Ezekiel (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series)

GENERAL EDITORS

W. Ward Gasque

Robert L. Hubbard Jr.

Robert K. Johnston

© 2009 by Steven Tuell

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

Previously published jointly in 2009, in the United States by Hendrickson Publishers, and in the United Kingdom by the Paternoster Press.

Baker Books edition published 2012

ISBN 978-1-4412-3834-4

Ebook edition created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

In memory of Drs. J. Peter Bercovitz and Thaddeus J. Gurdak, my teachers, mentors, and friends. At West Virginia Wesleyan College they introduced me to the critical academic study of Scripture and religion, and challenged me to love God with all my mind.

Table of Contents

Cover

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Ezekiel’s Message of Judgment (Ezek. 1–33)

§1     Ezekiel’s Call (Ezek. 1–3)

§2     Signs and Oracles of Judgment (Ezek. 4–7)

§3     The Glory Departs (Ezek. 8–11)

Laying the Blame and Taking Responsibility (Ezek. 12–19)

§4     Signs, Sayings, and Oracles of Judgment (Ezek. 12–14)

§5     Riddles and Metaphors (Ezek. 15–17)

§6     Personal Accountability (Ezek. 18–19)

Oracles of Destruction (Ezek. 20–24)

§7     An Unholy History (Ezek. 20:1–44)

§8     Miscellaneous Oracles of Judgment (Ezek. 20:45–22:31)

§9     A Tale of Two Sisters (Ezek. 23)

§10     Jerusalem’s Siege, in Parable and Sign (Ezek. 24)

Oracles against the Nations (Ezek. 25–32)

§11     Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia (Ezek. 25)

§12     Tyre, Sidon—and Israel (Ezek. 26:1–28:26)

§13     Egypt (Ezek. 29:1–32:32)

§14     Endings, and Beginnings (Ezek. 33)

Ezekiel’s Message of Hope and Restoration (Ezek. 34–48)

§15     Oracles of Restoration (Ezek. 34–37)

§16     Gog of Magog (Ezek. 38–39)

The Law of the Temple (Ezek. 40–48)

§17     Prologue to the Law of the Temple: The Lord Comes Home (Ezek. 40:1–43:9)

§18     The Law of the Temple (Ezek. 43:10–46:24)

§19     Epilogue to the Law of the Temple: River, Land, City (Ezek. 47–48)

For Further Reading

Subject Index

Scripture Index

Back Cover

Foreword

As an ancient document, the Old Testament often seems something quite foreign to modern men and women. Opening its pages may feel, to the modern reader, like traversing a kind of literary time warp into a whole other world. In that world sisters and brothers marry, long hair mysteriously makes men superhuman, and temple altars daily smell of savory burning flesh and sweet incense. There, desert bushes burn but leave no ashes, water gushes from rocks, and cities fall because people march around them. A different world, indeed!

Even God, the Old Testament’s main character, seems a stranger compared to his more familiar New Testament counterpart. Sometimes the divine is portrayed as a loving father and faithful friend, someone who rescues people from their greatest dangers or generously rewards them for heroic deeds. At other times, however, God resembles more a cruel despot, one furious at human failures, raving against enemies, and bloodthirsty for revenge. Thus, skittish about the Old Testament’s diverse portrayal of God, some readers carefully select which portions of the text to study, or they avoid the Old Testament altogether.

The purpose of this commentary series is to help readers navigate this strange and sometimes forbidding literary and spiritual terrain. Its goal is to break down the barriers between the ancient and modern worlds so that the power and meaning of these biblical texts become transparent to contemporary readers. How is this to be done? And what sets this series apart from others currently on the market?

This commentary series will bypass several popular approaches to biblical interpretation. It will not follow a precritical approach that interprets the text without reference to recent scholarly conversations. Such a commentary contents itself with offering little more than a paraphrase of the text with occasional supplements from archaeology, word studies, and classical theology. It mistakenly believes that there have been few insights into the Bible since Calvin or Luther. Nor will this series pursue an anticritical approach whose preoccupation is to defend the Bible against its detractors, especially scholarly ones. Such a commentary has little space left to move beyond showing why the Bible’s critics are wrong to explaining what the biblical text means. The result is a paucity of vibrant biblical theology. Again, this series finds inadequate a critical approach that seeks to understand the text apart from belief in the meaning it conveys. Though modern readers have been taught to be discerning, they do not want to live in the desert of criticism either.

Instead, as its editors, we have sought to align this series with what has been labeled believing criticism. This approach marries probing, reflective interpretation of the text to loyal biblical devotion and warm Christian affection. Our contributors tackle the task of interpretation using the full range of critical methodologies and practices. Yet they do so as people of faith who hold the text in the highest regard. The commentators in this series use criticism to bring the message of the biblical texts vividly to life so the minds of modern readers may be illumined and their faith deepened.

The authors in this series combine a firm commitment to modern scholarship with a similar commitment to the Bible’s full authority for Christians. They bring to the task the highest technical skills, warm theological commitment, and rich insight from their various communities. In so doing, they hope to enrich the life of the academy as well as the life of the church.

