Ezekiel Commentary

The prophet Ezekiel’s book contains strange visions, images, and messages that seem far removed from contemporary life. Yet its message remains very relevant: God will purify his people and live among them forever. Even during the darkest days, God insisted that he would restore his people. This message offered hope to the exiled people of Judah and provides inspiration to all who put their trust in him.

Setting

The book of Ezekiel was written from Babylonia during the difficult days of Judah’s exile in Babylon (605–538 BC). The Babylonians had captured the Assyrian capital of Nineveh (612 BC), and Babylonian domination was made complete with the defeat of the last resisting Assyrians at the decisive battle of Carchemish (605 BC). In that same year, the Babylonians raided Judah and took hostages from the upper classes back to Babylon, including Daniel and his three friends (Dan 1:1-5).

In 601 BC, King Jehoiakim of Judah rebelled against the Babylonians, and he died during the ensuing siege (598 BC). His son, Jehoiachin, reigned for only a brief period before he surrendered and was taken to Babylon in 597 BC. At that time the Babylonians also took the prophet Ezekiel and other prominent people into exile and plundered many treasures from the Temple in Jerusalem.

While Ezekiel was in Babylon, the Babylonians placed Jehoiachin’s uncle Zedekiah on the throne of Judah. When Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon, the Babylonians ravaged Judah and besieged Jerusalem in January 588 BC. The city was finally breached and destroyed in August 586 BC. The Babylonians forced Zedekiah to watch as they put his sons to death; then he was blinded and taken to Babylon with the other citizens of Judah who had skills useful to their overlords. These exiles remained in Babylon for a generation until the fortunes of the empire changed again (see the book of Ezra).

Ezekiel’s first visions took place in Babylon in 593 BC, when he was thirty years old (Ezek 1:1-2).

Summary

Ezekiel’s visions span the years leading up to and following the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Before Jerusalem’s fall, Ezekiel delivered the woeful message that judgment would come upon the people of Judah. After that event, Ezekiel conveyed a new vision of hope: Israel would emerge from the ashes of her past. Although the prophet mourned what had been lost, he saw a bright future when the people would repent of the sins that brought their destruction and the Lord would establish the nation in holiness.

Chapters 1–3 tell of Ezekiel’s call and commissioning as a prophet. His opening vision tells of the Lord’s glory, ominously on the move (1:4-28). With images of motion and judgment, the vision depicts the Lord as the divine warrior in his heavenly chariot, coming to judge his people. During Ezekiel’s call (2:1–3:15), the Spirit told him that the stubborn and rebellious people of Judah would not listen to his message. However, the Lord wanted Ezekiel to be equally stubborn in faithfully delivering his message. Like a watchman (3:16-27), he should sound the alarm clearly and distinctly. God would hold the prophet accountable for delivering the message, not for the people’s response.

In chapters 4–24, Ezekiel delivers a litany of doom against Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet performs a series of sign acts depicting the coming siege and destruction of Jerusalem. Chapters 8–11 depict Jerusalem’s sins in four scenes of increasing abomination that clearly illustrate the reason for the coming destruction. God’s glory departs from the sanctuary, and the Temple is completely destroyed. The poems, oracles, and visions throughout this section cumulatively establish the inevitability and justice of Jerusalem’s destruction, culminating with the announcement of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem and a final message of the certainty of judgment (ch 24).

Ezekiel then turns toward hope, beginning with seven messages (chs 25–32) that indict the surrounding nations for having assisted the Babylonians and for delighting in Jerusalem’s fall. These messages show that the promise God made to Abraham remained intact: “I will . . . curse those who treat you with contempt” (Gen 12:3). God’s judgment would come on all who took pleasure in the downfall of his people and who profited from their demise.

Chapters 33–48 complete the movement from judgment to hope, beginning with the decisive moment when the exiles finally hear the news of Jerusalem’s destruction (33:21). At this point the Lord again commissions the prophet Ezekiel to minister as a watchman, proclaiming judgment on those who refuse to repent and promising life for those who do. Messages of hope promise a new shepherd with a renewed covenant and land, where the people will dwell together in unity (chs 34–37). The dark clouds of war threaten this picture of blessing (chs 38–39), but the Lord demonstrates the certainty of the new state of affairs. The Lord gathers the forces of Gog and his allies, not to judge his peacefully settled people, but to smash their enemies once and for all.

