Ezekiel

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

E Z E K I E L.

[1] [2]

[3] [4]

[5] [6]

[7] [8]

[17]

[18]

INTRODUCTION

The name Ezekiel means "(whom) God will strengthen"

[GESENIUS]; or,

"God will prevail" [ROSENMULLER]. His father was Buzi

(Eze 1:3),

a priest, and he probably exercised the priestly office himself at

Jerusalem, previous to his captivity, as appears from the matured

priestly character to be seen in his prophecies, a circumstance which

much increased his influence with his captive fellow countrymen at

Babylon. Tradition represents Sarera as the land of his nativity. His

call to prophesy was in the fifth year from the date of his being

carried away with Jehoiachin (see

2Ki 24:11-15)

the people seem to have been among the first carried away

(Eze 11:16;

Jer 24:2-7, 8, 10).

The ungodly were willing to do anything to remain in their native land;

whereas the godly believed the prophets and obeyed the first summons to

surrender, as the only path of safety. These latter, as adhering to the

theocratic principle, were among the earliest to be removed by the

Chaldeans, who believed that, if they were out of the way, the nation

would fall to pieces of itself. They were despised by their brethren in

the Holy Land not yet captives, as having no share in the temple

sacrifices. Thus Ezekiel's sphere of labor was one happier and less

impeded by his countrymen than that of Jeremiah at home. The vicinity

of the river Chebar, which flows into the Euphrates near Circeslum, was

the first scene of his prophecies

(Eze 1:1).

Tel-Abib there (now Thallaba) was his place of residence

(Eze 3:15),

whither the elders used to come to inquire as to God's messages through

him. They were eager to return to Jerusalem, but he taught them that

they must first return to their God. He continued to prophesy for at

least twenty-two years, that is, to the twenty-seventh year of the

captivity

(Eze 29:17),

and probably remained with the captives by the Chebar the rest of his

life. A treatise, falsely attributed to EPIPHANIUS, states a tradition that he was killed at

Babylon by a prince of his people whom he had reproved for

idolatry.

He was contemporary with Jeremiah and Daniel. The former had

prophesied for thirty-four years before Ezekiel, and continued to do so

for six or seven years after him. The call of Ezekiel followed the very

next year after the communication of Jeremiah's predictions to Babylon

(Jer 51:59),

and was divinely intended as a sequel to them. Daniel's predictions are

mostly later than Ezekiel's but his piety and wisdom had become

proverbial in the early part of Ezekiel's ministry

(Eze 14:14, 16; 28:3).

They much resemble one another, especially in the visions and grotesque

images. It is a remarkable proof of genuineness that in Ezekiel no

prophecies against Babylon occur among those directed against the

enemies of the covenant-people. Probably he desired not to give

needless offence to the government under which he lived. The effect of

his labors is to be seen in the improved character of the people

towards the close of the captivity, and their general cessation from

idolatry and a return to the law. It was little more than thirty years

after the close of his labors when the decree of the Jews' restoration

was issued. His leading characteristic is realizing, determined energy;

this admirably adapted him for opposing the "rebellious house" "of

stubborn front and hard heart," and for maintaining the cause of God's

Church among his countrymen in a foreign land, when the external

framework had fallen to pieces. His style is plain and simple. His

conceptions are definite, and the details even of the symbolical and

enigmatical parts are given with lifelike minuteness. The obscurity

lies in the substance, not in the form, of his communications. The

priestly element predominates in his prophecies, arising from his

previous training as a priest. He delights to linger about the temple

and to find in its symbolical forms the imagery for conveying his

instructions. This was divinely ordered to satisfy the spiritual want

felt by the people in the absence of the outward temple and its

sacrifices. In his images he is magnificent, though austere and

somewhat harsh. He abounds in repetitions, not for ornament, but for

force and weight. Poetical parallelism is not found except in a few

portions, as in the seventh, twenty-first, twenty-seventh,

twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth through thirty-first chapters. His great

aim was to stimulate the dormant minds of the Jews. For this end

nothing was better suited than the use of mysterious symbols expressed

in the plainest words. The superficial, volatile, and wilfully

unbelieving would thereby be left to judicial blindness

(Isa 6:10;

Mt 13:11-13,

&c.); whereas the better-disposed would be awakened to a deeper search

into the things of God by the very obscurity of the symbols.