Part of the richness of this commentary series derives from its authors’ breadth of experience and ecclesial background. As editors, we have consciously brought together a diverse group of scholars in terms of age, gender, denominational affiliation, and race. We make no claim that they represent the full expression of the people of God, but they do bring fresh, broad perspectives to the interpretive task. But though this series has sought out diversity among its contributors, they also reflect a commitment to a common center. These commentators write as believing critics—scholars who desire to speak for church and academy, for academy and church. As editors, we offer this series in devotion to God and for the enrichment of God’s people.

ROBERT L. HUBBARD JR.

ROBERT K. JOHNSTON

Editors

Acknowledgments

For nearly thirty years now, ever since J. J. M. Roberts’ class at Princeton Theological Seminary first engaged me in the close study of the book of Ezekiel, I have been wrestling with this exasperatingly odd prophet. My first academic paper and my first publication, presented to the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society, grew out of work begun in that class. I thank Jim Roberts, and also the friends and colleagues I met at EGLBS, especially Jim Dur lesser and Maggie Odell. At Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, S. Dean McBride, Jr. was my doctoral advisor; he urged me to take my work on Ezekiel in new directions. Dean continues to be my mentor; I have learned more from him, and owe him more, than I can ever say. The members of the Society of Biblical Literature seminar Theological Perspectives on Ezekiel, and its predecessor, the Ezekiel Consultation, have become my friends, as well as a source of constant challenge and stimulation. My thanks to all who participate in that section, and especially to Daniel Block, Corri Carvalho, Stephen Cook, Kathy Darr, Paul Joyce, and Marvin Sweeney. To my old friend and dialogue partner John Strong, and to all the folk in Lemadim Olam who read parts of this work as it was in progress, my sincere thanks. John Kutsko first approached me about writing this commentary for the New International Bible Commentary series; my thanks to John, and to everyone at Hendrickson, particularly my editor Allan Emery, who has helped me to shape this text in clear, effective prose.

This work could never have been written without the time and support given me by Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Thanks are owed to my long-time friend and current colleague Jerome Creach, who urged me to come to PTS, and to all my colleagues and friends at the seminary, especially President William Carl, Dean Barry Jackson, Old Testament colleagues Don Gowan and Ron Tappy, Dale Allison (who advised me on early Christian interpretation of Ezekiel), all the students in my Ezekiel class, and particularly to Kathy Anderson, who prepared the indices for this volume.

Many churches have provided me opportunities to preach and teach from Ezekiel. My thanks to you all, especially to the pastors and congregations of Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church in Ashland, Virginia and St. Paul’s UMC in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, and to the Christian sisters and brothers attending Family Week at the Western Pennsylvania UM Conference Camp at Jumonville, where I am writing these words of thanks.

Finally, I thank my family: my parents, Mary and Bernard, whose faith and example continue to inspire me, and my sons Sean, Anthony, and Mark, whose lively minds are a constant challenge and delight. Most of all, I thank Wendy, my wife, my beloved, and the best proofreader, critic, encourager, and friend I have ever known.

Steven Tuell

Abbreviations

Introduction

Ezekiel is a strange book, depicting strange actions and stranger visions. What is a modern reader to make of this prophet, a bizarre figure who shaves his head with a sword, refuses to mourn the death of his wife, and sees visions of wheels, fire, and preposterous four-faced creatures? Ezekiel is exactly the sort of book some Christians have in mind when they complain about the Old Testament being dark, violent, and confusing. Yet, on the other hand, Ezekiel is also a book of piercing beauty: Jesus’ image of the Good Shepherd and John’s vision of the river of life and the new Jerusalem both have roots in this odd, ancient book. Indeed, Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, and its promise for Israel’s resurrection, has become the root metaphor for Jewish and Christian conceptions of the afterlife. Difficult as this book is, we ignore it at our peril. God still has a word for God’s people in these peculiar words.

Authorship

English translations refer to the prophet as Ezekiel, which is the form of this name the Septuagint (or LXX, the Gk. translation of the Hebrew Bible) uses. In Hebrew, the name is Yekhezqe’l, God strengthens. The Bible does not mention the prophet Ezekiel, son of Buzi, outside of the book that bears his name (1:3; 24:24). However, the name also occurs in 1 Chronicles 24:16, where Jehezkel (the NIV, like the KJV and NRSV, here follows the Hebrew rendering of this name) is one of the descendants of Aaron designated by lot to serve in the Jerusalem shrine established by David. Ezekiel the prophet was also a priest. This is evident not only from the explicit statement in the superscription (1:3), but also from the book’s regular use of language and ideas from the priestly texts in the first five books of the Bible, and particularly Leviticus.

Unlike other prophetic books, which are fairly loose collections of prophetic pronouncements (see Jeremiah in particular), Ezekiel is unified in style and theme. The book is in the first person throughout, and the book’s perspective is mostly consistent with the historical sixth-century B.C. prophet. Later chapters of the book link to earlier ones through quotations, allusions, and even explicit references (e.g., 43:3 refers back to 1–3 and 8–11). This unity assumes a written text, through which a reader can scan backwards and forwards, rather than an orally transmitted tradition. It is appropriate, then, to refer to Ezekiel as an author.

