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Ezekiel

Structure

At first sight, the book of Ezekiel has all the appearance of being clearly and logically presented, without the confusion that is so apparent in Jeremiah. It was long assumed therefore that the book had been completely penned by Ezekiel himself and was largely free from subsequent interpolation or revision. This impression, reinforced by the apparently precise dating that is provided as to when events occurred, turns out to be largely illusory, however, and it is now accepted that the book of Ezekiel has been subject to just as much redaction as the other prophetic books, though this has certainly been carried out with the utmost care, to give the impression of authenticity and "seamlessness". But as in the other prophetic books, it is plain that the original account has been expanded, with interpretative glosses and reassuring "salvation" promises, that verses have been added or rearranged, that errors have crept into the text and that there are anachronisms - i.e. some events have been clearly described from a post-exilic perspective.

Ezekiel's Call and Consecration as prophet

Ezekiel's "call" is less typical than that of the other prophets, though the theme of consecration is present in Yahweh's "hand" (i.e. "power") offering the "scroll" of prophetic words to Ezekiel and in the instruction that the prophetl must eat the scroll - i.e. must assimilate the words of God. We have no other details, however, about how or at what age the priest Ezekiel came to be chosen by Yahweh as prophet - there is simply the overwhelming impact of the initial vision, which serves as his "commissioning" by God. Having fallen on his face, overcome by awe, Ezekiel is told: "Stand up and let me talk with you". He learns that Yahweh will send him to that "nation of rebels", the Israelites, and there he will communicate God's word to them. This emphasis on Israel as a "rebellious people" is repeated again and again by Ezekiel. It provides the essential justification for Yahweh's extremely harsh reprisals, which are no different - except in scale - from those enacted by any contemporary earthly ruler against those regarded as rebels. Ezekiel's reluctance to perform his prophetic task is hinted at rather than stated openly. Yahweh recognises Ezekiel's fear and reassures him that he need not feel terrified [3:9]. It is necessary that Yahweh should warn his people what will happen, even though the outcome is inevitable since Yahweh knows that the people will not listen. So Ezekiel is to be a "watchman [hpX] to the house of Israel" - i.e. someone who will warn of impending danger. To modern eyes, it seems rather futile for God to "warn" of impending disaster if this is irreversible, and even for the writer, there seems to have been a degree of intellectual conflict. The logic is that Yahweh knows what will happen. The prophet's duty was to warn but God's plans were pre-ordained and, in theory, unchangeable. In fact, the writer (or later editors perhaps) felt it necessary to hold out some hope: a few people (the "remnant") will be saved; and God's mind is never seen as utterly unchangeable - he is open to pleading, as is evident in 4.15, where Ezekiel complains to Yahweh at the kind of cooking fuel he is expected to use.

Ezekiel's priestly bias and character

As a priest, Ezekiel is preoccupied, more than any other of the prophets, with the preservation of the centralised Temple cult which had become mandatory following the "reforms" of King Josiah.1 Yahweh's lengthy accusations against the "abominations" (i.e. acts which are ritually unclean and which therefore contravene the Levitical regulations) committed by those remaining in Jerusalem reflect Ezekiel's own anger at the failure of the people left behind in Judah to adhere to the prescribed ritual. As one of the Temple priests and a community leader himself, he seems not to appreciate that, left to themselves, the population left in Jerusalem are bound to lapse from their observation of ritual, having more to worry about than the finer points of the Law. That anger is of course expressed always as Yahweh's indignation and rage. Yet most, if not all of the priestly hierarchy had been removed to Babylonia after the first stage of the exile, in 597. Ezekiel himself is in Babylonia, at Tel Abib, in reasonably comfortable circumstances, and it is there apparently that he receives his dramatic and bizarre visions.

The Chariot vision

Yahweh comes to him miraculously through a curious mode of heavenly transportation, described in both chs.1 and 8. Ezekiel's vision seems peculiarly his own but in fact it was probably influenced by Babylonian art and science2 - cf. the mysterious wheels which (he tries to suggest) allow for movement in three dimensions. The whole account, however, is highly dramatic and compelling, especially with Yahweh's repeated call to Ezekiel, "O son of man" [ben adam] which loses some of its effect by simply being translated "Man" [NEB] or "Mortal man" [GNB]. Ezekiel has two underlying aims in presenting this visionary picture. Now that the people have been dispersed through the Babylonian conquest, Yahweh can no longer afford to be understood as a territorially limited god: hence he must be capable of appearing instantaneously to his people wherever they are. Ezekiel solves the problem by this extraordinary image of celestial transportation, half mechanical, half angelic. Yahweh can now appear everywhere: time and space are irrelevant. So it is apparent that Ezekiel is endeavouring to present (essentially for the first time in the Hebrew bible) the picture of a god who is transcendent. His difficulty in describing the contents of his vision actually serves very effectively to emphasise to us that God is beyond human comprehension: what Ezekiel sees is always "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God"3 - i.e. what he is able to picture is at several removes from the reality of God's ineffable being. So the very unreality of Ezekiel's visions helps to emphasise God's indescribability. In other (non-visual) respects, however, Yahweh remains very anthropomorphic his emotions are often all too human and he is open to altering his decisions at times in response to pleading.

