EZEKIEL יחזקאל

The Book of Ezekiel is also called The Prophecy of Ezechiel. The form of the book exhibits a threefold theme: threats against Judah and Jerusalem (chapters 1–25), threats against foreign nations (chapters 25–32), and prophecies of restoration and hope (chapters 33–44). Throughout the book, it indicates that this arrangement of materials roughly corresponds to the development of Ezekiel’s ministry.

The threats that were against Judah and Jerusalem belong to the period from Ezekiel’s call to the fall of Jerusalem; the threats against the foreign nations belong to the period immediately after the fall, and the prophecies of restoration belong to the period thereafter. Most of the material is undoubtedly genuine, although a few later additions are discernible.

The book is valuable for understanding the life of the exiles of Babylon. Having been cut off from Jerusalem and its Temple where alone Yahweh dwelled and could be worshipped, the deportees were faced with a crisis of faith and practice. Ezekiel attempted to sustain his fellow exiles by striving to keep alive their traditional religious beliefs and by fostering a spirit of unity with one another.

His prophecies did much to dispel the notion that Yahweh dwelled exclusively in Jerusalem; he emphasized the importance of individual responsibility, and he urged that the sabbath be kept holy by cessation from work—for the holiness of the day was a special sign of Yahweh’s relationship with his people. By being faithful, the exiles were promised that Israel would be restored.

The main prophecy in the book of Ezekiel is that the exiles from both Judah and Israel would return to Palestine, leaving none in the Diaspora. In the imminent new age, a new covenant would be made with the restored house of Israel, to whom God would give a new spirit and a new heart. The restoration would be an act of divine grace, for the sake of God’s name.

Ezekiel’s prophecies conclude with a vision of a restored Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple’s form of worship would be reestablished in Israel, and each of the ancient tribes would receive appropriate allotments of land. In contrast to those hoping for national restoration under a Davidic king, Ezekiel envisaged a theocratic community revolving around the Temple and its cult.

Ezekiel was given to symbolic actions, strange visions, and even trances (“I fell upon my face” 1:28). He eats a scroll on which words of prophecy are written, in order to symbolize his appropriation of the message (3:1–3). He lies down for an extended time to symbolize Israel’s punishment (4:4ff).

He is apparently struck dumb on one occasion for an unspecified length of time (3:26). As other prophets have done before him, he sees the God-to-People relationship as analogous to that of husband to unfaithful wife and therefore understands the collapse of the life of Judah as a judgment for essential infidelity.

Ezekiel 2:3-6 – “He said: ‘son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says.” And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.'”

Ezekiel 18:4 – “For every living soul belongs to me, the father, as well as the son—both alike, belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.”

Ezekiel 28:12-14 – “‘ You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.”

Ezekiel 33:11 – “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'”

Ezekiel 48:35 – “And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”

As a priest, Ezekiel is fundamentally concerned with the Kavod YHWH, a technical phrase meaning the presence (shekhinah) of YHWH (i.e., one of the Names of GOD) among the people, in the Tabernacle, and in the Temple. The vision in chapters 1:4–28 reflects common themes and imagery of the Temple:

God appears in a cloud from the north – the north being the usual home of God – with four living creatures corresponding to the two cherubim above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant and the two in the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the Temple; the burning coals of fire between the creatures perhaps represent the fire on the sacrificial altar, and the famous “wheel within a wheel” may represent the rings by which the Levites carried the Ark or the wheels of the cart.

Ezekiel depicts the destruction of Jerusalem as a purificatory sacrifice upon the altar, made necessary by the “abominations” in the Temple (the presence of idols and the worship of the god Tammuz) described in chapter 8. The process of purification begins, God prepares to leave, and a priest lights the sacrificial fire to the city.

Nevertheless, the prophet announces that a small remnant will remain true to Yahweh in exile, and will return to the purified city. The image of the valley of dry bones returning to life in chapter 37 signifies the restoration of purified Israel.

Jaazaniah or Jezaniah is a personal name that appears in the Bible for several different individuals and has been found on an onyx seal. Four distinct individuals named Jaazaniah are mentioned in the Bible:

Jaazaniah the son of Hoshaiah was an officer in the army of the kingdom of Judah. He joined the Babylonian-appointed ruler Gedaliah at Mizpah after the exile of Judah (2 Kings 25:23 and Jeremiah 40:8). He was also called Jezaniah.

Jaazaniah, son of a man called Jeremiah (not the prophet), and grandson of Habazziniah, was the leader of the clan of the Rechabites at the time of the prophet Jeremiah. The prophet Jeremiah brings Jaazaniah and other members of his clan to the Temple, where they refuse to drink wine offered to them, in commemoration of their ancestor, Jonadab son of Rechab who had forbidden his followers to drink wine. Jeremiah commends them to the people and shows them as an example of people who know how to keep their principles. (Jeremiah 35:3).

Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was one of the 70 elders of Israel whom the prophet Ezekiel sees in a vision committing idolatry because they believed that God had abandoned the world and was no longer watching them (Ezekiel 8:11).

Jaazaniah son of Azzur was a leader of Israel and a false prophet whom the prophet Ezekiel sees in a vision of iniquitous elders standing at a gate of the Temple, falsely telling the people that Jerusalem will not be destroyed (Ezekiel 11:1).

The Book of Ezekiel is notable for its contribution to the emerging notion of individual responsibility to God – each man would be held responsible only for his own sins. This is in marked contrast to the Deuteronomistic book, which held that the sins of the nation would be held against all, without regard for an individual’s personal guilt.

Nonetheless, Ezekiel shared many ideas in common with the Deuteronomists, notably the notion that God works according to the principle of retributive justice and ambivalence towards kingship (although the Deuteronomists reserved their scorn for individual kings rather than for the office itself). As a priest, Ezekiel praises the Zadokites over the Levites (lower-level temple functionaries), whom he largely blames for the destruction and exile.

He is clearly connected with the Holiness Code and its vision of a future dependent on keeping the Laws of God and maintaining ritual purity. Notably, Ezekiel blames the Babylonian exile not on the people’s failure to keep the Law, but on their worship of gods other than Yahweh and their injustice: these, says Ezekiel in chapters 8–11, are the reasons God’s Shekhinah left his city and his people.

Previous prophets had used “Israel” to mean the northern kingdom and its tribes; when Ezekiel speaks of Israel he is addressing the deported remnant of Judah; at the same time, however, he can use this term to mean the glorious future destiny of a truly comprehensive “Israel.”