Ezekiel is a compilation of prophecies given by the
priest-made-prophet Ezekiel between 593–571 B.C. The book is clearly written
during the exile and is in the first person. There is no reason to suggest that
anyone else wrote these prophecies or even compiled them for that matter. The
language of the text reflects a transitional period between early biblical
Hebrew and late biblical Hebrew, as Mark F. Rooker argued here. The book has an
unusually high amount of Akkadian and Aramaic loan words during a time period
when the lingua franca was a mixture of Aramaic and Akkadian.[1]
The dates, locations, first person references, and language all indicate that
the book is written during the time it reports and by Ezekiel as the author it
references.
Peter de Vries also argues that the book should be taken as
a whole.
The basic premise of this study is that Ezekiel is a
coherent and consistent whole, but it is borne in mind in this study that
certain of the author’s passages were revised and modified at a later stage.
There is no attempt at all to deny the tensions that can be found in the
existing text. However, my assumption in treating these tensions is of the text
as a unity. If we ascribe tensions in the text to one or more editors, then we
are running away from the challenges that the text poses us and which honest,
unprejudiced exegesis could answer.[2]
Hence, we may conclude with Iain Duguid.
There seems, therefore, little good reason to assign
significant portions of it to late and clumsy redactors. What is more, if the
editing process is neither late nor clumsy, why must we assign it to anyone
other than the prophet himself? It is simpiler to accep the testimony of the
book itself than to multiply
unnecessarily complex theories of authorship.[3]
The book opens up in the thirtieth year. To what this refers
is unknown, but some scholars believe it has to do with Ezekiel’s 30th
year, since this is the year that a man could normally enter the priesthood.
Ezekiel, however, is not near the temple, but in exile in Babylon, and so, he
begins to receive visions from God to give to the people. The Targum suggests
that it is the thirtieth year from the time the law scroll was found by Josiah.
This corresponds to the fifth year of Jehoiachin in v. 2 as well. In the end,
all suggestions are somewhat speculative and it simply isn’t known.
Ezekiel dates his prophecies throughout the book by giving
the time or place or both in which they are given. In the first prophecy, he is
by the Chebar Canal.
The book is divided into two main sections (1–33 and 34–48).
The message of the first section is sandwiched in an inclusio between the
watchmen motif in chapters 3 and 33, indicating that the entire first section
describes Ezekiel’s duty as an overseer of the people, and thus, he must
deliver the rebuke to the people whether they listen or not. The first section
can be divided into individual units as well. Renz divides the first section
into four parts.[4]
The first cycle, chapters 1–7,
presents the basic case: Judah’s and Jerusalem’s sin will lead to its end. The
second cycle, 8–13, strengthens the plausibility of this case by answering
possible objections, such as the idea that God could not possibly abandon his
people (8–11), or the idea that judgment is for the distant future, not for the
present time (12:21–13:23). The third cycle, chapters 14–19, outlines more
precisely what the exiles’ response should be to this disaster and includes
explicit calls to repentance (14:1–12; 18:1–32). Repentance cannot avert the
disaster that will befall Jerusalem, but it offers life for the exilic
community, which without repentance is as doomed as Jerusalem. The last section
(in the book’s first part), chapters 20–24, summarizes the first three cycles
and brings the narrative to the point when Jerusalem is laid under siege.[5]
These final chapters of the third cycle relate how the
exiles and surrounding nations should respond to Jerusalem’s destruction, as
well as the judgments that will be delivered out to those nations that gloat or
use the destruction to take advantage of the inhabitants of Judah.
The second section of the book “is arranged in a
palistrophic pattern (ABCDCBA), with the vision of the dry bones in the center
(37:1–14), and at the outer ends an affirmation of Yahweh’s kingship as the
beginning and end of Israel’s restoration (34, 40–48).”[6]
John Kutsko notes a
larger theme in book centered around “the
Jerusalem Temple and the divine כבוד.”
A — From Divine Presence to Divine Absence (1:1–11:25)
B — Preparation for Destruction (12:1–24:27)
C — Oracles against the Nations (25:1–32:32)
B′— Preparation for Restoration (33:1–39:29)
A′— From Divine Absence to Divine Presence (40:1–48:35)[7]
One can glean from this the idea that God does, in fact,
remove His protective/salvific presence from the community if it persists in
sin without repentance. In order to still save it, however, He gives it over to
judgment and then, once judged, offers it restoration/salvation through His
protective/salvific presence once again. The idea that God just remains with
His people and no longer judges them due to a modern understanding of
unconditional love is not supported by Ezekiel or the rest of the biblical
prophets. Instead, this seems to be the message of the false prophets
throughout the Bible that the biblical prophets are countering.
Chapter 1
The first vision opens up with a vision of God’s throne
depicted not as stationary but as a moveable chariot that is guarded by four
creatures. These creatures each have four faces, one of a human, one of an
eagle, one of a lion, and one of a bull. They have a young bull’s feet and
wings as well. This imagery would be commonly understood in a Mesopotamian
context as one of the many creatures depicted in Mesopotamian art as guardians
of the throne room of the gods or a king. Lamassu, Griffins, Sphinxes, etc. are
all depicted as having faces of men, eagles, lions, etc. with lion or bull
bodies and feet, and wings of an eagle. They represent protected sacred space.
The lightening and flashes of fire and light, the
luminescence described by glowing bronze in a fire, all depict the majesty and
power of God’s glory.
This imagery becomes important because of what is being
conveyed to Ezekiel about God to the exiles and to those in Jerusalem alike.
