Ezekiel- Hebrew/Jewish FigureMortal"Son of Buzi"

The Exile

Ezekiel son of Buzi was a priest of the Jerusalem Temple, deported to Babylon with King Jehoiachin in 597 BCE, eleven years before Jerusalem fell. He received his prophetic call in the fifth year of exile, by the river Chebar, a canal near Nippur. A priest cut off from his Temple, he prophesied for at least twenty-two years.

The Chariot-Throne

By the Chebar, Ezekiel saw a storm wind coming from the north, a huge cloud with fire flashing inside it. From within emerged four living creatures, each with four faces and four wings. They moved in perfect unison, going wherever the spirit directed, never turning. Beside each creature was a wheel, and each wheel contained another wheel set crosswise so it could roll in any direction. The rims of the wheels were covered in eyes.

Above the creatures stretched a firmament like crystal, and above the firmament a throne of sapphire, and upon the throne sat a figure like a human being, surrounded by radiance like a rainbow after rain. Ezekiel fell on his face.

The Scroll

God commanded Ezekiel to stand. "Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me." God held out a scroll covered with words of lamentation and woe, and told Ezekiel to eat it. He ate it. It tasted sweet as honey.

God warned him that Israel would not listen, but Ezekiel was to speak regardless. God made him a watchman: if he warned the wicked and they did not turn, they would die, but Ezekiel would have done his part. If he failed to warn them, their blood would be on his hands.

The Siege

Before Jerusalem fell, Ezekiel performed a series of acts that made the disaster visible in Babylon. He drew the city on a clay brick and built miniature siege works against it. He lay on his left side for 390 days and his right side for 40, bearing the years of Israel's sin. He ate meager rations of mixed grain baked over dung, the diet of a besieged city. He shaved his head, burned a third of the hair, struck a third with a sword, and scattered a third to the wind.

The Glory Departs

God transported Ezekiel in the spirit to the Temple in Jerusalem. He saw what was happening in its courts: elders worshipping animal images in secret chambers, and men prostrating themselves before the rising sun with their backs to the sanctuary. In response, God's glory, the luminous presence that had dwelt above the Ark in the Holy of Holies, began to leave.

Ezekiel watched it rise from between the cherubim, move to the threshold of the Temple, pause at the east gate, and finally come to rest on the Mount of Olives east of the city. The glory departed stage by stage, as if reluctant to go. The building still stood, but the presence that had made it sacred was gone.

The Valley of Dry Bones

God set Ezekiel down in a valley full of bones. Very many. Very dry. "Son of man, can these bones live?" God asked. Ezekiel answered: "O Lord God, you know." God told him to prophesy to the bones.

As Ezekiel spoke, the bones rattled together. Sinew covered them, then flesh, then skin. But there was no breath. God told him to call the breath from the four winds. Breath entered them. They stood on their feet, a vast army. "These bones are the whole house of Israel," God said. "They say: our bones are dried up, our hope is lost. But I will open your graves and raise you, and bring you back to your land."

Gog of Magog

Ezekiel prophesied a future invasion: Gog, prince of the land of Magog, leading a coalition of nations against a restored Israel. The attack would fail. God would intervene with fire and hailstones, and the invaders would fall on the mountains of Israel. Their weapons would fuel Israel's fires for seven years. It would take seven months to bury the dead.

The River

In the twenty-fifth year of exile, an angelic figure with a measuring reed guided Ezekiel through a vision of a new Temple, every gate and altar measured and specified. Then the glory of God returned from the east, the same direction from which it had departed, entering the Temple through the east gate with a sound like many waters. God spoke: "This is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever."

From beneath the threshold of the Temple, a river flowed eastward. It rose to the ankles, then the knees, then the waist, then became a torrent no one could cross. It flowed into the Dead Sea and healed its salt waters. Trees lined its banks, bearing fruit every month, their leaves for healing. The Temple was never built. The river has never flowed.