1.4–28 Ezekiel encounters God. The combination of cloud, fire, creatures, the spirit, and wheels makes it impossible to reduce this vision to some readily understandable phenomenon.
1.4–14 Ezekiel perceives strange creatures.
1.4 Fire and cloud are often associated with an appearance of the deity (e.g., Ps 18). Something like gleaming amber, also in 8.2.
1.5 The author uses like (see also vv. 22, 26, 27) to emphasize that the vision is proximate. The prophet does not actually see the deity and his accoutrements. The living creatures are part animal, part human, with the latter dominant, i.e., they have two legs and stand upright. Such winged creatures with animal features are related to the seraphim in Isa 6, another “prophetic call” narrative. Ancient Near Eastern mythology knows such creatures, often minor deities, some of which support the divine or royal throne. Cf. 10.15, 20, where similar creatures are labeled cherubim.
1.7 Bronze, also in the description of a man in 40.3.
1.10 Four faces (human, lion, ox, eagle) on one head is otherwise unattested. The imagery may emphasize alertness: as the wheels turn, the creature will be able to look in any direction.
1.12 The spirit, not the deity, but the spirit of the living creatures in v. 21 (see also v. 20; 3.12).
1.13–14 The creatures are associated with fire or lightning; cf. Gen 3.24 for an analogous creature who brandishes a flaming sword; Gen 15.17, where torches symbolize the presence of the deity.
1.15–21 Crystalline wheels associated with the creatures. Although the writer mentions a wheel (v. 15), there are apparently four wheels, one for each creature. Either a chariot with four wheels on one axle (two wheels on each side of the carriage) or a ceremonial cart with two axles (and two wheels per axle) may be presumed in this description. The imagery of wheels emphasizes that the glory of the LORD (v. 28) was capable of movement. The motif of wheels symbolizes the mobility of the deity, who will later leave the temple (10.18–19).
1.18 Full of eyes implies the ability to see everything (cf. 10.12; Zech 4.10).
1.22–25 Below the dome.
1.22 Dome, the heavenly vault (see Gen 1.7–8).
1.24 Auditory imagery (e.g., like the thunder) rather than visual imagery, fire and light, prevails. Both sound and visual imagery attend the appearance of the deity (e.g., Ex 19.16–19). The sound of mighty waters. Cf. 43.2. In Rev 14.2, the sound is further defined in association with thunder.
1.25 A voice, or “a sound,” from above the dome indicates that even the deafening roar created by the creatures’ wings under the dome is not the ultimate sound.
1.26–28 Above the dome. The throne above the heavenly vault signifies the throne or council room of the deity. The deity enthroned in the heavens truly transcends the temple. Like, used ten times in three verses to emphasize that Ezekiel does not actually see the deity. Sapphire. Cf. Ex 24.10. Like a human form begins the description of the deity, above the loins (waist) like amber, below the loins like fire.
1.28 Rather than proceed with a more detailed and hence dangerous description, the author moves to an analogy, the splendor of a rainbow, and the summation This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD, which again emphasizes that the prophet did not see God directly (see note on 1.5).
1.28b The author is careful not to impute the voice to God, though the deity is almost certainly speaking. analogy, the splendor of a rainbow, and the summation This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD, which again emphasizes that the prophet did not see God directly (see note on 1.5).
1.28b The author is careful not to impute the voice to God, though the deity is almost certainly speaking.
EZEKIEL 2
The Vision of the Scroll
1He said to me: O mortal,a stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. 2And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. 3He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nationb of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. 4The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD.” 5Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. 6And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house.
8But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you. 9I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. 10He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
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a Or son of man; Heb ben adam (and so throughout the book when Ezekiel is addressed)
b Syr: Heb to nations
2.1–3.3 Ezekiel is made to stand up and provided with a commission.
2.1 Mortal, lit. “son of man” (see text note a). The Hebrew phrase “son of x” means a member of a certain class, e.g., “son of Israel” is properly translated “Israelite.” Mortal occurs over ninety times in Ezekiel. It is appropriate here since the other characters, whether spirits or living creatures, belong to the divine realm. Stand up signifies that this is a waking as opposed to a sleeping (incubation) vision. Cf. Dan 8.17–18; 10.9–11; Zech 4.1.
