May 25

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 1:1

Of the four greater prophets, two were priests, and both were contemporary. These were Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But while the former took an active part in the stirring circumstances of the times, and was subjected to much personal injury and wrong, the latter, already in the land of exile, regarded from afar, and in personal quiet, the strange events transacting in the land from which he had been taken, and took part in them only in mind and spirit. Hence less of the man appears in the prophecy of Ezekiel—less of personal history, of individual character, of human emotion. We know, in fact, very little about him.

In the year 599 B.C., Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah), king of Judah, was obliged, after a brief reign of three months, to submit to the king of the Chaldeans, and was led away into exile, together with many principal persons of the court and nation—the first-fruits of that harvest for captivity which the Chaldeans eventually took even to the gleanings. That the priest Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, was of this first captivity, would alone show that he was a person of consequence. He belonged, indeed, to a distinguished sacerdotal family, and is seen, from Ezekiel 11, to have been intimately connected with the principal priesthood.

It is generally supposed that Ezekiel left his native land when young; but there is no proof of this, and the probabilities are against it. The nature and vigorous priestly spirit that prevails in his prophecies (taken in connection with the fact, that the word of God came to him in the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity), furnish evidence of more advanced age. Undoubtedly, also, he had served as a priest in the Temple, the plundering of which by Nebuchadnezzar he had witnessed; Note: 2 Kings 24:15. for he discovers the most accurate knowledge of the ancient sanctuary in its individual parts, which must have been impressed in the deepest manner upon his senses and his memory. The comparatively not lengthened space of twenty-seven years, which, as far as we are informed, was that of his stay in exile, Note: Compare Ezekiel 1:1, with 29:17. agrees also with this view, as there is no account of his having survived this period.

Ezekiel was, in his exile, stationed in the northern part of Mesopotamia, at Tel Abib, on the banks of the river Chebar. His family also were with him. Note: See Ezekiel 3:24; Ezekiel 8:1; Ezekiel 24:18. It should not escape notice, that at this place the exiles from Judah, of whom Ezekiel was one, would meet the earlier exiles of the ten tribes, some of whom had been stationed there. This fact gives increased emphasis to the frequency of the prophet’s warnings, from the example of desolated Israel. It was not, however, until Ezekiel had been five years at Tel Abib, that he was called to the exercise of the prophetic office. The embassy that king Zedekiah sent at that date to Babylon, and the letter which Jeremiah sent by that embassy, falls in with his call, and may be regarded as connected with it. Then, in a remarkable vision, he receives his commission to come forth among his people as a prophet; with a disclosure of the principal matters to be announced to them. Commencing from this time, the functions of the prophet appear before us in his book as forming, a beautifully complete, a stately and harmonious whole. They fall into two grand divisions, of which the destruction of Jerusalem forms the turning-point. Note: Ezekiel 1-32, 33-48. During the period before this catastrophe, the prophet chiefly uses the language of rebuke and condemnation; afterwards, of consolation and promise.

The influence which Ezekiel exercised upon his contemporaries is of the highest importance. As in the days of Elijah and Elisha, the prophets supplied, in the kingdom of Israel, the absence of a true sanctuary, and sought, as far as possible, to occupy the place of the lacking priests of Jehovah; so the priest Ezekiel, by virtue of his prophetic calling, afforded to the deserted exiles a living witness that the Lord had not abandoned them, and that even for them a sanctuary existed, in which they might perceive the gracious presence of God. The more imposing the public appearance of Ezekiel was, and the more desolate and troublous the time of his appearance, the more powerful must have been the influence he exorcised. We see proof of this in those accounts which show that the people and their elders, even from the earliest period of his ministry, gathered around the prophet; and listened to his words.” Note: Compare Ezekiel 8:1; Ezekiel 11:25; Ezekiel 14:1; Ezekiel 20:1; Ezekiel 24:18, et seq.; 33:31-32. In the words of God to the prophet, it is implied that the people were accustomed, at appointed times, to come to Ezekiel, to sit before him, and to receive his instruction with reverence. He was considered as a public teacher, who appointed meetings in his house as at a public school, and there, before a crowded assembly, interpreted the Divine will. Nor was this influence transitory or confined to his own generation, but was one that continued, and was much more comprehensive. If the book of Daniel be considered as having had much influence in the formation of the views of later Judaism, it belonged to Ezekiel to exercise an analogous influence during the period of the exile. When we perceive among the exiles a remarkable change in their relation to the law—when we observe the colony that returned home cleaving to the law with an earnestness and constancy before unknown—an essential share in the production of this phenomenon must be ascribed to the influential labors of such a man as Ezekiel. Without such a positive influence upon the people, the unity which they preserved in such a period, and which they afterwards guarded with so much decision and tenacity, would be scarcely explicable. It cannot be doubted that the prophet himself was permitted to witness—what was denied to Jeremiah—the commencement of this favorable and hopeful change in the hearts of his people. Note: Full information on all points respecting the book of Ezekiel may be found in the Introduction (Einleitung) to Dr. Havernick’s Commentary thereon (Commentar über den Propheten Ezechiel. Erlangen, 1843). Of this introduction (of which we have here made free use), there are two English translations—one in the Journal of Sacred Literature, for January, 1848; and another in the (American) Bibliotheca Sacra, in the August number of the same year.

Of the prophet’s death, there is no authentic record. But his tomb exists at no great distance from Hillah, on the Euphrates. A curious account of this is given by the Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela:

“Three parasangs from thence [from Napacha, which is half a day’s journey from Hillah], stands the synagogue of the prophet Ezekiel, who rests in peace. The place of the synagogue is fronted by sixty towers, the room between every two of which is also occupied by a synagogue; in the court of the largest stands the ark, and behind it is the sepulcher of Ezekiel Ben Buzi, the priest. This monument is covered by a cupola, and the building is very handsome. It was erected by Jeconiah king of Judah, and the 35,000 Jews who went along with him, when Evil-merodach released him from the prison, which was situated between the river Chaboras and another river. The name of Jeconiah, and of all those who came with him, are inscribed on the wall—the king’s name first, that of Ezekiel last. The place is considered holy, even to the present day, and is one of those to which people resort from remote countries, particularly at the season of the new year and atonement day. Great rejoicings take place there about this time, which are attended even by the prince of the captivity, and the presidents of the colleges at Baghdad. The assembly is so large, that their temporary abodes cover twenty-two miles of open ground, and it attracts many Arabian merchants, who keep a market or fair. On the day of atonement, the proper lesson of the day is read from a very large manuscript Pentateuch, in Ezekiel’s own handwriting. A lamp burns night and day in the sepulcher of the prophet, and has always been kept burning since the day he lighted it himself; the oil and wicks are renewed as often as necessary. A large house belonging to the sanctuary contains a very numerous collection of books, some of them as ancient as the second, some even coëval with the first Temple—it being the custom, that whoever dies childless bequeaths his books to this sanctuary. The inhabitants of the country lead to the sepulchre all foreign Jews who come from Media and Persia, to visit it in consequence of vows they have performed. The noble Mohammedans also resort thither to pray, because they hold the prophet Ezekiel—upon whom be peace—in great veneration, and they call this place ’Dar M’licha [agreeable abode]: the sepulchre is also visited by all devout Arabs.”

The tomb is still much frequented by Jewish pilgrims. It is a large, clumsy building, without beauty or ornament. We are unable to say whether it be the same building of which Rabbi Benjamin speaks so grandly; or, as is likely, one of more recent date erected on the same site.