Date and Setting

Precise dating is a characteristic feature of the book of Ezekiel. Sixteen times the prophet gives us the date of a vision or a revelation; each time, this date formula introduces a new unit in the text. Eleven of these dates are precise to the year, month, and day (1:1; 8:1; 20:1; 24:1; 29:1; 29:17; 30:20; 31:1; 32:1; 33:21; 40:1). Three other dates (1:2; 26:1; 32:17) provide the year and day, while two refer back to particular events in order to fix the date (3:16 refers back to the date of the call vision and sets its vision seven days later, while a second date in 40:1 specifies the year as the fourteenth after the fall of Jerusalem). In addition, both the first use of the date formula (1:1–2) and the last (40:1) are doubled dates—a connection that further serves to unify the final form of the book.

The dates are given according to the years of Jehoiachin’s exile (1:2). Jehoiachin’s father Jehoiakim had rebelled against Babylon and died in the midst of a siege of Jerusalem by Babylonian forces. Jehoiachin saved the city from destruction by surrendering to Babylon. His exile began in 597 B.C. and other noble hostages—including, evidently, the prophet Ezekiel—joined him. Like a prisoner marking off the days of his incarceration, Ezekiel carefully tracked the years of his exile. He spent his entire prophetic career as an exile in Babylon, speaking to exiles. While Amos, a southerner working in the northern kingdom of Israel, also prophesied outside of his homeland, Ezekiel was the first prophet whose career was spent outside the confines of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

The earliest date in the book is the fifth day of the fourth month in the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile: that is, 592 B.C. With one exception (the appendix in 29:17–21), all of the other dates in the book fall within a twenty-year span. Ezekiel’s last great vision (40–48) is dated In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month (40:1). In those twenty years, everything changed for Israel. Following the exile of Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Zedekiah as king in Jerusalem. After initially swearing loyalty to Babylon, Zedekiah later rebelled, forging alliances with minor kingdoms in the region and particularly with Egypt, to the south. Once more, the Babylonians came and laid siege to Jerusalem: but this time there was no saving the city. In 587 B.C. Jerusalem fell, the temple was looted and destroyed, and the last king in David’s line was taken in chains to Babylon. Word of this tragedy did not reach Ezekiel and his fellow exiles until about a year later (33:21–22). Word of Jerusalem’s fall, however, came as no surprise. Ezekiel’s consistent message had been that the city was doomed. After Jerusalem’s fall, Ezekiel’s message becomes one of hope and promises of restoration (34–48).

Ezekiel’s voice predominates in this book that bears his name. Still, like all prophetic books, this book has been edited (as the third-person superscription in 1:2–3 indicates). It seems that the prophet himself did the initial editing of the book during the early days of the exile. Other hands, however, did the final editing. Ezekiel’s editors also appear to have been priests; they have treated their sources with great respect. Their work is most evident in the final vision (40–48), which has been expanded into a law code. As we will argue below, this major revision shows signs of dating to the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem after the exile, early in the fifth century—that is, in the reign of the Persian king Darius I (522–485 B.C.). Though chapters 38–39 (the Gog oracle) may have been added later still, it seems probable that the book was substantially finished in the early Persian period.

Sources

Close similarities between the language and themes of Ezekiel and those of the priestly tradition in Torah (that is, the first five books of the Bible, also called the Pentateuch) clearly demonstrate that Ezekiel was a priest. Comparing Ezekiel with the Holiness Code in Leviticus 17–26 reveals especially close connections with this particular priestly tradition. That said, however, the differences in detail between Ezekiel and Torah (evident particularly in chs. 40–48) indicate that this book does not draw upon those texts in their present form. More probably, Ezekiel and the priestly writers separately made use of written and oral priestly traditions.

Close parallels are also evident, as we will see throughout the book, with Ezekiel’s near contemporary the prophet Jeremiah. Many of these similarities probably stem from the cultural context these prophets share—one in Jerusalem, one exiled to Babylon (e.g., compare 18:2 and Jer. 31:27–30, which quote and refute the same proverb). In some cases, it may be that similarities reflect the later editing of these books, when they were brought into their final form. However, it is certainly possible that Ezekiel and Jeremiah were aware of one another (though neither ever mentions the other). We know from Jeremiah that there was communication between Jerusalem and the communities of exiles in Babylon (see Jer. 29), so Ezekiel could also be using some material from his contemporary. Certainly Ezekiel has used other prophetic books (compare 22:25–29 with Zeph. 3:1–4). The prophet also seems to be schooled in the literature of the broader ancient Near East, as is evident particularly in the oracles against the nations (25–32), which demonstrate familiarity with the history and culture of the nations that surrounded ancient Israel.

Structure

Broadly speaking, the book of Ezekiel falls into two major parts. The first and longest section, chapters 1–33, presents visions and oracles of judgment concerning Jerusalem’s fall, which is described to Ezekiel by a fugitive from the city in 33:21. References to Ezekiel’s role as a watchman (3:16–21; 33:1–9) and his muteness (3:24–27; 33:22) bracket this first part of the book, as does the statement they will know that a prophet has been among them (2:5; 33:33). An important subunit within this section, chapters 25–32, presents oracles against the nations surrounding Judah that likewise pass judgment on these nations. These oracles may have originally been circulated separately.