2.2 A spirit. See also, e.g., 3.12, 14, 24, where the Hebrew does not have the definite article. Is this a minor deity, the deity’s spirit (cf. 11.5, 24; 37.1) or simply human energy? This spirit, and not the prophet’s own power, enables him to stand up.
2.3 Israel’s rebellion against God has been going on for generations, a standard theme for Ezekiel; see ch. 16.
2.4 Thus says the Lord GOD, a standard phrase with which a prophetic utterance may be introduced. Without an ensuing oracle, however, the phrase alone is ironic; cf. 3.11, 27.
2.6 Do not be afraid. Cf. the call of Jeremiah (Jer 1.8). The descendants (v. 4) are here characterized as plants (briers and thorns) and animals (scorpions). The commission recognizes that Israel may not hear (vv. 5, 7), but emphasizes the importance of having someone who is recognizably a prophet speak (v. 7).
2.8–10 Open your mouth. Oral imagery is prominent in prophetic call narratives. Cf. Isa 6.6–7; Jer 1.9.
2.9–10 The scroll has been fully inscribed and bears bad news; cf. Zech 5.1–4.
2.10 Lamentation and mourning and woe may reflect funeral rites in ancient Israel.
EZEKIEL 3
1He said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. 2So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. 3He said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
4He said to me: Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. 5For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel—6not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. 7But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. 8See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 9Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 10He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; 11then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD” whet
her they hear or refuse to hear.
Ezekiel at the River Chebar
12Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the LORD rosea from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling; 13it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, that sounded like a loud rumbling. 14The spirit lifted me up and bore me away; I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the LORD being strong upon me. 15I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the river Chebar.b And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.
16At the end of seven days, the word of the LORD came to me: 17Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 18If I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give them no warning, or speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way, in order to save their life, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity; but their blood I will require at your hand. 19But if you warn the wicked, and they do not turn from their wickedness, or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity; but you will have saved your life. 20Again, if the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before them, they shall die; because you have not warned them, they shall die for their sin, and their righteous deeds that they have done shall not be remembered; but their blood I will require at your hand. 21If, however, you warn the righteous not to sin, and they do not sin, they shall surely live, because they took warning; and you will have saved your life.
Ezekiel Isolated and Silenced
22Then the hand of the LORD was upon me there; and he said to me, Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you. 23So I rose up and went out into the valley; and the glory of the LORD stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. 24The spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me and said to me: Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25As for you, mortal, cords shall be placed on you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people; 26and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them; for they are a rebellious house. 27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD” let those who will hear, hear; and let those who refuse to hear, refuse; for they are a rebellious house.
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a Cn: Heb and blessed be the glory of the LORD
b Two Mss Syr: Heb Chebar, and to where they lived. Another reading is Chebar, and I sat where they sat
3.1–3 There is no precedent for eating scrolls, which were made of either papyrus or leather. Cf. Jer 15.16, where “words” are eaten, but not scrolls. If Ezekiel’s consumption of the scroll is surprising, his palate is shocking, namely, that funeral words could be as sweet as honey. Cf. “joy,” “delight” in Jer 15.16.
3.4–11 Words to Israel.
3.4 A reiteration of 2.7, though now presuming the content of the scroll.
3.5 Obscure speech and difficult language, no doubt a reference to Akkadian, the Northeast Semitic cuneiform language of ancient Mesopotamia, which, as a more fully inflected language than Hebrew, would have been viewed as difficult; cf. Isa 33.19.
3.12–15 Conclusion of the vision.
3.12 The spirit, lit. “a spirit,” here probably a wind. Cf. other instances of wind impelling the prophet in a vision (8.3; 11.1, 24;43.5). The glory of the LORD also moves, though of its own accord.
3.12–13 The sound of loud rumbling (“a great earthquake,” RSV) suggests (so 1.22–25), and v. 13 makes explicit, that the creatures’ wings, along with the wheels, assist in this movement.
