His calling, Eze 2:1-3:11; with the captives at Tel-abib, Eze 3:15; he had a house there, Eze 3:24; Eze 8:1; intercede for Israel, Eze 9:8; Eze 11:13; his wife dies, Eze 24:18; mute and healed, Eze 3:26; Eze 24:27; Eze 33:22.
Ezekiel (Heb. Yeje5qê’l, “God will strengthen” or “the strength of God”). Priest, son of Buzi born in Judah but transferred to Babylon with the group taken into captivity with Jehoiachin (597 BC; Eze 1:1-3). If the “thirtieth year” (1:1) is a reference to his age, then he was about 25 years old when he was deported (cf v 2). With a group of Jews they settled in Tel-abib (1:1, 3; 3:15), along the “river Chebar” (1:1), an irrigation canal (known from cuneiform sources as Nâr Kabari) that passed through the city of Nippur. Archaeological evidence certifies that there was a large Jewish settlement in the neighboring area during the time of the Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel was married, but his wife died about 9 years after his captivity began (24:1,16); it seems that he had a house of his own (Eze 3:24; 8:1; cf Jer 29:5). In the 5th year of his captivity he was called to the prophetic office (Eze 1: 2, 3; chs 2 and 3) and served as a prophet for about 22 years (29:17; from c 593 to 571 BC). During the time when the temple was in ruins and the people in exile, it was particularly appropriate that the duties of priest and prophet be united in one person. Jeremiah, whose ministry was in part contemporaneous with Ezekiel’s, was also a priest-prophet (Jer 1:1), as was Zechariah and no doubt others (Zec 1:1; cf Ezr 5:1; 6:14; Neh 12:4, 16). In a special sense, Ezekiel was a messenger of God to the Jews in captivity, as Jeremiah was to the Jews who remained in Judah and Jerusalem, and Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian court. All 3 were divinely commissioned for the purpose of securing divine goals in captivity. Ezekiel was apparently well received by the people to whom he took his inspired messages, but his mission seems to have met with limited success (Eze 20:49; 33:32). Ezekiel, Book of. Writing containing prophetic messages to the Jews in the Babylonian exile (593/92-571/70 BC). In the Spanish Bibles Ezekiel follows the book of Jeremiah and precedes that of Daniel. In the Hebrew Bibles he is followed by Hosea, since Daniel’s is classified in the section known as Hagiographies or Writings. The book of Ezekiel seems to have been accepted into the prophetic canon at an early date, and its place in it seems to have produced no dispute. Unlike many other OT books, Ezekiel is generally recognized as authentic even by critical scholars, although it has come under some attack. I. Author and Setting. The author is the prophet Ezekiel. By the time of the Babylonian captivity, more than 8 centuries had passed since the formal covenant had been made at 434 Mount Sinai: Israel as a nation had accepted God’s invitation to be his chosen people, and had committed to obey him as their ruler theocratic. It was God’s purpose, in strict obedience to his wise and just commands, that the Jewish people should reflect the character of their Lord and receive the spiritual and material blessings that would testify to the nations of the earth of the superiority of worship and service. the true God above false gods. But the continuing and increasing apostasy finally made it clear that only with very severe measures could the Jewish nation discover and understand its high mission. The people had forgotten that they occupied the promised land only by virtue of the covenant with God, and that apostasy meant the loss of that right. In harmony with this, God sent them into captivity so that in adverse circumstances they might learn the lesson they had not learned in prosperous times: that they must accept the responsibilities of the covenant relationship if they were to enjoy its privileges. God intended that only the leaders of Israel – the main culprits – be sent into exile (Isa 3:12; 9:16; Eze 34:2-19; Dan 1:3, 4), but that the vast majority of the people remained in their homeland, awaiting the return of the punished leaders. So that the people might understand God’s purpose and cooperate with him in captivity, God sent the prophet Jeremiah to instruct those left behind, and commissioned Ezekiel to be his spokesman to the exiles in Babylon. Simultaneously, God sent Daniel as his ambassador to the Babylonian court to enlist Nebuchadnezzar’s cooperation with God’s plans. As he himself recounts, Ezekiel was “in the midst of the captives by the river Chebar” (Eze 1:1), probably at Tel-abib (3:15), after being transported to Babylon with the 2nd contingent of exiles on the occasion of the captivity of Joachim (597 BC; date used as the starting point for the numerous chronological indications recorded in the book; 1:2). Apparently, the exiles in Tel-abib could manage their own local affairs through a group of “elders” (8:1; 14:1; 20:1, 3), and they were allowed to communicate with the leaders who remained in Jerusalem ( Jer 29:1, 24-29). On the whole, the exiles no doubt led a reasonably normal social and economic life (vs 5-10, 28). Ezekiel was called to prophetic duty in the midsummer of 593/92 BC (Eze 1:2). While other