The second part of the book, chapters 34–48, is concerned with visions and oracles of hope and possibility. Here as well, it is likely that one important subsection, the Gog oracles in chapters 38–39, was a later addition to the original text. But we will see the hand of Ezekiel’s priestly editors most clearly in the final movement of the book, chapters 40–48.

We can also discern another structure within this text: a three-vision cycle, which unifies the prophecy of Ezekiel (1–3; 8–11; and 40–48). Several features link these passages. First, all three are dated to the year, month, and day (1:1; 8:1; 40:1). Second, all three have the title visions of God (Heb. marʾot ʾelohim; 1:1; 8:3; 40:2). Third, in all three passages the expression the hand of the LORD/Sovereign LORD was upon me occurs (1:3; 3:14, 22; 8:1; 40:1). However, the most striking shared feature of these three visions is their common subject: Ezekiel’s encounter with the divine Glory (Heb. kabod). The Glory of the Lord was the major image for divine presence in priestly tradition and was connected explicitly to sacred space. Ezekiel encounters the Glory in exile (chs. 1–3), but this gracious manifestation raises important questions: if God’s special presence and attention are manifest here, what does that mean for Jerusalem? The second vision in chapters 8–11 depicts the departure of the Glory from the city due to the hopeless corruption of its worship, leaders, and people. Then, in chapters 40–48, Ezekiel sees the Glory enter the perfect temple of his vision: the true temple, of which the Jerusalem shrine had always been but a pale shadow. Further, this final vision promises the blessings of the divine presence to Ezekiel and his fellow exiles. God is with God’s people, now and forevermore.

Text

The Hebrew text of Ezekiel is difficult. In part, this is due to the nature of the book: struggling to communicate material they did not understand, the scribes often made errors, particularly in the vision of the Glory in chapter 1 and in the temple description in 40–42. Also, the language of this book falls into the transition between early and late forms of Hebrew, so there are many unusual forms and spellings. The ancient versions are helpful for identifying the best reading. This is particularly true of the Septuagint, which provides an especially close and careful rendering of the Hebrew into Greek for the book of Ezekiel. For this reason, we need to weigh differences between the Greek and Hebrew texts of Ezekiel very carefully, as they may well represent a Hebrew original different from the text on which our Old Testament is based (commonly called the Masoretic Text [MT], after the Masoretes, the Jewish scribes who preserved and transmitted it). Still, we should not automatically give preeminence to the Greek text over the Hebrew; sometimes the Greek translators seem to be cleaning up Ezekiel’s wordy, repetitive style. As a basic rule of thumb, I have stayed with the Hebrew text of the masoretic scribes wherever possible, following the versions only when the MT is plainly garbled. Very often, I agree with the choices the NIV translators have made; where I propose a different reading than that adopted by the NIV, I have tried to give warrant for my decisions.

Message

Although Ezekiel is written in the first person, the dominant perspective is not Ezekiel’s but rather the Lord’s. The prophet vanishes behind the message that he bears. For the first two-thirds of the book, that message is a harsh, unrelenting word of judgment. Ezekiel deliberately destroys every claim to self-sufficiency that Jerusalem might raise. With the fall of the city, the message changes to one of restoration and hope but, once again, the restoration depends in no way on Israel’s righteousness, worthiness, or even upon Israel’s repentance. In theological language, Israel is saved entirely by God’s grace.

Throughout this book, in blessing as in judgment, God acts for the sake of God’s name—that is, out of God’s own character and identity. A common expression in Ezekiel, that they might know that I am the LORD, underlines this emphasis on God’s sovereignty: whether acting in punishment or in restoration, all that God does is a manifestation of God’s name. This absolute, radical emphasis on God may seem cold and distant to us: we look in vain through this book for mention of God’s love or compassion. But for Ezekiel, this divine emphasis provides our only hope for salvation. If God’s forgiveness depends upon our worthiness, we are doomed! Our hope can only be sure if it is grounded in God’s very honor and identity.

Closely linked to God’s identity is the notion of God’s presence. Perhaps more than any other biblical writer, Ezekiel confronts the idea of divine presence and absence. To his audience of exiles, who had thought themselves removed far from the center of God’s presence on Zion, Ezekiel communicates the grand good news that God has come to be with God’s people in exile. However, the flip side of that affirmation is God’s abandonment of Jerusalem. We can cut ourselves off from God’s presence, Ezekiel states. Through injustice, idolatry, and faithlessness, we can render our holy places desolate, and turn our hearts to stone. Yet God can still act, to transform and renew. The book of Ezekiel, which begins with the awesome presence of God made manifest to a priest in exile, concludes with a vision of the ideal city of God, given a new name: THE LORD IS THERE (48:35). The promise of this book, then, is that God desires to be in fellowship with God’s people. Ultimately, come what will, God is with us.