Ezekiel as Yahweh's prophet

Yahweh's ability to be both in Israel and in Babylon is paralleled by Ezekiel's puzzling changes of location - sometimes he seems to be speaking in Tel Abib; sometimes he is clearly in Jerusalem, talking to the Elders there. This seems to have been a problem for commentators in the past but it should present no difficulty to us. Ezekiel's second aim is to show that he, as God's agent, is empowered with the same capacity as Yahweh to move at will from one setting to another. Historically, he seems to have been one of the first group of exiles (i.e. from 597 BCE) and therefore likely to have been a man of considerable standing in the community - several times we hear of the Elders congregating in Ezekiel's house to listen to him.4 As more and more of the Israelites were deported, those who were left behind would have been those of lower social status (including the women) and it is they who have the worst suffering and so (by Ezekiel's logic) most severely incur Yahweh's wrath (cf. chapters 11-14) for falling back into pagan or magical practices. The exiles (in Tel Abib) do not encounter the same degree of criticism - perhaps because they are able to maintain the basic Temple ritual and liturgy established by Josiah. What we always hear being expressed is of course Ezekiel's own priestly wrath, given prophetic authority by being presented as Yahweh's divine rage at the failure of the people back in Jerusalem to maintain the established ritual. Ezekiel speaks Yahweh's words; but the emotions conveyed are entirely human: they are the frustrated feelings of the prophet himself, anthropomorphically attributed by him to Yahweh. This was an understandable method for Ezekiel (and the prophets generally) to employ but it creates great difficulties for the modern reader, who finds these raw human emotions quite inappropriate when put into the mouth of a God of Love. Ezekiel, however, has no worries about emphasising Yahweh's disgust and intolerance in this fashion; almost everyone will be destroyed, by the sword or by pestilence or by famine. Ezekiel's repeated comment (as from Yahweh) takes the form, "That will show them that I am God!".

Ezekiel's theodicy

We can only understand Ezekiel's theodicy (his notion of Yahweh's divine justice) if we are able to appreciate the historical, religious and political situation through his eyes. The fall of Jerusalem was the ultimate disaster for the Israelites. Not only did it represent the final loss of sovereignty for the Israelite people (one that would never be regained, despite the prophet's predictions of a Davidic restoration) but, much more problematically, such a humiliating defeat seemed clearly to refute the claims made by the Israelites for Yahweh's superiority over all the other Semitic national gods. The fundamental problem for Ezekiel was how to explain away (i.e. to rationalise) the mighty Yahweh's utter failure to resist the Babylonians (and their chief god, Marduk). Worse still, the Temple at Jerusalem had by now become (thanks to Josiah's reforms) the actual and sole dwelling-place of Yahweh. The complete destruction of the Temple - God's own house - therefore represented the final humiliation for the God of Israel. In a real sense, Yahweh himself is now in exile.

For Ezekiel, there is only one way out of this dilemma - and that is to absolve Yahweh of all fault and to place the blame squarely on the people themselves. Displacing responsibility for failure is probably the commonest psychological technique used by people for "saving face"; and if Ezekiel, as a priest of Yahweh, is to save his god's reputation,5 he therefore must present the people's behaviour in the blackest possible terms in order to justify (as their punishment for sin) the fall of Jerusalem and the deaths of so many of the nation. Moreover, that punishment (through sword, pestilence, famine and dispersal) must be presented as being intentionally inflicted by Yahweh himself, either directly (as in the case of famine or pestilence) or indirectly, through the medium of the Babylonian army and their ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

The symbolic actions

All Ezekiel's strange symbolic acts are designed to bring that message across. Chapter 4 offers a variety of these:

  • the pictorial representation on a tile of the predicted siege of Jerusalem;
  • Ezekiel's physical representation of Israel's agony during the exile;6
  • the shaving of his beard to symbolise the different types of fate which the people will face;
  • the command to Ezekiel by Yahweh to eat unclean food, as a sign of what the people will resort to under famine conditions.

