EZEKIE

L
Group 4

HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
The

bookof Ezekiel is part of the larger

collection ofIsraels prophecies that
include Jeremiah and Isaiah.
The prophet Ezekiel received his
prophetic call at the age of thirty
(594B.C.E.).
The historical circumstances of his
teenage yearsarguably influenced his
twenty-twoyear prophetic ministry (593
571 B.C.E.).

 As

a youth, Ezekiel lived during the social

and spiritual reformation instituted by
king Josiah (639-609 B.C.E.).
Thepurging of pagan priests from the
Jerusalem temple and the destruction of
local shrines purified the toxic polytheism
that raged through Judah. As a priest,
Ezekiel must have welcomed the religious
cleansing of the temple as well as
thereinstatement of the ancient Israelite
laws and worship practices. Following the
death of king Josiah at Megiddo, the
nation of Judah began to regress back to

KING JOSIAH

Josiah

is credited by
most historians with
having established or
compiled important
Hebrew Scriptures
during
theDeuteronomic
reformthat occurred
during his rule.
Josiah became king of
Judahat the age of
eight, after the
assassination of his
father, KingAmon, and
reigned for thirty-one
years,

He

was married and lost his wife in 587

B.C.E. when Jerusalem was overtaken
and destroyed by the Babylonians.
The book of Ezekiel recorded fourteen
precise dates for individual oracles.
Over half of the dates occurred in the
oracles against thenations.
Several prophetic visions recorded
Ezekiel being transported from
Babylonto Jerusalem and back.

His

uniquepersonality and
actions have led modern scholars
to describe him as schizophrenic,
catatonic,and psychotic.
Roughly coinciding with Ezekiels
prophetic ministry was the rise of
the neo-Babylonian dynasty (605
562 B.C.E.) under the leadership
of Nebuchadnezzar II.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR II
was

a Chaldean king of the

Neo-Babylonian Empire,
who reigned c.605BC
562BC. Both the
construction of the
Hanging Gardens of Babylo
n
and the destruction of
Jerusalem'stempleare
ascribed to him. He is
featured in theBook
of Danieland is mentioned

 The

Babylonians overtookthe land routes

from Africa to Asia once controlled by the
Egyptians. Following a brief reign
ofJosiahs youngest son Jehoahaz, the
Egyptian pharaoh Necho placed Eliakim,
the eldest son ofthe deceased king, as the
vassal over Judah.
After the appointment, Eliakim took the
regnal name Jehoiakim. In 605 BC,
Jehoiakim transferred his allegiance to
the Babylonian kingNebuchadnezzar,
which he repudiated three years later.

JEHOIAKIM
was

aking of Judah
from 608 to 598
BCE. He was the
second son of king
Josiahby Zebidah,
the daughter of
Pedaiah of Rumah.
His birth name
wasEliakim

It

was during this tumultuous time that

the young Ezekiel was deported in 597
B.C.E. to Babylon and his hopeof
fulfilling his priestly office in Jerusalem
was abolished.
He alongwith other exiles settled in Tel
Abib (3:15) nearthe River Chebar,
probably not far from thecity of Nippur
in Babylon.While residing in this area,
Ezekiel receivedhis prophetic call in
the fourth year ofexile.

TEL ABIB

The prophet Ezekiel was among the first to be taken captive

to Babylon. According to the Bible he lived at a place called
Tel-abib which was by the River Chebar or (grand canal)

 The

prophet himself identified the fate of

hispeople by taking on the suffering and
dramatizing their fate through personal anguish
and agony.Yet, the people over time accepted their
new home in Babylon and the message of Ezekiel.
The conditions in Babylon were favorable and
comfortable. The displaced people flourished so
much so that many refused toreturn to their
homeland when giventhe opportunity.
The message of Ezekiel differed from the words
proclaimed by Jeremiah and Hosea. He argued
the peoplewere corrupt from the beginning.
Furthermore, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were
considered deviant offspring of sin andsurpassed
deplorable Samaria.

