complete verse (Ezekiel 47:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 47:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “He again counted five hundred meters. Here it (the water) was so much that a person could not cross unless beating the water (swimming).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He still measured about 1,700 feet, but I could no-longer go-into for it was now very deep. It needed to be-swum now.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then he measured off another 1,750 feet/530 meters and led me through water that had become a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen very high, with the result that it would be necessary to swim across it. It was a river that no one could cross by walking across it.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 47:5

Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen: For the fourth time the guide measured a thousand cubits, that is, 500 meters (560 yards). By now Ezekiel and his guide were 2,000 meters (2,240 yards) from the Temple wall. At this distance, it was a river that I could not pass through. It is likely that the guide again told Ezekiel to go across the water (see the comments on the next verse), but it was too deep for him to wade through it. One way to express this clause is “But now the stream had become a river that was too deep for me to walk through.” For the water had risen gives the reason why Ezekiel could not wade through the water. It had become too deep.

The water had become so deep that it was deep enough to swim in. By now it was presumably about 2 meters (6 feet) deep—deep enough for a person to swim in and too deep for a person walk across. Good News Translation implies that a person could swim across the water, but the Hebrew does not actually say so. All Ezekiel says is that the water was deep enough to swim in, not that a person could swim across it.

A river that could not be passed through: Now Ezekiel calls it a river instead of water, which refers to a much smaller stream. To emphasize the size of the river, Ezekiel repeats that it could not be passed through by walking through it. New Century Version says “it was a river that no one could cross.”

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 .