Ezekiel, Book of

The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the major prophetic books, containing forty-eight chapters of oracles, symbolic actions, and visions spanning Ezekiel's ministry from 593 to c. 571 B.C. in Babylonian exile. It divides into three broad sections: oracles of judgment against Judah and Jerusalem (chapters 1–24); oracles against foreign nations — Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt (chapters 25–32); and oracles of restoration and hope (chapters 33–48). The book's most celebrated passages include the initial throne-chariot vision (chapters 1–3), the enacted prophecies of Jerusalem's fall (chapters 4–5), the vision of the valley of dry bones as a metaphor for national restoration (chapter 37), and the detailed architectural vision of the eschatological temple (chapters 40–48). Its rich imagery and apocalyptic character deeply influenced later Jewish apocalyptic literature and the book of Revelation. Its opening vision was the basis of the merkabah mystical tradition in Judaism.