Ezekiel’s Message of Judgment (Ezek. 1–33)

The first major section of the book of Ezekiel is an unstinting portrayal of God’s judgment, communicating this message in seven parts. First, in chapters 1–3, God calls the prophet and gives him the message he is to bear through a shattering vision of the Lord’s Glory. Second, in chapters 4–7, a series of sign-acts and oracles of judgment convey the inevitability of Jerusalem’s destruction. Third, in Ezekiel’s second vision of the Glory (chs. 8–11), Ezekiel watches as God withdraws the divine presence from Jerusalem. Fourth, the prophet makes clear in a variety of parables, sign-acts, and oracles that the present generation and their leaders are responsible for the tragedy that has befallen them and their city (chs. 12–19). Part five (chs. 20–24) is a miscellaneous collection of material describing Jerusalem’s fall. The sixth part, chapters 25–32, is a collection of oracles directed against foreign nations, particularly Tyre (chs. 26–28) and Egypt (chs. 29–32). Finally, chapter 33 is the turning point in the book. Ezekiel 33 summarizes the message of judgment and call to repentance in this first major section and opens into the words of hope and possibility in the book’s second section (chs. 34–48).

§1 Ezekiel’s Call (Ezek. 1–3)

The book of Ezekiel opens, appropriately enough, with a complex account of Ezekiel’s call to be a prophet. Ezekiel 1–3 also contains the first of three interlocking visions of the Glory of the Lord (the others are in chs. 8–11 and 40–48). Those later visions recall elements of this dramatic first encounter.

Ezekiel begins with an account of the time and place of the inaugural vision that also serves as an introduction to the entire book (1:1–3). In 1:4–28, the prophet describes his vision of the Lord’s Glory. Chapters 2–3 then give Ezekiel’s commission in three parts. First, like his prophetic forebears Isaiah (Isa. 6:1–13) and Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4–19), Ezekiel receives a message of judgment to bring to Israel (2:1–3:15); note, though, that the divine word comes to this prophet in an oddly literal fashion (see 2:8–3:3). Next, God specially commissions Ezekiel as a watchman for the house of Israel (3:16–21). But then the newly commissioned prophet is bizarrely bound and silenced (3:22–27)! Until God removes these bonds, the only actions the prophet may take, and the only words he may speak, are those that the Lord commands.

1:1–3 / Prophetic books typically open with a superscription by the editors which places the prophet in his historical context (e.g., Jer. 1:1–3). The superscription of Ezekiel is unique in that its opening, while expanded by the book’s priestly editors, comes from the prophet himself. So the introduction to Ezekiel’s book shifts back and forth between the voice of Ezekiel in the first person (I was among the exiles . . . I saw visions of God) and a third-person narrator (the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi . . . There the hand of the LORD was upon him). After 1:3, however, the text is entirely from the first-person perspective of Ezekiel. The reader is able, therefore, to be involved personally and directly in the prophet’s experiences. We see what Ezekiel sees and hear what he hears.

Ezekiel was a priest. We know this not simply because the editors of the book tell us so (1:3), but also from the numerous priestly features evident throughout the book. Everywhere, Ezekiel is concerned about right worship and ritual purity (e.g., 8:1–18; 18:5–6). We find many close parallels between the book of Ezekiel and priestly texts from the Torah (that is, the first five books of the Bible, also called the books of Moses or the Pentateuch). Ezekiel the prophet thinks, and writes, in priestly terms.

Ezekiel’s prophetic career begins in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin (1:2). Jehoiachin became king when his father Jehoiakim rebelled against Babylonian rule, and died in the midst of the resulting siege of Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 24:1–4). Jehoiachin’s one kingly act was the surrender of the city to the Babylonians (2 Kgs. 24:12). Afterwards, he was taken away into exile, together with seven thousand soldiers, a thousand skilled laborers, and his officials and the leading men of the land—including, presumably, the young priest Ezekiel (2 Kgs. 24:15–16). The exiles were resettled in scattered locations in Babylonia. Jehoiachin, at least, was imprisoned in Babylon (2 Kgs. 25:27). Ezekiel, together with many other exiles, was placed in a rural village called Tel Abib near the city of Nippur, alongside a canal called Kebar (Ezek. 1:3; 3:15). Ezekiel usually dates his visions and oracles by the years of Jehoiachin’s, and his own, exile (see the Introduction, p. 2). The enigmatic thirtieth year of Ezekiel 1:1, however, appears to be an exception. Ezekiel tells us that it was in the thirtieth year that he first saw visions of God, while the editor states that this took place in the fifth year of Jehoiachin. The simplest and best explanation is that Ezekiel’s call came in the fifth year of his exile, when he was thirty years old.

Turning thirty held great significance for men preparing for temple service (Num. 4:3, 23, 30; 1 Chr. 23:3). Had Ezekiel remained in Jerusalem, this would likely have been the year that he began serving before the Lord’s altar—the culmination of a lifetime of training and study. However, Ezekiel’s thirtieth birthday finds him not in Jerusalem, but in the unclean land of Babylon, miles and miles from the temple. Surely this was a bitter, painful time for him. In this very year, back home, the young priest would have been brought with pomp and ceremony into the sacred temple precincts, into the very presence of God, for the first time. Instead, in exile, Ezekiel has his first vision. Since Ezekiel cannot come to God, God comes to Ezekiel!

