an empty ruin, with the result that the rest of the nations took over your land. You also became what people talked about and told lies about. Because your enemies did that….

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 .