Prophet ezekiel history
EZEKIELĭ ze’ kyəl (יְחֶזְקֵ֨אל; LXX, ̓Ιεζεκιήλ, God strengthens). Ezekiel was one of decency major prophets. He was the young man of Buzi, a priest of justness family of Zadok (Ezek 1:3); alight so like Zechariah (Zech 1:1; Neh 12:12, 16) and Jeremiah (Jer 1:1), combined both the offices of seer and priest, the Levitical influence give off apparent in chs. 40-48 of coronate prophecy. He was reared in Jerusalem and perhaps had already entered observe the work of the priesthood as he was taken with other captives, including King Jehoiachin to Babylonia constitute exile by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 b.c.
The problem concerning the age of Ezechiel when he was taken into escapee has been a matter of problematic, but it is most probable delay he was twenty-five years old fake the time. The opening statement pay no attention to his prophecy, “In the thirtieth year...as I was among the exiles,” appears to be a reference to monarch age at the time of climax call into the prophetic ministry, which in the following verse is traditionalist in the “fifth year of character exile of King Jehoiachin,” who was also among the captives of interpretation 597 b.c. deportation (Ezek 1:2). Nobleness summons to take up the oracular ministry thus came to Ezekiel affluent 592 b.c. Both John the Protestant and Jesus began their public bureau at the age of thirty (Luke 3:23).
As a member of the Zadok family, Ezekiel was among the elite taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:14). The prophet therefore build the chronology of his prophecy trial the years of Jehoiachin’s abduction (Ezek 1:2; 33:21; 40:1). His last old school prophecy is in the year 570 b.c., the twenty-seventh year of Jehoiachin’s captivity (29:17), and indicates that Ezechiel exercised his prophetic office for go bad least twenty-two years, his first imagination having been announced in 592 b.c.
Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry falls into two chief periods. The first included the period 592-586 b.c., during which the prophet’s message—directed toward Jerusalem—consisted of reiterated warnings and symbolic actions designed to bear Judah to repentance and back in all directions her historic faith in God. Significance second period, which began with say publicly year of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, tendency the years 586-570 b.c. In greatness course of these years, Ezekiel was a pastor to the exiles paramount a messenger of comfort and longing (Ezek 33-48). Thirteen years of quietness separated the two periods of in a deep sleep prophesying, the last prophecy of rectitude first period having been delivered house April 585 b.c. (32:17). He was not heard from again until Apr 572 b.c. (40:1). It has antediluvian suggested that Ezekiel returned to Jerusalem before the city fell, but nearby is no real evidence for that. He was in Babylonia when influence city fell (cf. 33:21, 22.)
The lifetime of Ezekiel’s captivity were the uppermost severe years of Judah’s history. Primacy period of Assyrian domination of Patriarch actually began in 722 b.c. conj at the time that the Assyrian Sargon took Samaria allow destroyed the northern kingdom, and though Judah remained an independent kingdom, she was forced to pay tribute persevere the Assyrians. With the rise inducing Babylonian power under Nebuchadnezzar in 605 b.c. through the battle of Carchemish, the position of Judah rapidly grew worse. In that year, Daniel was in the group taken into incarceration by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadrezzar. This was the first deportation, which was followed in 597 b.c. unreceptive a second when Nebuchadnezzar again invaded Judah and took the young awkward Jehoiachin and many of the cardinal citizens as captives to Babylonia (2 Kings 24:14-17). Among the captives rule this deportation was Ezekiel. The gear deportation of Judean captives to Chaldea by Nebuchadnezzar was in 586 b.c., the year of the destruction in shape the city of Jerusalem, the House of god, and the kingdom of Judah. For this reason Ezekiel’s life paralleled the years sharing the greatest crisis of Israel’s history.
In Babylonia, Ezekiel was a member fence a colony of captives in less important near Tel-Abib on the “River Chebar,” which is not to be muddleheaded with the River Chaboras. It prob. was the arm of an finish system of canals (Ezek 3:15). Book was married (24:16-18) and lived wring his own house (3:24; cf. 8:1). On the fifth day of picture fourth month in the fifth yr of his exile (592 b.c.), oversight was summoned in a vision hinder be a prophet of God (1:1-3:11). His description of this vision decay full of mysterious imagery designed assortment demonstrate the omnipotence, omnipresence, and unerringness dependabil of God as they are linked to the ministry of Ezekiel trip the future of Judah. Ezekiel was commissioned to summon the rebellious country to hear the word of honourableness Lord. Another vision followed in which the prophet was given a inventory with writing on both sides. Without fear was told to eat the articulate, “words of lamentation and mourning obtain woe” (2:10), and he found them “as sweet as honey” to significance taste (3:3). He was informed stray he would meet resistance (3:4-11), leading he then went to the exiles and sat among them overwhelmed. Dirt proceeded to prophesy the inevitability be more or less Jerusalem’s destruction for its persistence of great consequence sin.
It is interesting to contrast Ezekiel’s inaugural vision with the experiences sun-up Isaiah and Jeremiah. The lips declining Isaiah were cleansed and then sand received an audible and verbal vocalizations from the Lord (Isa 6:6-10). Prophet first heard the Lord addressing him. The Lord then touched his behind in an act symbolizing the deliverance of His words to the diviner (Jer 1:4-10). For Ezekiel, however, distinction words for the people were fated in advance and he “ate” say publicly written words (Ezek 2:10).
Ezekiel emphasized character doctrine of personal responsibility for vice in the most vigorous terms. “The soul that sins shall die” (18:4). The message of Ezekiel in that respect constituted an important turning playhouse in the prophetic message. With glory destruction of the nation, the earnestness on national responsibility gave way preserve an emphasis on individual responsibility.
Like assail prophets, Ezekiel enforced his spoken indication from the Lord by various emblematical acts. These symbolic acts were enacted words, and they were assumed promote to have in themselves divine effectiveness. Put your feet up drew a plan of besieged Jerusalem upon a brick (4:1-3). He lighten prostrate on one side and accordingly on the other for several period (4:4-8). He shaved himself with marvellous sword and then divided the lexible (5:1-17). Many such dramatic symbolic learning enhanced the effectiveness of the prophet’s message. After the destruction of Jerusalem Ezekiel’s prophecy became predominantly a broadcast of consolation. Fully aware of distinction weaknesses of God’s chosen people, high-mindedness prophet centered Israel’s Messianic hope back them, describing in glowing terms their religious, moral, political, and economic future.
Aside from Ezekiel’s influence upon the Browbeat, esp. the imagery of the Apocalypse, he exerted great influence upon nobility development of Judaism. He is on occasion referred to as the father always Judaism. The doctrines of personal perpetuity and the resurrection, and the energy upon the law in Judaism were all profoundly influenced by Ezekiel. Reward visions, frequently mysterious, affected considerably excellence development of Judaism’s apocalyptic as nicely as the later mysticism of distinction Cabala. The prophet figured prominently slot in the mural paintings of the mosque of Dura Europos completed in a.d. 255. The synagogue was removed arm reconstructed as part of the nationwide museum in Damascus, Syria. Some rabbis of the school of Shammai thought Ezekiel as only an apocryphal whole because they thought it contradicted description Mosaic law. SeeExile.
Bibliography G. E. Feminist, Biblical Archaeology (1960), 88, 123, 132; H. Daniel-Rops, Israel and the Past World (1964), 203, 286-290, 313; Exposed. Narrelson, Interpreting the Old Testament (1964), 285-315.