 Ezekiel

cherished the hope reposed

in the monarchal covenant
betweenYahweh and David. The
prophet reapplied the Davidic
promise by emphasizing its
fulfillment inthe future. The
message of restoration reached a
climax through the oracles of hope in
33:134:24. The vision of the
revitalization of the dry bones in
37:114 promised the
miraculousrenewal and restoration
of the exiles toPalestine

AUTHORSHIP
External

Evidence:

- Ezekiel was considered to be the author

of this book until the Twentieth Century
when in 1924 Gustav Hoelscher first
questioned authorship based upon
questionable internal evidence.
- Therefore, external evidence is almost
unanimously in favor of the prophet
Ezekiel as the book's author

Internal

Evidence:

- The autobiographical style of the

book supports Ezekiel as the author
of the book (I, me, my are in almost
every chapter of the book; cf.
chapter 2:1-10)
- The book has a uniformity of
language, style, theme, and
message which support the theory
of a single author

Hill and Walton write, The lack

of strict chronological ordering of
the literature may argue in favor
of Ezekiel as the compiler of the
oracles, since it is very likely
another editor would have been
more concerned with the
deliberate sequencing of the
dated materials.

PURPOSES OF THE
BOOK
To

speak locally to the exiles whom

Jeremiah addresses by letter
(e.g.,Jer. 29), as people who continue
to listen to false prophets and
practice idolatry. The contents of
Ezekiel indicate that little has
changed in the attitude of the Jewish
people who have come to Babylon.
To outline the blessing that follows
necessary judgment

To

emphasize God's sovereignty

which will bring about judgment
and restoration
To warn Israel as a watchman of
imminent judgment
To stress the need for individual
responsibility and national
accountably before God

It

was written to announce

judgment upon Judah, to allow
them one last chance to repent.
It also foretells of the coming
deliverance of Gods nation from
captivity in Babylon. It mainly
discusses the events during the
Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel is
a priest who is called by God to
deliver His messages.

SUMMARY OF THE
BOOK
The book of Ezekiel is Narrative History,
Prophetic and Apocalyptic in genre and
even contains Parables. The prophet
Ezekiel wrote it approximately 571 B.C.
(this date is accurately precise because
this book contains more defined dates
than any other book in the Bible.) Key
personalities include Ezekiel, Israels
leaders, Ezekiels wife, King
Nebuchadnezzar, and the prince.

The Book of Ezekiel has

the most logical arrangement
of any of the prophetic books.
It contains three sections,
each of which addresses a
different subject matter.

Chapters

124 concern the fall of

Jerusalem.
Chapters 2539 contain a series of
oracles addressed to foreign nations,
concluding with a section in which the
future of Israel is contrasted with
that of the foreign nations.
The third section, Chapters 4048,
presents a plan for rebuilding the
Temple and reorganizing the restored
state of Israel.

CONCERN THE FALL OF

JERUSALEM.
The book opens with an account of the vision that
summoned Ezekiel to his prophetic calling.
Ezekiel describes his vision as an elaborate and
complex image that symbolizes the majesty of
Yahweh and proclaims Yahweh's sovereignty over
all the nations of the earth.
The people who were left in Jerusalem after the
first captivity consoled themselves with the idea
that they were better off than their brethren who
were taken to Babylon. They believed that Yahweh
would protect them from any foreign power and
that neither the city of Jerusalem nor the Judean
kingdom would ever be overthrown.

 Ezekiel's

task was to disillusion them with

reference to this hope, to make clear to them
that the city would be destroyed and also the
reasons why it would be overthrown. To
accomplish these tasks, the prophet performed
a number of symbolic acts.
Ezekiel explained that for each day he lay on
his left side, northern Israel would be in
captivity for one year, and for each day he lay
on his right side, the southern kingdom
Judah would spend a year in captivity. He
cut off his hair, dividing it into three parts that
symbolized northern Israel, the Judeans left in
Jerusalem, and those in captivity in Babylon.

