Ezekiel

Ezekiel (Hebrew Yeḥezqēl, “God strengthens”), son of Buzi, was a priest called to be a prophet during the Babylonian exile. Deported to Babylon with King Jehoiachin in 597 BC, he settled among the exiles at Tel-abib by the Chebar canal, where “the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1-3). He prophesied from about 593 to 571 BC, a contemporary of Jeremiah in Jerusalem and Daniel in the Babylonian court.

Ezekiel’s call came in the overwhelming vision of the four living creatures and the wheels beneath a throne-chariot — the glory of the LORD enthroned above the cherubim, mobile and present even in exile (Ezekiel 1:4-28). Commissioned as a “watchman for the house of Israel” responsible to warn (Ezekiel 3:17), he enacted his message through vivid symbolic acts and was rendered mute except when God opened his mouth. In a temple vision he beheld the glory of God departing from a defiled Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10:18-19), explaining the coming catastrophe.

Before the city fell his message was relentless judgment on Judah’s idolatry; afterward it turned to comfort and hope. He taught individual moral responsibility — “the soul who sins shall die,” yet God “has no pleasure in the death of the wicked” but desires that he turn and live (Ezekiel 18:20; Ezekiel 18:32). He promised inward renewal: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you… and I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). In the valley of dry bones he saw the Spirit breathe resurrection life into a dead nation (Ezekiel 37:1-14), and foretold one shepherd, “my servant David,” over a reunited people (Ezekiel 34:23-24).

His book closes with the grand vision of a restored temple, a river of life flowing from it, and the city named “The LORD Is There” (Ezekiel 47:1-12; Ezekiel 48:35) — images the New Testament gathers up in Christ and the new creation, where the river of life flows from the throne of God and the Lamb (Revelation 22:1-2). Ezekiel’s vision of God’s glory, his promise of the indwelling Spirit, and his hope of resurrection proved deeply formative for both Jewish and Christian faith.