Chebar

The Chebar (meaning force or strength) was a river or canal in the land of the Chaldeans along whose banks the prophet Ezekiel received his inaugural vision of the divine chariot-throne (Ezek. 1:1–3) and several subsequent visions (Ezek. 3:15, 23; 10:15, 20; 43:3). The community of Jewish exiles from whom Ezekiel came lived beside this waterway. Assyriological research has identified the Chebar with the naru kabari (the great canal) mentioned in Babylonian texts — a major irrigation channel running from the Euphrates near Nippur. The river thus anchors Ezekiel's visions in a specific geographic and historical setting: the Babylonian exile of the early sixth century BC.