Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;

The recorded date of the occurrence in chapter 20 would fall in July–August 591 BC,[6] calculated to be August 14, 591 BCE, based on an analysis by German theologian Bernhard Lang.

[7] The text in the King James Version makes no reference to God's oath in this verse.

Theologian Andrew B. Davidson suggests that Ezekiel uses "a punning and contemptuous derivation of the word", using what (mah) and go (ba): Whilst he disagrees with the interpretation, Davidson notes that "some have supposed that “go” has the sense of “go in” (e.g. Genesis 38:2: Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite ... and he married her and went in to her) and that the allusion is to the immoralities practised on the high places".

[18] Davidson suggests it refers to "the Syro-Babylonian wilderness, adjoining the peoples among whom they were dispersed",[1] perhaps the modern-day Syrian Desert.