Inattention to this divine purpose has led the modern Jews so to

magnify this obscurity as to ordain that no one shall read this book

till he has passed his thirtieth year.

RABBI HANANIAS is said to

have satisfactorily solved the difficulties (Mischna) which were

alleged against its canonicity.

Ecclesiasticus 49:8

refers to it, and JOSEPHUS [Antiquities,

10.5.1]. It is mentioned as part of the canon in

MELITO'S catalogue [EUSEBIUS,

Ecclesiastical History, 4.26]; also in

ORIGEN, JEROME, and the

Talmud. The oneness of tone throughout and the repetition of

favorite expressions exclude the suspicion that separate portions are

not genuine. The earlier portion, the first through the thirty-second

chapters, which mainly treats of sin and judgment, is a key to

interpret the latter portion, which is more hopeful and joyous, but

remote in date. Thus a unity and an orderly progressive character are

imparted to the whole. The destruction of Jerusalem is the central

point. Previous to this he calls to repentance and warns against blind

confidence in Egypt

(Eze 17:15-17;

compare

Jer 37:7)

or other human stay. After it he consoles the captives by promising

them future deliverance and restoration. His prophecies against foreign

nations stand between these two great divisions, and were uttered in

the interval between the intimation that Nebuchadnezzar was besieging

Jerusalem and the arrival of the news that he had taken it

(Eze 33:21).

HAVERNICK marks out nine sections:--(1) Ezekiel's

call to prophesy

(Eze 1:1-3:15).

(2) Symbolical predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem

(Eze 3:16-7:27).

(3) A year and two months later a vision of the temple polluted by

Tammuz or Adonis worship; God's consequent scattering of fire over the

city and forsaking of the temple to reveal Himself to an inquiring

people in exile; happier and purer times to follow

(Eze 8:1-11:25).

(4) Exposure of the particular sins prevalent in the several

classes--priests, prophets, and princes

(Eze 12:1-19:14).

(5) A year later the warning of judgment for national guilt repeated

with greater distinctness as the time drew nearer

(Eze 20:1-23:49).

(6) Two years and five months later--the very day on which Ezekiel

speaks--is announced as the day of the beginning of the siege; Jerusalem

shall be overthrown

(Eze 24:1-27).

(7) Predictions against foreign nations during the interval of his

silence towards his own people; if judgment begins at the house of God,

much more will it visit the ungodly world

(Eze 25:1-32:32).

Some of these were uttered much later than others, but they all

began to be given after the fall of Jerusalem. (8) In the

twelfth year of the captivity, when the fugitives from Jerusalem

(Eze 33:21)

had appeared in Chaldea, he foretells better times and the

re-establishment of Israel and the triumph of God's kingdom on earth

over its enemies, Seir, the heathen, and Gog

(Eze 33:1-39:29).

(9) After an interval of thirteen years the closing vision of the order

and beauty of the restored kingdom

(Eze 40:1-48:35).

The particularity of details as to the temple and its offerings rather

discountenances the view of this vision being only symbolical, and not

at all literal. The event alone can clear it up. At all events it has

not yet been fulfilled; it must be future. Ezekiel was the only

prophet (in the strict sense) among the Jews at Babylon. Daniel

was rather a seer than a prophet, for the spirit of prophecy was

given him to qualify him, not for a spiritual office, but for

disclosing future events. His position in a heathen king's palace

fitted him for revelations of the outward relations of God's

kingdom to the kingdoms of the world, so that his book is ranked by the

Jews among the Hagiographa or "Sacred Writings," not among the

prophetical Scriptures. On the other hand, Ezekiel was distinctively a

prophet, and one who had to do with the inward concerns

of the divine kingdom. As a priest, when sent into exile, his service

was but transferred from the visible temple at Jerusalem to the

spiritual temple in Chaldea.