After God defeats Gog and his allies, he can reveal the final Temple and the reoriented land (chs 40–48). With architectural, ritual, and geographic imagery, Ezekiel’s final vision depicts the same message as the rest of the book: God will raise his people to a new level of holiness so that he can once again dwell in their midst. Those who were faithful in the past receive renewed access to God’s presence, while those who were less faithful remain on the margins. A river of life flows out from this new Temple; as it flows, it grows and transforms death into life. God’s final words to his people through Ezekiel do not warn of abandonment and destruction; rather, they promise fellowship and life.

Authorship and Date

In the opening verses of the book, the prophet Ezekiel claims that he is the author (1:3), and there is little reason to doubt his claim. The book shows all the interests expected from a priest such as Ezekiel, and the central event of Jerusalem’s destruction dominates the book’s structure. The prophet most likely wrote the book during the period in which his visions and messages were given (593–571 BC), with the completed composition probably dating shortly after the final message.

Meaning and Message

Before 586 BC, both the exiles in Babylon and the people remaining in Judah were convinced that Jerusalem could not be destroyed. They believed that the presence of the Temple and its prescribed rituals would guarantee the city’s survival. Ezekiel had to tell them that they were completely wrong. Because the Temple and its rituals were corrupt and the hearts and lives of the people were thoroughly pagan, Jerusalem had to be destroyed.

While all the Old Testament prophets condemned sin and idolatry, perhaps none used quite such sweeping terms as Ezekiel. From Israel’s time in Egypt onward, the disobedience of God’s people infected every branch of society and encompassed every form of offense against God. God could not ignore or condone such sin and would surely judge his people soon. Nothing could save God’s city or its people from his judgment.

Following the destruction of Jerusalem, God’s people were in grave danger of disillusionment and despair. They felt spiritually dead, abandoned by God and cut off from his presence. They said, “Our sins are heavy upon us; we are wasting away! How can we survive?” (33:10). Babylonian deities, who seemed to have triumphed over the Lord, surrounded the people. No one had returned home from captivity. Their hopes were dashed, and they believed they had no choice but to settle in the pagan land of Babylon and become part of its culture.

To these disillusioned people, the prophet delivered a message of God’s sovereignty and glory, depicting God as majestic, transcendent, and powerful. The Babylonian gods had certainly not defeated the Lord; rather, God had voluntarily abandoned his land and dwelling place because of his people’s sin. Although he left the defiled city of Jerusalem, this glorious God did not abandon his people. Instead, he went to the remnant of his people in exile (11:16), where Ezekiel himself first saw the Lord’s glory (1:1). God was still controlling all things, even the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar’s attempts to consult his own gods through divination (21:21-23; cp. Dan 2–4). The Lord had decreed the destruction of Jerusalem for its sins; Nebuchadnezzar was simply acting as God’s agent.

Jerusalem’s destruction did not mark the end of the story for God’s people. God had promised to bless Abraham’s descendants, making them into a mighty nation and blessing all nations through them. The oracles against the nations surrounding Judah (Ezek 25–32) demonstrated that God had not forgotten his ancient promise that those who rejoiced at Israel’s downfall would themselves be severely judged. God would not forever abandon his people. One day he would return to be their shepherd (34:11); he would transform the land and the people from death to life. God’s glory would once again return to the Temple, which would never again be defiled. Further, God would gather his scattered people into his presence and replace the old ways of doing things with new laws and higher standards of holiness. When filled with God’s Spirit, the people would no longer defile the land with their sins.

Ezekiel points toward a greater hope fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Through Christ, God’s glory fully dwells in our midst as light in the darkness of our exile (11:16; 43:1-5; John 1:14). The Good Shepherd restores justice for his sheep (Ezek 34:1-24; John 10:11). He fills us with his Spirit and makes us new creatures in him (Ezek 36:26-28; 37:1-14; 2 Cor 5:17). Those who have allied themselves with Christ have even greater access to God’s presence than Ezekiel’s visions anticipated. They are able to approach the throne of grace freely and drink from the life-giving water that flows from the throne (Ezek 47:1-11; Rev 22:1-5). Everything that Ezekiel anticipated—and more—is ours in Christ.