The statement that the hand of the LORD was on Ezekiel occurs seven times in this book. We find this expression in all three visions of the Lord’s Glory (1:3; 3:14, 22; 8:1; 40:1), in 33:22 (where the hand of the Lord removes Ezekiel’s dumbness; see 3:22–27) and in 37:1 (at the beginning of the vision of the dry bones). This affirmation of God’s direct action in the prophet’s life recalls the ministry of Elijah (1 Kgs. 18:46) and Elisha (2 Kgs. 3:15). As with those prophets of ancient days, the hand of the Lord empowers Ezekiel.

1:4–28 / Ezekiel’s first vision begins with a windstorm coming out of the north (v. 4). However, as the dark cloud approaches, the prophet realizes that this is no ordinary tempest. In the cloud he sees a brilliant light and, within the light, he makes out four living creatures (v. 5; later, in ch. 10, he calls these beings cherubim). But nothing like these creatures has ever lived in this world. Though vaguely human-like in form, they each have four wings and, stranger still, four faces: one like a man, one like a lion, one like an ox, and one like an eagle (v. 10). The Christian reader will be at once reminded of the four living creatures in Revelation 4:7, and of the famous symbolic representation of the four Gospels. Clearly Ezekiel’s powerful vision influenced these images. In turn, images of part-human, part-animal heavenly beings from ancient Near Eastern art influenced Ezekiel.

Still, such images cannot quite express or contain the reality of the vision. The Hebrew text of Ezekiel 1 is difficult—partly because scribes copying this vision had trouble visualizing what the prophet was describing, but mostly because Ezekiel himself found it difficult to communicate his experience. The language is awkward and uncertain, punctuated by qualifying statements: what looked like, what appeared to be, the appearance of the likeness. Similarly, the apostle Paul found it impossible to speak of what he had experienced in his visionary journey to the third heaven, where he heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell (2 Cor. 12:4). The overall effect of Ezekiel’s halting description is, quite literally, unearthly. Ezekiel left the realms of ordinary human experience behind as the hand of the Lord lifted him into the realm of the holy.

A wheel is closely associated with each living creature. However, just as the four creatures defy earthly biology, the four wheels defy earthly physics. Ezekiel describes each wheel as made like a wheel intersecting a wheel (v. 16)—rather like a gyroscope. Like the living creatures, the wheels face in all four directions at once and can move in any direction without turning. The wheels and the creatures are supremely free. Further, just as the creatures with their four faces see in all directions at once, so the rims of the great wheels are full of eyes all around (v. 18). Thus is absolute freedom joined to perfect knowledge and perception, omnipresence to omniscience. Already, we can sense where this vision is taking us.

Above the creatures and the wheels, Ezekiel sees what looked like an expanse, sparkling like ice, and awesome (v. 22). The Hebrew word translated expanse, raqiyaʿ, appears seventeen times in the Hebrew Bible. Apart from Ezekiel’s visions (1:22–23, 25–26; 10:1), raqiyaʿ occurs only in the priestly account of creation in Genesis 1 (vv. 16–18, 14–15, 17, 20), in two of the Psalms (19:1 and 150:1), and in Daniel 12:3. The term describes the dome of the sky, which marks the outermost limits of the human cosmos; beyond this barrier lies the realm of God (see Exod. 24:9–10). Above the expanse Ezekiel sees a throne and, seated on the throne, a figure of flame and light, yet solid as metal. Despite his reticence and humility, Ezekiel knows what he sees: This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD (v. 28). Overcome, Ezekiel falls on his face before God.

As a priest, Ezekiel surely would have found this vision at once wonderful and troubling. In the priestly texts of the Torah, the glory of the LORD is the means of God’s presence in sacred spaces. First on Mount Sinai (Exod. 24:16, 17; 29:43; 40:34, 35; Lev. 9:6, 23), and later in the tabernacle (Num. 14:10, 21, 22; 16:19, 42; 20:6), the Glory communicates the divine presence. Not surprisingly, the same language describes God’s presence in the Jerusalem temple (1 Kgs. 8:11; Pss. 24:7, 10; 26:8; 29:3; Isa. 6:3). After all, priests from the same lineage were responsible both for the priestly material in the Torah and for priestly service in the temple. The Glory of the Lord, however, confronted Ezekiel in Babylon—among the exiles.

Now we can understand the significance of the wheels, with their message of supreme freedom of movement. God’s throne is not a chair, but a chariot. For Ezekiel, the point appears to be that the presence is portable. Since God is enthroned in a chariot, God can manifest God’s most holy presence wherever God chooses. Now, Ezekiel learns, God chooses to be with God’s people in exile.

