Ezekiel
A priest in Babylon, some very strange visions, and a promise of new hearts.
Who wrote it: Ezekiel, a priest deported to Babylon in 597 BC, whose dated visions run from 593 to 571 BC. The book is unusually well organized for a prophet and may be largely his own arrangement.
What it is
Ezekiel is thirty, probably the age he'd have started serving as a priest in Jerusalem, and he's sitting by a canal in Babylon instead. Then the sky opens: storm, four living creatures, wheels within wheels covered in eyes, and above them a throne and a figure like a man, all fire. He falls on his face. That's chapter 1, and it's the point: the glory of God isn't stuck in the temple. It has wheels. It's come to the exiles.
His commission is brutal. He'll speak to a rebellious house whether they listen or not. He's made to eat a scroll, lie on his side for over a year, shave his head and burn the hair, and, when his wife dies, not mourn her, because that's what's coming for Jerusalem and the temple. In chapters 8 to 11 he watches the glory leave the temple, step by step, because of what's being done inside it. Chapters 16 and 23 describe Israel's unfaithfulness in language explicit enough that Jewish tradition was cautious about reading them in public.
When news comes that the city has fallen (33:21), the book turns. God will be the shepherd himself, since the leaders failed (34). He'll give a new heart and a new spirit, and take out the heart of stone (36). And in the most famous scene, Ezekiel stands in a valley of dry bones, is asked if they can live, says 'you know', and prophesies until they rattle together, grow flesh and stand up as a huge army. The bones are 'the whole house of Israel', who've said their hope is gone.
The last nine chapters are a measured tour of a new temple, with a river flowing from under its threshold that gets deeper as it goes and turns the Dead Sea fresh. The book's last words are the city's new name: The LORD Is There. The glory that left in chapter 11 comes back in chapter 43.
Look for chapter 18, where Ezekiel dismantles the idea that children are punished for their parents' sins, and insists that anyone who turns can live. God takes no pleasure in anyone's death. Turn, and live.
Verses worth keeping
For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
Gen Zsame meaning, your words'Because I take no pleasure in anyone's death,' says the Lord GOD. 'So turn around, and live.'
The end of the chapter that says you're not doomed by your parents' choices or your own past. The door is open in both directions, and God is standing at the one that says 'live'.
“I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.”’
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsI'll go looking for the lost, bring back the ones who were driven away, bandage the injured and strengthen the sick. But the fat and the strong I'll destroy. I'll feed them with justice.
God as shepherd, after the human shepherds have fed themselves. Jesus' lost sheep parables start here.
I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsI'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you. I'll take the stone heart out of your body and give you a heart of flesh.
Not 'try harder'. A transplant. The Old Testament's clearest statement that the fix has to come from outside.
3He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I answered, “Lord GOD, you know.” 4Again he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, ‘You dry bones, hear the LORD’s word. 5The Lord GOD says to these bones: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you will live.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsHe asked me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' I said, 'Lord GOD, you know.' Then he said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones. Tell them: dry bones, hear the LORD's word. The Lord GOD says to these bones: look, I'll make breath enter you, and you'll live.'
'You know' is the only honest answer. Ezekiel doesn't claim faith he doesn't have; he just does what he's told, and the bones move.
Read Ezekiel
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
Ezekiel 37
1The LORD’s hand was on me, and he brought me out in the LORD’s Spirit, and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2He caused me to pass by them all around; and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I answered, “Lord GOD, you know.”
4Again he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, ‘You dry bones, hear the LORD’s word. 5The Lord GOD says to these bones: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you will live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”’”
7So I prophesied as I was commanded. As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, there was an earthquake. Then the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.
9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’”
10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off.’ 12Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13You will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people. 14I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. Then I will place you in your own land; and you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it,” says the LORD.’”
15The LORD’s word came again to me, saying, 16“You, son of man, take one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions.’ Then take another stick, and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions.’ 17Then join them for yourself to one another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.
18“When the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Won’t you show us what you mean by these?’ 19tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand. 20The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.”’ 21Say to them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations. They won’t be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. 23They won’t defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So they will be my people, and I will be their God.
24“‘“My servant David will be king over them. They all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in my ordinances and observe my statutes, and do them. 25They will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived. They will dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s children, forever. David my servant will be their prince forever. 26Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will place them, multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forever more. 27My tent also will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28The nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forever more.”’”
Questions about Ezekiel
What is the wheel vision in chapter 1?
Ezekiel sees four creatures, each with four faces and wings, wheels beside them full of eyes, and a throne above with a fiery human figure on it. It's the throne of God, mobile, arriving in Babylon. The eyes mean nothing is unseen; the wheels mean it can go anywhere. He's describing something beyond words and says 'the appearance of the likeness of' constantly, because he knows it. It's not a spaceship. It's a priest trying to say that God's presence has followed the exiles.
Why does Ezekiel do such extreme things?
Lying on his side for 390 days, eating bread baked over dung, shaving his head with a sword, not mourning his wife: these are 'sign-acts', living pictures for people who'd stopped listening to words. Other prophets did similar things (Isaiah walked naked, Jeremiah wore a yoke). Ezekiel does more of them, and they cost him. The book isn't presenting them as a model. It's showing how far God went to get a message through.
Is the valley of dry bones about resurrection?
In the chapter itself, God explains: the bones are the whole house of Israel, who say their hope is lost, and the promise is that he'll bring them out of their graves and back to their land. It's about a nation's revival after exile. But the image was too strong to stay there, and later Jewish and Christian readers heard the resurrection of the dead in it. Both readings are honest. The first is what it says; the second is what it started.
Will the temple in chapters 40 to 48 be built?
Nobody has built it, and the design doesn't match the temple that was actually rebuilt in 516 BC. Readers have taken it as a literal blueprint for the future, as a symbolic picture of God dwelling with his people, or as an ideal that was never meant as a construction plan. The river that flows from it and heals the sea (47) suggests the vision is more than architecture. Revelation 22 picks up the same river with no temple at all.