According

to the prophet, the reason

for the captivities that had already
occurred, as well as for the one in
store for the people left in Jerusalem,
is the people's defiance of Yahweh's
laws. Because Ezekiel believes that
Yahweh rules supreme over all the
nations of the earth, any violation of
Yahweh's commands without
appropriate punishment constitutes
an infringement upon the deity's

 Jerusalem

must be destroyed because of its

sins. In his enumeration of these sins, Ezekiel
includes both moral and ceremonial
transgressions, but he noticeably places the
greater emphasis on matters pertaining to the
ceremonial.
He condemns the worship of idols that
represent foreign deities, and he severely
censures people who eat forbidden meat or
violate any of the other rules having to do with
the conduct of worship. Coming into direct
contact with that which is unclean
contaminates Yahweh's sanctuary and
profanes his holy name, which Yahweh will not

Ezekiel,

no less than Jeremiah,

sees the significance of the
individual in his relationship to
Yahweh. Rejecting the ideas
that fathers may be punished
for the sins of their sons and the
sons punished for the sins of
their fathers, he boldly states
that the soul that sins shall die.

CENTRAL THEMES
Ezekiel, meaningGod will strengthen, is
one of the majorProphetsofThe Bible. The
son of Buzi the priest (Ezekiel 1:3) Ezekiel
lived during the Babylonian Exile, among the
Jews who settled at Tel-Abib in Babylon (not
to be confused with Tel-Aviv, which is in
Israel). He was among those taken away
captive with Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:14-16)
which occurred about 597 BC., 11 years before
Jerusalem was completely destroyed (Ezekiel
33:21)

Ezekiel lived in his own

house (Ezekiel 8:1) near the
Chebar River, where he held a
leading position among the
exiles. By his own account,
here's how Ezekiel received
his calling.

The Book of Ezekiel is one of the

greatest prophetic works of the Bible,
providing a magnificent panorama of
what the future holds in store for
humanity and the world. A number of
Ezekiel's prophecies are reiterated in the
Book of Revelation, including the
cherubim (Ezekiel 1, Revelation 4), Gog
and Magog (Ezekiel 38, Revelation 20),
eating the scroll (Ezekiel 3, Revelation
10), the River of Living Water (Ezekiel
47, Revelation 22), and the New
Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-48, Revelation 22).

OTHER MAJOR THEMES OF

EZEKIEL'S WORK:
Ezekiel's

commission from God as a

"watchman" (Ezekiel chapters 2-3)
The siege of Jerusalem (Ezekiel
chapters 4-7)
The parable of the two eagles
(Ezekiel chapter 17)
"The soul that sins, it shall die"
(Ezekiel 18:20), so repent while there
is time (Ezekiel 18:30-32)

 Theapparentfall

of David's throne (Ezekiel

chapter 19), but which actually survived, to this
day, through Zedekiah's royal daughters who
were not slaughtered with the king's sons, and
who later escaped with Jeremiah (Jeremiah
43:6).
Oholah and Oholibah, a parable of Israel and
Judah's unfaithfulness (Ezekiel chapter 23)
Prophecies against Ammon, Moab, Edom,
Philistia (Ezekiel chapter 25), Tyre (Ezekiel
chapters 26-28), and Egypt (Ezekiel chapters
29-32)

The

"valley of dry bones"

resurrection of Israel
(Ezekiel chapter 37)
Gog and Magog (Ezekiel
chapters 38-39)
The New Temple (Ezekiel
chapters 40-48)

Ezekiel's ministry lasted over

twenty years, a time contemporary
with two of the other major
prophets, Daniel and Jeremiah.
Daniel was among the earlier
group of Jews taken into captivity,
about 606 BC, while Jeremiah
witnessed the actual destruction of
Jerusalem in 586 BC.

MESSAGE ANG TEACHINGS

Chapters1-24

These tell about the destruction of

Jerusalem and the sin that made it
necessary. Ezekiel began his prophecy in
the 5th year of Jechoiachin's captivity. The
one on the throne sent the man in linen to
scatter fire over the.
Chapters 25-32
Here is describedthe powerful God who
will handle the other nations as certainly
as he had Israel and Judah.

 Chapters

33-48
This last part describes the new exodus
when God would bring His people back to the
land. Ezekiel is like Moses, receiving
instructions about a coming temple and
recording laws for the people. (Remember that
the wilderness tabernacle or tent was a small
version of the more-permanent temple.) The
crisis of chapters 38 and 39 is resolved in the
rest of the book with the new temple and
ultimately with the New Jerusalem which we
see coming down at the end of the thousand
years. Or we might say that the faithful who
are seen in those chapters avoid the pitfalls
described.