complete verse (Ezekiel 46:23)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 46:23:

  • Kupsabiny: “Something like a shelf of stones had been built to go round and fireplace stones were made there on the ground all around.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Each one of these was-surrounded by a short stone-wall of stones, and beside the stone-wall there were places-for-fire/[lit. things/places-for-cooking-by-fire].” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Around the inside of each of those enclosed areas was a stone ledge, with places to make fires all around under each ledge.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 46:23

On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry: Around the inside of each enclosure, there was a low stone wall right around the four walls of the enclosure. Each of the four courts refers to the enclosures at each corner of the outer courtyard. The Hebrew word for a row of masonry means “a stone wall” (Good News Translation). This wall may have served as a bench. This clause may be rendered “Each enclosure had a low stone wall around the inside of it.”

With hearths made at the bottom of the rows round about: Hearths are “fireplaces” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation, Revised English Bible, Moffatt), “places for cooking” (New Century Version). These fireplaces were at the bottom of the rows, that is, where the low stone walls and floor met. All around the inside walls of the enclosed (or at least semi-enclosed) rooms were low stone benches with fireplaces at regular intervals.

The difficulty with the above interpretation is the picture of many open fires burning inside enclosed (or nearly enclosed) rooms. Would the fires burn properly? What would happen to the smoke? There is no reference to any chimneys to remove the smoke. Therefore it may be better to understand that the rooms were not enclosed at all, and that the row of masonry was simply a low stone wall on each room’s two sides facing into the outer courtyard. The fireplaces were built into this low stone wall, and since there was no upper part of the wall, the smoke could easily escape. Even if there were fireplaces on the other two walls of these rooms, the smoke of the fires could escape through the large openings above the low stone wall on the inner two sides. Good News Translation provides a good model for this interpretation.

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 .