What could this unexpected, unprecedented manifestation of God’s Glory in an unclean land mean? Given the warlike imagery of the divine chariot riding on the thunderstorm, and the stark language of judgment not only in Ezekiel’s commission (2:1–3:16) but throughout the first thirty-two chapters of this book, one might conclude that Ezekiel 1 is a vision of judgment and destruction (compare Amos 1:2 and Mic. 1:2–7). However, the storm imagery here in Ezekiel 1 also calls to mind God’s gracious revelation to Israel on Sinai (Exod. 20:16–19). Indeed, only in Ezekiel’s inaugural vision (1:4) and in Deuteronomy (4:12, 15, 33, 36; 5:4, 22, 24, 26; 9:10; 10:4) does the Lord speak from the center of the fire: here, to Ezekiel in Babylon; there, to Moses on Sinai. Certainly, then, we would be justified in viewing Ezekiel’s inaugural vision as a gracious self-revelation of God—a revelation all the more remarkable for taking place not on the mountain of God, but in the valley of the river Kebar, in the land of exile.

The experience of God’s presence is at once wonderful and terrible. Illustrations of this idea abound in Scripture. After his encounter with God at Bethel, Jacob was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome [the KJV reads, ‘How dreadful’] is this place’ (Gen. 28:17). At the burning bush, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God (Exod. 3:6). In the New Testament, the disciples fall to the ground when God speaks from heaven, affirming that Jesus is God’s son (Matt. 17:6), and they are terrified when Jesus reveals his power by stilling the storm (Mark 4:40–41). In any genuine encounter with the divine presence we are at one and the same time filled with adoration and terror, for the God who draws near to us in love and grace is, after all, God—ruler of heaven and earth.

2:1–7 / At the end of Ezekiel’s vision of the Lord’s Glory the prophet says, I heard the voice of one speaking (1:28). We learn here in 2:1 that the speaker is the Lord, who is calling Ezekiel to be a prophet. Ezekiel’s commission is itself divided into three parts, centered on the vision of the scroll (2:8–10). Divine speeches (2:1–7 and 3:1–15) bracket the scroll vision, which is the focus of Ezekiel’s commission. In each, the Spirit lifts Ezekiel up (2:2; 3:14), commands him to proclaim the word of the Lord (2:4; 3:11), and cautions that the people to whom he is sent are stubborn, rebellious, and ill-inclined to hear his message (2:3–5, 7; 3:7).

Throughout the book of Ezekiel, the Lord addresses the prophet as son of man (Heb. ben ʾadam, used ninety-four times in this book, eight times in Ezek. 1–3 alone [see 2:1, 3, 6, 8; 3:1, 3, 4, 10]). In Hebrew, this expression means human being (similarly, an Israelite is, in Hebrew, lit. a son of Israel). Indeed, in Psalm 49:2 and 62:9, ben ʾadam refers to a low person, as contrasted with ben ʾish (also, lit., son of man) which refers to a hero, or a person of high degree. Likewise, in Ezekiel the term son of man contrasts a fragile human being with the power and majesty of God. The point is that the Lord is God and Ezekiel is not. Recall, too, that the book of Ezekiel is written in the first person, inviting us to identify with the prophet. As the human, Ezekiel represents all of us. Readers of the Gospels will remember that Jesus often uses the title Son of Man to refer to himself (e.g., Mark 10:45). Perhaps there, too, the point is that Jesus, for all that he is divine, is also one of us.

In verses 6 and 7 God prepares Ezekiel for the reception he can expect. His message will be an unpopular one. But how his people receive the message is irrelevant. God commands Ezekiel to speak, whether they listen or fail to listen (vv. 5, 7)—a theme that we will discuss further in the context of the watchman passage (3:17–21). God calls Ezekiel not to be successful, but to be faithful. He is to proclaim, This is what the Sovereign LORD says (v. 4). Often called the messenger formula, this expression is typical of Israel’s prophets, and usually opens a prophetic oracle. Like the royal messengers of the ancient world, Israel’s prophets delivered the words of their master: hence, what they relayed following the messenger formula was typically in the first person. So, too, Ezekiel is to bring God’s words, not his own. Then, whether the people listen to him or not, they will be unable to deny that a prophet has been among them (v. 5). The text repeats this assertion in 33:33, following the destruction of Jerusalem. When Ezekiel’s words come true, the people of Israel, whether they heeded him or not, will know that Ezekiel truly was a prophet sent by God (see Deut. 18:22, where accurate prediction is the test of true prophecy; compare, though, Ezek. 26:7–14 and 29:17–21, where such concerns are lacking).

The Lord describes Ezekiel’s audience as a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me (v. 3), and (twice) as a rebellious house (vv. 5–6). The word translated rebellious in the NIV, Hebrew meri, occurs only twenty-three times in the Hebrew Bible; sixteen of those occurrences are in the book of Ezekiel. The expression rebellious house is unique to Ezekiel. In this context, this expression serves to link the two narratives in Ezekiel’s commission (2:5–6; 3:9) and to join the commission to the curious account of Ezekiel’s binding (3:26–27). From the outset, the position of Ezekiel regarding Israel is clear: they are rebels who have disobeyed God’s law and turned from God’s way. The inevitable end of such rebellion is destruction and exile (see 12:1–3).