prophets had been content to date their messages with the sole indication of the king who ruled while writing, Ezekiel and Jeremiah often provide almost complete chronological information – indicating day, month and often year – so that it is possible to correlate them with specific historical events. This helps us a lot to understand the importance of the successive messages, since each of them is dated. Ezekiel’s ministry, at least as far as his recorded words are concerned, seems to have been largely concentrated within the 7 years immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (586 BC) and in the few months following that event ; therefore, his ministry extended for at least another 15 years (571/70 BC). At the time that Ezekiel received the call to be a prophet in Babylon, King Zedekiah in Jerusalem was receiving envoys from neighboring nations who wanted to form an alliance to rebel against the Babylonians and escape their yoke (Jer 27:2, 3) . Jeremiah warned that the wooden yokes they planned to break would be replaced by iron ones (28:10, 12). Among the false prophets in Jerusalem, some predicted the end of the captivity and the return of the captives “within two years” (vs 3, 4, 11). The Jews in Babylon apparently shared the expectation of a short captivity (29:28). It was these circumstances that led Jeremiah to counsel submission to God’s plan of prolonged captivity (27:4-17; 29:5-13, 28) and form the background of Ezekiel’s messages recorded in Eze_1- 23 On the other hand, Jer_24-33 deals more particularly with the siege of Jerusalem and its fall (586 BC). See Prophet (II). II. Theme. If the book had to be given a title, appropriate to its content, perhaps none would be better than “Captivity and Restoration”, since these themes are the 2 centers around which the messages are grouped. Chaps 1-33 deal with the 1st, and chaps 34-48 deal with the 2nd, the arrival of news of the fall of Jerusalem (33:21) divides the book logically into 2 parts. The theme that continually reappears and links the 2 sections is: “And ye shall know that I am the Lord” (6:7; 7:4; etc.). This expression or its equivalent appears more than 60 times, and highlights the root cause of Israel’s failure thus far: not understanding or appreciating the righteous character of God or the higher purpose and destiny to which the covenant relationship would have led them as a nation. The 435 messages that Ezekiel delivered, before the news of Jerusalem’s fall arrived, were intended to ensure the exiles’ cooperation with God’s plans for the captivity, who were to submit to Nebuchadnezzar for a period of 70 years ( Jer 25:12; 29:10). In a spirit of unjustifiable optimism, the Jews blindly believed that God would not allow this calamity to befall them (Jer 7:4; 17:15; 26:8, 9; Eze 11:3, 15; etc.), but both Jeremiah (26:6) like Ezekiel (11:5-11) sought to destroy this vain hope. When the destruction of the city and the temple finally finished her off, the people abandoned themselves to despair, fearing, perhaps, that the captivity would be permanent and that their nation would never be restored. With their national pride utterly humbled, the people needed words of encouragement, lest the loss of their hope render them unable to learn the great lesson of captivity and respond to the call to return and rebuild Jerusalem, which would come in due course. God sent those words of encouragement through the prophet Jeremiah to the Jews who remained in Jerusalem (Jer 31:27-33:26), and through Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon (Eze_34-48). Here it must be remembered that Ezekiel described to the exiles God’s plans for the return and restoration of the 12 tribes, plans that centered on the city and the temple to which the messianic Prince would come. However, because of their unfaithfulness, the returning Jews did not realize what Ezekiel had envisioned in vision. III. Contents. The mysterious vision of the throne of God and of the “wheel in the midst of a wheel” (Eze 1:26, 16) that accompanied Ezekiel’s call to prophetic work was destined to impress the prophet with the greatness and majesty of God ( cf Isa 6:1-8). He was to courageously proclaim the words that God gave him to speak (Eze 2:3-8), not being discouraged by the people’s lack of perception and the hardness of his heart (3:1-11). He became not only God’s mouthpiece (Eze 2:8-3:1), but his watchman over the house of Israel (3:15-21). As evidence of Ezekiel’s role as spokesman and watchman, God afflicted him with muteness and gave him the ability to speak only when he commanded him to communicate the divine word (vs 26, 27). This experience also served as a testimony to the people that God really spoke through the prophet. With the arrival of the news of the fall of Jerusalem, his tongue was loosed (33:21, 22). Ezekiel’s 1st message (Eze_4-7) announces the inevitability of taking Jerusalem. He was to dramatize the siege in pantomime to impress the exiles (4:1-8) and describe the sufferings of his people during that time (4:9-6:7); however, a remnant would escape (6:8-14). But “the end is coming” (cp 7); what had been announced for centuries would be fulfilled without further delay. The 2nd message (cps 8-19)…