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel

When we entered upon the writings of the prophets, which speak of the things that should be hereafter, we seemed to have the same call that St. John had (Rev 4:1), Come up hither; but, when we enter upon the prophecy of this book, it is as if the voice said, Come up higher; as we go forward in time (for Ezekiel prophesied in the captivity, as Jeremiah prophesied just before it), so we soar upward in discoveries yet more sublime of the divine glory. These waters of the sanctuary still grow deeper; so far are they from being fordable that in some places they are scarcely fathomable; yet, deep as they are, out of them flow streams which make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. As to this prophecy now before us, we may enquire, I. Concerning the penman of it - it was Ezekiel; his name signifies, The strength of God, or one girt or strengthened of God. He girded up the loins of his mind to the service, and God put strength into him. Whom God calls to any service he will himself enable for it; if he give commission, he will give power to execute it. Ezekiel's name was answered when God said (and no doubt did as he said), I have made thy face strong against their faces. The learned Selden, in his book De Diis Syris, says that it was the opinion of some of the ancients that the prophet Ezekiel was the same with that Nazaratus Assyrius whom Pythagoras (as himself relates) had for his tutor for some time, and whose lectures he attended. It is agreed that they lived much about the same time; and we have reason to think that many of the Greek philosophers were acquainted with the sacred writings and borrowed some of the best of their notions from them. If we may give credit to the tradition of the Jews, he was put to death by the captives in Babylon, for his faithfulness and boldness in reproving them; it is stated that they dragged him upon the stones till his brains were dashed out. An Arabic historian says that he was put to death and was buried in the sepulchre of Shem the son of Noah. So Hottinger relates, Thesaur. Philol. lib. 2 cap. 1. II. Concerning the date of it - the place whence it is dated and the time when. The scene is laid in Babylon, when it was a house of bondage to the Israel of God; there the prophecies of this book were preached, there they were written, when the prophet himself, and the people to whom he prophesied, were captives there. Ezekiel and Daniel are the only writing prophets of the Old Testament who lived and prophesied any where but in the land of Israel, except we add Jonah, who was sent to Nineveh to prophesy. Ezekiel prophesied in the beginning of the captivity, Daniel in the latter end of it. It was an indication of God's good-will to them, and his gracious designs concerning them in their affliction, that he raised up prophets among them, both to convince them when, in the beginning of their troubles, they were secure and unhumbled, which was Ezekiel's business, and to comfort them when, in the latter end of their troubles, they were dejected and discouraged. If the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he would not have used such apt and proper means to cure them. III. Concerning the matter and scope of it. 1. There is much in it that is very mysterious, dark, and hard to be understood, especially in the beginning and the latter end of it, which therefore the Jewish rabbin forbade the reading of to their young men, till they came to be thirty years of age, lest by the difficulties they met with there they should be prejudiced against the scriptures; but if we read these difficult parts of scripture with humility and reverence, and search them diligently, though we may not be able to untie all the knots we meet with, any more than we can solve all the phenomena in the book of nature, yet we may from them, as from the book of nature, gather a great deal for the confirming of our faith and the encouraging of our hope in the God we worship. 2. Though the visions here be intricate, such as an elephant may swim in, yet the sermons are mostly plain, such as a lamb may wade in; and the chief design of them is to show God's people their transgressions, that in their captivity they might be repenting and not repining. It should seem the prophet was constantly attended (for we read of their sitting before him as God's people sat to hear his words, Eze 33:31), and that he was occasionally consulted, for we read of the elders of Israel who came to enquire of the Lord by him, Eze 14:1, Eze 14:3. And as it was of great use to the oppressed captives themselves to have a prophet with them, so it was a testimony to their holy religion against their oppressors who ridiculed it and them. 3. Though the reproofs and the threatenings here are very sharp and bold, yet towards the close of the book very comfortable assurances are given of great mercy God had in store for them; and there, at length, we shall meet with something that has reference to gospel times, and which was to have its accomplishment in the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom indeed this prophet speaks less than almost any of the prophets. But by opening the terrors of the Lord he prepares Christ's way. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and so it becomes our school-master to bring us to Christ. The visions which were the prophet's credentials we have ch. 1-3, the reproofs and threatenings ch. 4-24 betwixt which and the comforts which we have in the latter part of the book we have messages sent to the nations that bordered upon the land of Israel, whose destruction is foretold (ch. 25-35), to make way for the restoration of God's Israel and the re-establishment of their city and temple, which are foretold ch. 36 to the end. Those who would apply the comforts to themselves must apply the convictions to themselves.

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 Kg2 24:11-15) by Nebuchadnezzar, 599 B.C. The best portions of the people seem to have been among the first carried away (Eze 11:16; Jer 24:2-7-8, Jer 24:10). 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, Eze 14:16; Eze 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; Mat 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.

Next: Ezekiel Chapter 1