3.14 The spirit (cf. “The Spirit,” RSV, an interpretive rendering), again lit. “a spirit,” best understood as the wind. The Septuagint omits in bitterness. Heat of my spirit, probably anger.
3.15 Tel-abib reflects the Akkadian til-abubi, “mound of the flood.” In Hebrew ’abib means “ears of grain.”
3.16–21 Ezekiel as sentinel. This conception of the prophet’s role is used elsewhere in the OT (Jer 6.17; Hos 9.8; cf. Isa 21.6) and is more fully developed in 33.1–9. The logic is informed by that used in chs. 18 and 33, chapters that insist that each individual is responsible for his or her fate. In this instance, the prophet as sentinel is accountable to the Lord. That accountability is expressed in the sentinel’s providing a warning. There are four cases, one per verse, in vv. 18, 19, 20, 21; concerns of the latter two are not part of the discourse in ch. 33, but 33.8 parallels the case in 3.18 and 33.9 parallels the one in 3.19.
3.16 The word of the LORD came to me, a phrase characteristic of Ezekiel (occurring almost fifty times) emphasizing the “private” character of these revelations.
3.17 I have made you suggests that vv. 16–21 present a way of understanding the earlier commissioning, not a new call.
3.22–5.17 Ezekiel communicates God’s message through bodily action. The Lord requires Ezekiel to act out his prophetic message in a series of discrete performances. Numerous prophets prior to Ezekiel had used nonverbal behavior to convey a message from the deity, e.g., Elisha (2 Kings 13.14–19); Hosea (Hos 1); Jeremiah (Jer 16.1–9; 19). Yet reports of symbolic actions occur more frequently in Ezekiel (twelve times) than in any other prophetic book.
3.22–27 The prophet experiences again the glory of the LORD (v. 23), which results in directions to perform certain actions.
3.22 There and the valley (better “the plain,” RSV, a broad alluvial river basin typical of Mesopotamia) emphasize that Ezekiel is in Babylon when he perceives the Lord and when the spirit speaks with him.
3.24a Cf. 2.2.
3.26 I will make…so that you shall be speechless. Here the absence of prophetic speech is attributed to the Lord’s prohibition, not malfeasance by the prophet.
3.26–27 Cf. 24.27; 34.22, a text that links news about the destruction of Jerusalem to the removal of Ezekiel’s speechlessness. Only when the Lord permits will Ezekiel be able to perform his prophetic task, namely, by saying Thus says the Lord GOD (cf. 2.4;3.11).
EZEKIEL 4
The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed
1And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem; 2and put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. 3Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there. 5For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel. 6When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. 7You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it. 8See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
9And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred ninety days, you shall eat it. 10The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it. 11And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink. 12You shall eat it as a barley-cake, baking it in their sight on human dung. 13The LORD said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them.” 14Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! I have
never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth.” 15Then he said to me, “See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”
16Then he said to me, Mortal, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. 17Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay, and waste away under their punishment.
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4.1–3 Siege and separation. This symbolic act uses imagery attested in an earlier prophetic text, Jer 1.18.
4.1 Brick, i.e., brick made out of mud and dried in the sun. Ezekiel is probably being commanded to etch the city and siege works into a still damp brick, though the verbs seem to call for sculpting, which would have been possible with damp clay. Such bricks could vary widely in size and general configuration (square or rectangular), though one 40 by 20 by 12 centimeters would not be unusual.
4.3 Iron plate, probably an iron cooking griddle. This vignette is to be an uninterpreted sign for Israel.
4.4–8 Ezekiel is commanded to lie first on his left and then on his right side to communicate the length of punishment for Israel and Judah, respectively. The numbers of days—390 and 40—do not conform to the chronology of either nation’s exile. The Septuagint offers different figures, 150 and 40 years, respectively.
4.4 Punishment, sin or guilt. The prophet may serve as a “scapegoat” (Lev 16.20–22), evoking a priestly role in ancient Israel (Lev 16.17); Ezekiel was both priest and prophet.
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