2:8–10 / The Lord instructs Ezekiel to not rebel like that rebellious house (v. 8). While they are rebellious, he is to be submissive; while they are disobedient, he is to obey. The first test of Ezekiel’s obedience is a command: open your mouth and eat what I give you (v. 8). Similarly, Deuteronomy 8:2–3 describes how the Lord humbled and tested the people of Israel in the wilderness, to determine whether or not you would keep his commands (Deut. 8:2). Israel’s testing involved causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (Deut. 8:3; see Matt. 4:4//Luke 4:4). In the same way, God tests Ezekiel here with the command to eat whatever it is that the Lord gives him.

What the Lord gives him to eat is a scroll (v. 9). The symbolism seems clear. As in Jeremiah 1:9, the outstretched hand of the Lord places the divine word in the prophet’s mouth. Even more striking is the parallel with Jeremiah 15:16, where the prophet declares, When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and . . . delight. The scroll in Ezekiel’s vision is covered with writing front and back; every available inch of space has been crammed with words of lament and mourning and woe (v. 10). By eating the scroll, Ezekiel will be taking this grim message into himself. Indeed, one could argue that, as the bizarre sign-acts in chapters 4–5 will demonstrate, Ezekiel is taking upon himself God’s judgment against the rebellious house of Israel.

3:1–15 / Ezekiel obeys the divine command: he eats the scroll and discovers that it tastes as sweet as honey in my mouth (v. 3). Given the content of the scroll, this is certainly curious. Other passages describe the words of God’s law (Ps. 19:10) and wisdom (Prov. 16:23–24; 24:13–14) as being sweet like honey. Perhaps here as well, the point is that Ezekiel finds joy in obeying God’s word (compare Jer. 15:16). Even when the message is bitter, it is sweet to be in communion with the Lord.

Now God again commissions Ezekiel: Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them (v. 4). In many ways, this second divine speech parallels the first. Once more, God warns Ezekiel he is going to a rebellious house (v. 9) and commands him to declare This is what the Sovereign LORD says (v. 11b). Further, God tells Ezekiel that he must be faithful in his pronouncement, whether they listen or fail to listen (v. 11b).

The Lord sends Ezekiel not to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel (v. 5)—that is, not to the foreigners among whom he now finds himself, but to his own fellow exiles. Actually, the Lord declares, a mission to the Gentiles would have been easier: Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you (v. 6; compare Jer. 2:10–13). However, God promises to make Ezekiel as hardened and obstinate as his people are: I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them—even though the people are a rebellious house (v. 9).

In Ezekiel 2:2, at the beginning of Ezekiel’s vision, the spirit of the Lord had entered the prophet and lifted him to his feet. Now, as his vision ends, the Spirit lifts Ezekiel up once more (v. 12). As though in diminishing echo, the prophet hears the rumbling of the marvelous wheels, and the rush of wings of the living creatures (vv. 12–13). Then the vision is over. Ezekiel finds himself once more by the Kebar River, among the exiles who lived at Tel Abib (v. 15). But the experience has left him profoundly moved. For seven days Ezekiel sits among his fellow exiles, overwhelmed (v. 15).

3:16–21 / At the end of seven days, the Lord addresses Ezekiel again. For the first time in Ezekiel, the expression the word of the LORD came to me introduces a prophetic oracle (in 1:3, the formula reads the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel). This expression, a typical feature of Ezekiel’s style, introduces prophetic oracles throughout the book.

The Lord commissions Ezekiel as a watchman for the house of Israel (v. 17; see also 33:2, 6–7). The Hebrew term here refers most commonly to a sentinel on a city wall who watches for the approach of enemies (e.g., 2 Sam. 18:24–27). Like the watcher on the wall, Ezekiel is to give warning of the approach of disaster for Jerusalem. Again, there are parallels here with Jeremiah, who says that the Lord appointed watchmen over Jerusalem—but the people refused to heed their warning (Jer. 6:17). However, the closest parallel here is Hosea 9:8, which states that The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim. Here as there, God gives the prophetic watchman no assurance of success; indeed, Hosea records, so great is the wickedness and hostility of the people of Israel that the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac (Hos. 9:7).

As a watchman, Ezekiel is responsible for warning the wicked of God’s approaching judgment. Should he fail to do so, the wicked will perish and Ezekiel will be held accountable for his blood (v. 18). Only by exercising his responsibility and warning the people, regardless of their reaction, may Ezekiel save himself (v. 19). In 2 Chronicles, Jehoshaphat’s judges are likewise held responsible for insuring that the people know and follow the law. Should the judges fail in this responsibility, Jehoshaphat tells them, the guilt of the people will fall on their heads (2 Chr. 19:10). In Matthew 16:19, Jesus entrusts the church with this same awesome responsibility. God gives us the keys to the kingdom of heaven and assures us that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (see also Matt. 18:18). Those who know the word of the Lord must share what they know. As the Apostle Paul wrote, How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Rom. 10:14). No less than the prophet Ezekiel, we who have received the word of the Lord bear the responsibility of sharing that word in our communities.

Not only does Ezekiel’s message warn the wicked to turn from their wickedness, it also cautions the righteous not to rest on their laurels: when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die (v. 20). God sends Ezekiel not only to call the sinners to repentance, but also to urge the righteous to continue in their faithfulness. The sins the