Traditionally, these prophetic acts have often been held to be actual dramatic portrayals by Ezekiel. That is possible but their explanation remains difficult. They seem to incorporate, in some form or another, archaic magical practices whose original meaning and purpose have been lost over time. If Ezekiel did act those scenes out, they still had a magical component, in that the performance ensured they would come to pass (a kind of sympathetic magic). As instances of a prophet's typically unconventional and enigmatic behaviour, however, they correspond closely to the similarly extraordinary behaviour assigned to Jeremiah. It is perhaps just conceivable that Ezekiel and Jeremiah did perform some of those actions, either for dramatic or magical effect, or under some state of altered consciousness ("ecstasy").

The "abomination"

Yahweh's recital (chs.5-8) of Israel's abominable (i.e. impure) practices, together with his unfailing pronouncement of doom, is a reiteration of the argument that they (the people) are solely at fault and that it is they accordingly who must and will suffer. By force of constant repetition, the speaker persuades his audience to interpret the national disaster as the inevitable penalty for human misbehaviour and to suppress any awkward questions about Yahweh's competence as a god:7

It is all their fault, the fault of their turmoil and tumult and all their restless ways. [7:11]

Indeed, the severity of the punishment that all will receive (or have already received)8 will serve only to demonstrate Yahweh's power over his people:

I will deal with them as they deserve, and call them to account for their doings; and so they shall know that I am the Lord. [7:28].

Chapters 8-9 bring Ezekiel another vision of God in "the likeness of the image of a man"9 and the prophet is transported miraculously to Jerusalem where he encounters the "image of Lust" and other "abominations", including women grieving over the death of Tammuz and men turning their backs to the Temple in order to worship the sun [8:14,16]. The scene seems to be the Temple in Jerusalem but the practices are Babylonian, pointing to the syncretic assimilation of Babylonian religion by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. What of the exiles? We are not told whether they adopted Babylonian cultic practices and, even if they had, Ezekiel would hardly have admitted that. What then follows is a horrifying vision of how Yahweh's punishment will be executed: those few identified as guiltless will be "marked" with the Hebrew letter T and thus saved; the others will be killed unsparingly, beginning with "the Elders in front of the Temple" (those left in charge who have failed to maintain the Yahwistic cult). It is worth emphasising that this punishment is executed in Jerusalem and not in Babylonia: Ezekiel is remarkably cautious about implicating his fellow-exiles in the promised punishment.

In ch.10-11, the cherubim return in the celestial chariot, along with a vision of God on his sapphire throne10 in the heavens above. Ezekiel is shown those who have been identified as chief plotters (almost certainly ringleaders of the opposition party) with Pelatiah particularly singled out - who promptly falls dead.11 Ezekiel protests again at Yahweh's bloodthirsty vengeance and receives an assurance that the scattered people will eventually be brought back to their homeland, "with a different heart and a new spirit" so that they will conform to Yahweh's laws. Those who fail to do so will be exterminated. The reassurance seems an interpolation - it is out of character with Ezekiel's general tone of ruthlessness. The exile and the conquest of Judah are clearly presented as Yahweh's divine purpose, yet (in somewhat contradictory terms) he will ultimately reform the rebellious people through the exercise of his own power. In ch.12, Ezekiel again carries out a further strange symbolic act at Yahweh's command, this time representing the exile of the people. It thus is meant to be set in the pre-exilic situation (12:26: "the vision you now see is not to be fulfilled for many years: you are prophesying of a time far off.") though clearly it has been written down well after the event. Once more Yahweh emphasises that he will thus show princes and people alike that he is the Lord. There follows an attack on all false prophets (ch.13) who are "like jackals among the ruins", who have not really been sent by Yahweh but who "expect their words to control events". The problem of false prophecy (i.e. prophecies which contradict his own words) is an acute one for Ezekiel and it is not one that he successfully resolves - any more than his predecessors had.

Yahweh turns (13:17) to the women who persist in using magical incantations, divination and ritual - evidence that those practices remained alive and well in the time of Ezekiel. Yahweh even argues that if the people are seduced by their magical practices and by their idols, that will be, in reality, through his (Yahweh's) own will (14:9). This is a further problem of theodicy for Ezekiel: Yahweh uses the idols to delude the people (since he is in control of everything) but even so he lays full blame upon those whom he claims to have deceived deliberately. Yahweh repeats his main methods of retaliation, now augmented to four: sword, famine, wild beasts and pestilence. The only small scrap of comfort will be the survival of a small remnant who have been blameless in terms of ritual obedience.

