Ezekiel

Authorship, date, and setting

The book names Ezekiel, son of Buzi, as a priest among the exiles by the river Chebar (1:1–3). Its messages are dated from King Jehoiachin's exile: the opening vision belongs to its fifth year and the new temple vision to its twenty-fifth (40:1). The collection contains oracles from different occasions. The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that the later dated message in 29:17–21 looks like an addition to a previously arranged work. The chapters need not all have been written at once.

Structure of the forty-eight chapters

The opening vision and call occupy 1–3. Accusations against Jerusalem run through 4–24; oracles against neighboring peoples fill 25–32. After news of the city's fall, 33–39 turn to responsibility and restoration. In 40–48, measurements of a sanctuary, rules of worship, a river, and an allotment of land form the final vision. This outline follows the chapters in this collection.

Themes and key passages

Divine glory appears outside Jerusalem in 1:4–28 and leaves the temple in 10–11. The watchman of 3:16–21 and 33:1–9 must give warning, while 18:1–32 rejects treating parental guilt as an automatic explanation of the children's fate. Chapter 34 sets divine care against shepherds who fed themselves. The new heart in 36:26–27 precedes the revived bones of 37:1–14. In 47:1–12, water flowing from the sanctuary changes the landscape of the vision.

Summary by parts

1–24: Ezekiel sees living creatures and wheels by the Chebar, eats a scroll, and is sent to a resistant people. A brick, a sword, and other enacted signs portray the siege; the temple scenes of 8–11 expose condemned practices and the departure of glory. Parables and accusations lead to the announcement of the siege (1–3; 4–5; 8–11; 24).

25–39: Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt receive judgment oracles. A messenger then reports Jerusalem's fall. The attack on self-serving shepherds gives way to a promise of gathering: dry bones live, two sticks join, and Gog is defeated (25–32; 33–34; 37–39).

40–48: A guide measures the temple complex and glory returns through the eastern gate. Directions for priests, prince, offerings, and land follow. A river deepens as it leaves the sanctuary; the book ends with the tribes arranged around a city whose name declares the Lord's presence (40–43; 44–47; 48:35).

Reception and transmission

Ezekiel belongs to the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and to Christian Old Testaments. The Jewish Encyclopedia records early Jewish debate over the relationship between the temple rules of 40–48 and the Torah. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes differences between Hebrew and Greek readings. The temple vision does not claim that the building it describes was actually constructed.

Sources

• Emil G. Hirsch e Karl Heinrich Cornill, Ezekiel, Book of (1906).
• Crossway, Introduction to Ezekiel (s.d.).
• Joseph Schets, Ezekiel (1909).