Old Testament

Ezekiel

Ezekiel is the book of a priest-prophet among the Judean exiles in Babylonia, who saw the glory of the LORD leave a defiled temple and later saw it return to a new one. Its first half announces that Jerusalem will fall; after the news of the fall arrives (), it turns to promises of a new heart, God's own Spirit, a shepherd from David's line, dry bones raised and a city whose name is THE LORD IS THERE (). It belongs in the Bible because it shows that God's presence is not chained to a building or a nation's success, and that He will cleanse and dwell with His people for the sake of His holy name.

Author: Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest taken to Babylon with King Jehoiachin in 597 BC (1:1-3), who speaks mostly in the first person. Most scholars accept that the book substantially goes back to him, though some think disciples arranged or expanded it.
Audience: The exiles at Tel-abib by the Kebar canal (3:15), who still hoped Jerusalem would stand and later despaired when it fell. His warnings also concern the people left in Jerusalem and the surrounding nations.
When: Precisely dated oracles run from 593 BC, the fifth year of the exile (1:2), to about 571 BC (29:17), spanning the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The 'thirtieth year' of 1:1 is unexplained; many take it as Ezekiel's age.
Where: Babylonia, among Judean deportees, while Jeremiah was still preaching in Jerusalem. In visions Ezekiel is carried to the Jerusalem temple (chapters 8-11) and to a high mountain in the land of Israel (40:2).
Genre: Ezekiel is prophecy delivered through an unusual range of forms: throne visions, acted signs (lying on his side, shaving his head, packing an exile's bag), long allegories, funeral laments, case law, and in chapters 40-48 a detailed temple plan with priestly rules. Its visions share features with apocalyptic writing such as Daniel and Revelation, which borrows heavily from it. The book is arranged mostly in date order, with more than a dozen dated oracles. Read its pictures as carefully built messages, ask what each sign or allegory means to exiles who still trusted in Jerusalem, and expect the shocking imagery of chapters 16 and 23 to be deliberate.

Shape of the book

The Throne Vision and the Watchman's Call · ch 1–3The glory of the LORD appears in Babylonia on a moving throne, and Ezekiel eats a scroll and is appointed a watchman over a rebellious house.
Siege Signs and the Glory Departing · ch 4–11Acted signs portray Jerusalem's siege, and a temple vision exposes its idolatry and shows God's glory leaving by the east gate.
Why Jerusalem Must Fall · ch 12–24Signs, false prophets exposed, allegories of a vine and an unfaithful wife, personal responsibility in chapter 18, and the siege beginning on the day Ezekiel's wife dies.
Oracles Against the Nations · ch 25–32Seven neighbors are judged, with the most space given to proud Tyre and to Egypt, the power Judah trusted instead of the LORD.
The City Falls and Restoration Begins · ch 33–37News of Jerusalem's fall opens Ezekiel's mouth; God promises a true shepherd, a new heart and Spirit, and breath for dry bones.
Gog of Magog · ch 38–39A last great enemy attacks a restored, peaceful Israel and is destroyed by God alone, so that the nations know Him.
The New Temple, Land and City · ch 40–48A measured sanctuary receives the returning glory, a river flows from it to heal the Dead Sea, and the land and city are ordered around God's presence.

Themes

The Glory That Leaves and Returns. The book is framed by God's glory: seen by the Kebar canal (), leaving the temple by stages (; ; ), and returning by the same east gate to fill a new sanctuary (). Babylon destroyed a house God had already vacated, and His return is the heart of the hope.
Then You Will Know That I Am the LORD. This refrain, in its variations, recurs dozens of times. Judgment and restoration alike aim at knowledge of who God is, both for Israel and for the nations. God acts 'for the sake of My name' (; ), so His promises do not depend on Israel's merit.
A New Heart and God's Own Spirit. Ezekiel calls the exiles to make themselves a new heart (), and then God promises to give it: clean water, a heart of flesh for a heart of stone, and His own Spirit within them (). The dry bones of show that Spirit giving life to a people as good as dead.
Responsibility and Repentance. Against the proverb that children suffer for their fathers' sour grapes, God insists that each person answers for his own way and that the wicked who turn will live (, 21-23). The watchman passages (; ) apply the same urgency to the prophet's duty to warn.
Shepherds False and True. Israel's kings, priests and prophets fed themselves instead of the flock (13; ; ). God answers that He Himself will search for His sheep and set over them one shepherd, His servant David (; ).
Holiness at the Center. As a priest, Ezekiel sees the temple's defilement as the root of disaster (, 22). The closing vision rebuilds everything around a holy center, with walls 'to separate the holy from the common' (), so that a holy God can dwell among a cleansed people forever.

Where Christ is

Ezekiel names no Messiah by title, but its promises of a Davidic shepherd, a new heart and Spirit, and God's dwelling among His people are taken up by Jesus and the apostles. Jesus presents Himself as the good shepherd and the true vine, speaks of new birth by water and the Spirit, and calls His body the temple. Revelation closes the Bible with Ezekiel's river, gates and city, where God and the Lamb dwell with their people.