Ezekiel's allegories

Chapter 15 is a poetical fragment of allegory. The "vine" represents the people of Jerusalem, who are useless in themselves, and who be even more unfit for any purpose when consumed by Yahweh's wrath. The following chapter (16) is, like ch.23 later, remarkable for its sustained use of sexual imagery, designed to compare Jerusalem's apostasy to prostitution. It certainly owes something to Hosea but is nevertheless unique in tone to Ezekiel himself. A long, carefully worked out allegory, it presents Jerusalem (or the nation of Israel) as a foundling baby, found and cared for by Yahweh. She grows up, becomes a nubile young woman and is taken by Yahweh as his consort (16:8). However (like Hosea's wife) she is unfaithful to her husband and prostitutes herself to any passer-by or neighbour (i.e. the surrounding nations with whom she forms alliances and to whom she pays tribute). God will therefore cast her off, divorce her and have her put to death (16:40). The promises of restoration (16:53, 60) can only be a later interpolation.

Chapter 17 is another poetic allegory, this time about Nebuchadnezzar, the "great eagle" who takes Jechoiachin prisoner ("plucks the twig of cedar and carries it off"). The eagle takes another twig (Zedekiah) which grows twisted and deformed, through his false and treacherous alliance with Egypt, despite having been planted in good, well-watered soil. The allegory is then explained in 17: 11ff. and Zedekiah's death is foretold. Ezekiel's strong and politically prudent support of the Babylonians is very evident here. A third allegorical poem ends the chapter. This is a later "salvation" statement written in the style of the two earlier allegories. Yahweh himself ("I") will plant a fresh twig "on a lofty mountain". It will flourish and become the home for birds (i.e. peoples) of every kind.

Moral responsibility - mankind's or Yahweh's?

Ezekiel now deals with difficult questions of theodicy that are being raised by the people after the disastrous fall of Jerusalem and the accompanying hardships. Maybe they are Ezekiel's own problems also - and ours today. The first concerns the traditional belief that each generation suffers for the sins of their fathers (18:2). Ezekiel denies this rule: instead, each man is personally responsible for his own actions and the man who lives an upright life will not die; even a man who gives up his wicked life will be ultimately spared. On the other hand, someone who goes to the bad of his own volition will not be saved. All this is to show that Yahweh does act according to his principles, whatever the people may say (18:25). And God emphasises: "I have no desire for any man's death" - a remark so contrary to what has been said earlier as to suggest that this passage is perhaps a later addition. God, curiously, is so upset that he uses the oath, "By my life!" several times in this section. Ezekiel twice spells out the basic ethical principles by which people ought to live (cf. also ch.22). These seem to reflect his priestly concern for the Torah; but they represent a rather odd collection of basic rules for living from our modern point of view. Not having intercourse with one's wife during her period is presented as being of equal importance to not cheating or oppressing others. Yahweh says that it the people who lack principles, not God, since he has always laid down those principles which Ezekiel rehearses here.

The failure of monarchy

Chapter 19 is another poetic allegory, a lament over Judah's failed kings. The first lion cub is Jehoiahaz (deported to Egypt); the second cub is Jehoiakim (taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar but eventually released); and the lament ends with a repetition of the burnt vine theme (the end of the Davidic line). In chapter 20, we are back with the elders and Ezekiel. God is still angry and refuses to speak to them. "As I live!" he says again, "I will not be consulted by you". Yahweh repeats his accusation that the Israelites have been rebellious and disobedient. For the honour of his own name, he had taken them out of Egypt and now they dishonour his name by their behaviour. Breaking the Sabbath is repeatedly mentioned and seems to have been a preoccupation of Ezekiel, as a priest. God "states his case" against them, in judicial style, and promises to discipline the people before restoring the status quo in Zion, where the people will once more serve him.

There follow more dramatic outpourings from Ezekiel, predicting destruction by the sword, and there is a further symbolic act by the prophet when he traces out the possible routes of the Babylonian army. Zedekiah is referred to in 21:25 - "You impious and wicked prince of Israel". Yahweh strangely admits to having given the people "bad statutes" (possibly a reference to the sacrifice of the first-born child, which people might have resorted to in their desperation during or after the siege of Jerusalem). The Israelites are polluted, just as an alloy of gold is impure. They can only be purified by the refining ordeal of a crucible (i.e. burning Jerusalem).