The sacred space of YHWH’s presence has moved from the temple in Jerusalem into
the presence of His people in exile. It conveys then that God has both
abandoned the temple in Jerusalem and no longer protects that space, but now is
in the midst of His people in a foreign land. The purpose of His coming, as the
imagery and later explicit declarations suggest, is to give His people an
opportunity to repent and promise them hope if they do. The purpose of His
leaving the temple is due to the fact that this hope is not offered to
Jerusalem. According to both this imagery of abandonment and the explicit
declarations in the book, their judgment is final and God will not now forgive
them even if they did repent or even if the most righteous men who have ever
lived resided in the city.
The fact that God’s sacred and protective presence is
moveable conveys the idea that God can go anywhere and is not like a typical
ancient Near Eastern deity who is bound to a particular piece of real estate.
vv. 12 and 20-21 state that the creatures and wheels moved
the chariot wherever הרוח would go. הרוח is God’s creative agent through whom
God creates the world and His people. Hence, the Spirit moves the presence of
God to the place in which He will continue His creative work. God has not
abandoned His people even in their judgment, but will continue His work of
creation among them in their exile. Some have suggested that this is the spirit
of the four living creatures, but the spirit is singular and there are four
creatures. Although still possible, Moshe Greenberg’s (Ezekiel [AB],
1:45) suggestion that it is the Spirit of the one who rides the chariot seems
more plausible. The idea seems to be that instead of reigns, the creatures and
wheels are controlled by the driver through הרוח “God’s creational Spirit.” It
could be that the creatures and wheels represent God’s Spirit and creative
activity as well.
The eyes all over the wheels in v. 15 convey the idea of
God’s knowledge and awareness of everything that goes on upon the earth. This
will be brought out more explicitly in the book. God sees everything that is
done in Jerusalem and He sees those who are in exile alike.
Ezekiel interprets the brilliance of light and colors that
surround the figure on the throne as the glory of YHWH in v. 28. He responds by
throwing himself face down to the ground.
It should be understood that this is a vision, not a literal
depiction of God and His presence. This helps in understanding that God is not
a literal man as He is merely being represented as a king on his throne in v.
26. Ezekiel is not seeing God. He is seeing a symbolic vision that represents
God and His glorious presence.
Chapter 2
Now God begins to speak to Ezekiel in the vision.
Commentators have a hard time figuring out v. 2, where it says that “רוח came
upon/into me.” Some think this is the same spirit from the chariot and others
just a wind or breath. I would argue that even though the article is not
present, the context offers no other spirit as a reference but the previous
one, and the absence of the article can be explained in various ways. It makes
sense that God’s creative Spirit is now going to work through the words He
gives to Ezekiel. God creates through His רוח by speaking, and so He does here
through Ezekiel who now becomes His mouthpiece to create and form His people
out of chaos (i.e., sin and death represented by the exile).
The term “son of Adam” in v. 3 is a gentilic (like “son of
Israel,” which means Israelite, or “son of Ammon,” which means Ammonite) that
identifies Ezekiel as a part of a particular group, in this case, a human
being. It is simply calling him, “Human.” This is in radical contrast to the
previous imagery surrounding God that depicts Him as wholly other.
Ezekiel is being sent to the Israelites, who God now
identifies as גוים. The LXX omits this statement most likely because it was
seen as confusing, since the statement is clearly about Israel and not the
other nations. However, it is clear that God wishes to identify His rebellious
people as גוים as a way of conveying the fact that they have not acted like His
people. It would be like calling the church “these unbelievers” as a way of
conveying that their rebellion identifies them as non-covenant people rather
than God’s covenant people.
The terms “hard of face” and “strong of heart” in v. 4 are
different ways of saying that the people are unteachable and will not repent
when rebuked. They are stubborn and so they are like people who cannot change
their facial expression or people with strong wills/minds that cannot be
molded. The heart, of course, is the seat of thought in the ANE world, and so
should be understood as “mind.” Hence, to be of a hard heart is to lack the
ability to change one’s mind.
In vv. 5-7, God relates the fact that Ezekiel’s ministry is
to be one where the people will not listen to him, threaten him, and seek to do
him harm. He is not to be afraid of them and speak God’s words anyway. In other
words, he is being commanded to speak even knowing that those who hear will not
listen.
In vv. 8-10, the reader discovers why the people will not
listen, and it is because the message is not what they want to hear. It is
filled with “lamentation, mourning, and woe.” In other words, it is a judgment
and a rebuke displaying God’s disfavor of them and their practices.
Chapter 3
The word of the Lord coming to Ezekiel is presented as a
scroll that Ezekiel must eat and a message with which he must fill himself. It
is curious then that he says that it tastes like honey in his mouth when it is
a message of judgment. This conveys that Ezekiel himself must internalize God’s
commands and rebuke so that he does not follow the pattern of wayward Judah,
but instead obeys God by speaking to the people as he is commanded.
The Spirit and the chariot move with Ezekiel displaying the idea that God's presence, Spirit, His Word, and those who speak it are one.
3:12-15 brings in the imagery of the spirit and the chariot
once again, bracketing the introductory vision with 1:4-28, signifying the end
of the introductory vision.
[1]
Daniel Bodi, “Ezekiel,” in John H. Walton (ed.), Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary, vol. 4 (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009) 402.
[2]
The Kābôd of Yhwh in the Old Testament: With
Particular Reference to the Book of Ezekiel (Leiden: Brill, 2016) 234.
[3] Ezekiel. NIVAC (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 1999) 25.
[4]
Thomas Renz, “Ezekiel” in Kevin J. Vanhoozer (ed.), Theological Interpretation
of the Old Testament: A Book by Book Survey (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2008) 227.
[5] Ibid.
[6]
Ibid., 228.
[7] Between Heaven and Earth: Divine Presence
and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2000) 1.
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