The Good Shepherd, Son of David. Promise and fulfillment. God says He will seek the lost and bind up the broken, and will set over His flock one shepherd, His servant David (, 23-24). Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd who lays down His life, speaks of one flock and one shepherd, and says He came to seek and save the lost. (; ; ; ; ; )
Water, a New Heart and the Spirit. Promise and fulfillment. God promises to sprinkle clean water, replace the heart of stone and put His Spirit within His people. Jesus tells Nicodemus one must be born of water and the Spirit and expects Israel's teacher to understand, and Paul contrasts tablets of stone with hearts written on by the Spirit under the new covenant. (; ; ; ; )
Breath for the Dead. Echo. In the valley of bones the breath enters the slain and they live, a picture of the nation's revival from exile. Jesus breathes on His disciples and says 'Receive the Holy Spirit,' and He speaks of the dead hearing the voice of the Son of God and coming out of their tombs. (; ; )
The Glory Returns to Dwell. Fulfillment. The glory that left the temple returns to dwell among Israel forever (). John says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory, and Jesus speaks of His body as the temple. Paul applies Ezekiel's promise 'My dwelling place will be with them' to the church. (; ; ; ; ; )
The River and the City. Echo and fulfillment. The river from the sanctuary heals the Dead Sea and feeds trees whose leaves are for healing; the city has twelve gates and the name THE LORD IS THERE. Jesus speaks of rivers of living water, meaning the Spirit, and Revelation's new Jerusalem has the river from the throne of God and of the Lamb, twelve named gates and no temple, because God and the Lamb are its temple. (; ; ; ; ; )

Voices

Jerome. He noted that the beginning and end of Ezekiel are wrapped in such obscurity that, he reported, Jewish teachers did not have them studied until a reader was thirty years old. More from Jerome at CCEL ↗
C. F. Keil (Keil and Delitzsch). He read the temple vision of not as a building plan to be carried out but as a symbolic picture of the kingdom of God, fulfilled in the church of Christ and completed in the new Jerusalem. Read the full commentary ↗

Reading well, key terms and common misreadings

Read it well

Follow the dates. They anchor the book in history, and the arrival of the news 'The city has been taken!' (33:21) is the hinge between judgment and hope.
Track God's glory through chapters 1, 8-11 and 43. The departure and return by the east gate is the book's main story line.
Treat the sign-acts and allegories as sermons. Ask what a brick, a shaved head, a cooking pot or two sticks would say to exiles who thought Jerusalem could not fall.
Read chapters 18 and 33 together, and chapters 11:19, 18:31 and 36:26 together, to see how God commands a new heart and then promises to give it.
Keep Revelation open beside chapters 1, 9, 37-39 and 40-48. John reuses Ezekiel's throne, seal, Gog and Magog, river and city, and that shows how the New Testament read the book.

Key terms

Glory כָּבוֹד (kavod) — The weighty, shining presence of God. Ezekiel carefully calls what he saw 'the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD' (1:28), and the book traces its departure and return.
Son of man בֶּן־אָדָם (ben-adam) — God's usual address to Ezekiel, more than ninety times. It stresses that he is a mere human before God's majesty. Jesus' use of the title draws mainly on Daniel 7:13.
Spirit, breath, wind רוּחַ (ruach) — One Hebrew word with all three meanings. In 37:1-14 it moves between them: the Spirit sets Ezekiel down, the wind is summoned, and breath enters the dead.
Idols גִּלּוּלִים (gillulim) — Ezekiel's favorite word for idols, used far more in his book than anywhere else. Many scholars think it is a contemptuous term related to a word for dung.
Prince נָשִׂיא (nasi) — Ezekiel often calls Israel's ruler 'prince' rather than 'king'. In chapters 44-46 the prince provides offerings and must not seize the people's land.
Watchman צֹפֶה (tsopheh) — A sentry on the city wall. Ezekiel's commission as watchman (3:17; 33:7) makes him accountable to warn the wicked to turn and live.

Easy to misread

Reading the wheels and creatures of chapter 1 as a description of machinery or spacecraft. Ezekiel piles up words like 'likeness' and 'appearance' because he is describing God's throne beyond ordinary sight, and he later identifies the creatures as cherubim (10:20).
Taking chapter 18 to teach that people earn eternal life by good deeds. It answers a proverb that blamed the exile on earlier generations and calls the present generation to repent; the same book says the new heart must be God's gift (36:26).
Identifying Gog's allies by sound alone, such as Rosh with Russia or Meshech with Moscow. Meshech and Tubal are ancient peoples of Asia Minor (27:13), and the BSB reads rosh as 'chief'. Readers differ on whether Gog is a future invasion, the final assault of evil that Revelation 20:8 names, or a pattern rather than one event; all agree the point is that God alone defeats him.
Assuming the temple vision has only one obvious meaning. Some expect a literal future temple, some see a program offered to the returning exiles, many read it as a symbolic picture of God's holy presence, and many see it fulfilled in Christ, the church and the new Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22; the vision's own purpose is stated in 43:10-11, that Israel be ashamed and keep God's ways.

Further reading: David Guzik, Enduring Word · Matthew Henry on CCEL · BibleProject overview video