After many days means “A long time from now” (New Living Translation). In languages in which days implies a relatively short period, it is better to use a different term to show that a long period is meant; for example, Good News Translation and New International Reader’s Version render this phrase as “After many years,” and Revised English Bible has “After a long time has passed.”

You will be mustered: A “muster” involves calling together soldiers for inspection to make sure they are ready to fight. Other ways of rendering this clause are “you will be summoned” (Revised English Bible; similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “you will be called for [military] service” (New Century Version), and “you will be called together to fight” (New International Reader’s Version). For languages that do not use passive verbs, it is acceptable to identify God as the actor here, for example, “I will summon you” or “I will call you together to fight.”

In the latter years reinforces that these things will happen in the distant future. Good News Translation omits this phrase because the time frame has already been established in the first phrase of the verse.

You will go against the land that is restored from war means Gog and his army will attack a country that has recovered from war. Go against may be rendered “invade” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version) or “march against” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The land that is restored from war refers to Israel. During the war with Nebuchadnezzar, the land was destroyed and depopulated and, at the time of this prophecy, it was still like that. Christian Community Bible renders this clause as “a land recovered from war,” and New Century Version has “a land that has been rebuilt from war.” This is a passive clause, so in languages where this is a problem, translators may say “a land where the people have rebuilt the country after the war.”

The land where people were gathered from many nations upon the mountains of Israel: God promises that he will restore the land of Israel, mainly by allowing its people to return from the nations where they were in exile (see 11.17). The mountains of Israel refers to the mountainous character of the land (see the comments on 6.2).

Which had been a continual waste: Although grammatically in Hebrew this clause describes the mountains of Israel, it applies to the whole land. The Hebrew word for waste here means “deserted” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) and “empty” (New Century Version), with no one living there (compare 5.14, where it is translated “desolation”). The Hebrew word for continual actually means going on and on forever without a break, so this clause is an exaggeration, perhaps reflecting the Israelites’ feelings of how long the exile was lasting. A better translation for this word here is “so long” (Good News Translation) or “for a long time” (Contemporary English Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version). For this whole clause New International Reader’s Version has “No one had lived in those mountains for a long time.”

Its people were brought out from the nations: God brought the Israelites back to their homeland from exile among the nations (see 20.34). Its people refers to the people who belong to the land, that is, the Israelites.

And now dwell securely, all of them means all the Israelites live “in peace” (Contemporary English Version), “in safety” (Good News Translation, New International Version, New Century Version), in no danger from enemies (see 28.26). All of them stresses that there is absolutely no danger and they are living completely peaceful lives.

A model for the last half of this verse is:

• This is a land where the people had been brought together from many nations to live on the mountains of Israel. The land was deserted for a long time, but I led its people out from the other nations and now they all live in safety.

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 .