Olohah and Olohibah: sex, politics and religion

Chapter 23, like 16, is a long allegory in which Samaria and Jerusalem are represented as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who are sexually promiscuous with all those whom they meet. The "clients" of the sisters are the neighbouring nations, past and present - Assyria (with Samaria) and Babylon (Chaldea). The sisters have (23:30) "followed alien peoples and played the whore" by worshipping their idols. Ezekiel's obsession with sexual depravity is so intense that the underlying political and religious meaning of the allegory virtually becomes obscured by the lurid description of the sisters' insatiable lust which so attracts them to the scarlet Babylonian images painted in vermilion (cf. Revelation). The sisters will be stoned to death and (not a normal penalty) torn apart. Ezekiel is obsessed again with notions of impurity and pollution which can only be eradicated through burning and bloodshed. As it reaches a climax, the picture becomes nightmarish, with the "city running with blood". The fact that the Hebrew word for "city" is feminine adds to the ease with which Ezekiel uses those verbal images of female sexual depravity to symbolise Jerusalem.

Ezekiel's wife ("the delight of his eyes") dies suddenly (ch.25) but he is forbidden by Yahweh to mourn his loss, just as Jerusalem's fate is not to be mourned by the survivors. Whether the story is fact or fiction is a matter for individual judgment.

Oracles against the nations

Chapters 25-33 comprise a long series of oracles against the nations, comparable with those of Amos and Hosea but having Ezekiel's own individual style imprinted upon them. These nations are accused of glorying in Israel's fate, and each in turn is dealt with. Tyre, however, as a leading commercial nation, comes in for especial attack, mainly because Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city but did not in fact destroy it. Tyre is blamed for her pride in being a famous trading city: though not destroyed, she stands in ruins as an example to others. Egypt also is treated as a country which has fallen from power. In fact, the Nile belongs to Yahweh (29:10) and will be made desolate and derelict (not a true prediction despite the Pharoah's defeat by the Babylonians at Carcemish in 605 BCE). Look at Assyria, says Yahweh. It was all-powerful, like a cedar of Lebanon (31:3ff.). Now it has fallen. All the mighty warriors from these nations will end in Sheol, the underworld - and the Egyptians (despite their belief in a happy after-life) will join them there.

In ch.33, the "watchman" theme returns: Yahweh reminds Ezekiel of his duty to warn. Ezekiel is told (33:21) of the fall of Jerusalem by the fugitives who reach Babylonia. As usual, Ezekiel gives the date precisely, though that is no proof of accuracy or authenticity. Yahweh stresses again the people's scepticism and cynicism: they listen to the prophet but say "Fine words!" They will treat him as no more than a singer of fine songs or a clever harpist (33:31f.). But when his prophecies are seen to be fulfilled, then they will know they have heard a true prophet.

Ezekiel's shepherd imagery and his vision of renewal

Chapter 34 provided material for the NT image of the "good shepherd" who will seek his lost sheep and bring them safely home - in contrast to the bad shepherds (the disastrous kings of Israel and Judah who have been so ineffective in the past. "I will dismiss those shepherds" (34:10). Yahweh himself will feed his sheep "and their pasture shall be the high mountains of Israel" (34:14). Ezekiel becomes very lyrical at this point but goes on to warn that there will still be judgment; the sheep will be weeded out from the goats, and a new line of Davidic kings will be in charge (an interpolation?).

Progressively, the whole book now begins to talk in greater detail about the saving of the nation and the return of its people to Israel (ch.35). Everything will be restored anew: house and palaces will be rebuilt (36:10f.). The inhabitants will be restored and will flourish. Then the other nations will know Yahweh is the Lord once more and God's people will remember their past sins and sin no more. Peace and prosperity will fill this new Arcadia. Ezekiel's memorable vision of the "dry bones" symbolises this promised physical and spiritual resurrection or rebirth, with a renewed promise of a Davidic king guided by Yahweh's presence in the Temple.

There follows in chs.38-39 the enigmatic account of a great battle against an unidentified enemy of Israel, Gog, from Magog, who will be defeated in a final great battle. Ezekiel then dates his last vision from 573, fourteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem. All the details of the rebuilt Temple are described at considerable length in chs.40-43, and are followed by the prescribed regulations for sacrificial and liturgical ritual to be carried out specifically by the Levitical priests of Zadok, who remained faithful to Yahweh. Again there is an emphasis upon ritual purification (44:23f.). Finally, from ch.45-48, there is a detailed description of the new apportionment of the land of Israel and Judah to the twelve tribes of Israel. Part of this will be set aside for the Levites and for the "sons of Zadok", while in the centre there will be an especial area reserved for Yahweh himself. The river of life will flow under the Temple and bring from God's restored sanctuary a renewal of life and fruitfulness to the chosen land.