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O l d T e s t a m e n t G u i d e
EZEKIEL
By ANTONIO FUENTES
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This Rock
Volume 4, Number 5
 May 1993 
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EZEKIEL is the third of the major prophets.
His name, which in Hebrew is Yehezq'el (= God strengthens)
was very much in keeping with the mission God planned for him. A member
of a priestly family, he was taken to Babylon in the first deportation
(597 B.C.), along with his wife, King Jehoiachin, and all his court
(2 Kings 24:16). Like most of these deportees, Ezekiel settled near
the Great Canal between Babylon and Nippur, in southern Babylonia.
There the exiles established the farming community of Tel-Abib, but
later on many of them were employed in the grandiose building schemes
then underway in the country.
Five years after his arrival (592), when he was around thirty years
of age, Ezekiel received his great vision, a theophany or vision of
God (1:1ff) and was called by God himself to be a prophet to his people
(2:1ff). So generous was his response that from that point onward,
for about twenty-two years, Ezekiel was the spiritual guide of his
fellow exiles.
His life was full of suffering and misunderstanding, even though he
was a man of peace and sought only his people's welfare, but he remained
ever optimistic and full of hope in the power of Yahweh. His wife
had died shortly after their arrival in Babylon, and he himself died
in exile, probably at the hands of one of the Jewish leaders whom
he criticized for idolatry--that at least is the opinion of St.
Athanasius and St. Epiphanus.
Ezekiel's prophetic and spiritual mission all turns on one central
event--the destruction of Jerusalem (587). Prior to that date
the prophecies all have to do with warning the people and exhorting
them to repent and to trust in God rather than in pacts with Egypt
or any other neighbor. Ezekiel keeps insisting on a point which may
seem rather unusual, namely, that, by a special disposition of providence,
Babylon is to be the instrument God will use to punish Judah; there
is no escape from this punishment, but its purpose is medicinal, because
it will purify people's souls and set them again on the road of faithfulness
to Yahweh.
Are they sure to turn in that direction? The will of God, when it
is absolute, is always fulfilled; however, when people are warned
of it, as in this case, God conditions his will when instructing man's
will to do something, leaving man free to do it or not. Judah will
indeed be purified, but only part of it--the "remnant"
who will experience the suffering of separation from Yahweh and from
his Temple during the long years of exile.
The first part of the book, up to chapter 32 inclusive, announces
God's judgments against both the people of Israel and the idolatrous
nations. After a short prologue in which Ezekiel describes how God
called him, he uses a series of symbols to predict the now inevitable
destruction of Jerusalem and identify its causes.
In the second part, with those prophecies already come true, he puts
on the mantle of a prophet of hope. He consoles and encourages the
exiles and tells them of God's determination to set them free and
bring them home. These prophecies, full of majestic symbols, look
forward to the era when the New Covenant will be made, in the kingdom
of the Messiah to come.
The book is written almost entirely in prose, with a didactic and
descriptive purpose, using symbolism to catch the attention of his
listeners. He is obviously addressing a people strongly inclined to
be sceptical. His language is extremely rich, colorful, and descriptive,
sometimes rising to poetic heights.
Although the Hebrew text which the Vulgate follows is defective in
some parts, it is superior to that of the Greek translation of the
Septuagint and to the Masoretic text, though both the latter do help
to clarify obscure passages.
Ezekiel is the prophet of the exiles. He shared the hardest years
the Jews spent in Babylon. All his energies were directed toward keeping
the exiles' hopes alive, just at the point at which, on hearing the
news of the fall of Jerusalem, they were liable to feel that God had
abandoned them forever.
The first point the prophet emphasizes is that Yahweh is not confined
to Jerusalem or even Palestine. His power extends as far as Babylon
and to the ends of the earth. His majesty is infinite, his presence
universal. Thanks to his omnipotence and infinite love, he will once
more show mercy to his people and by a totally gratuitous act he will
work their conversion. What seems so difficult will soon become a
reality, as shown in the symbolic vision of the bare bones which are
clothed again with flesh and changed back into men. Nothing is impossible
to God.
Ezekiel then goes on to preach about personal responsibility and everything
it implies in the case of the exiles. What he teaches marks an advance
on the revelation contained in previous books. People took it as normal
for a city or a whole nation to be punished collectively--just
men as well as sinners--and for the sins of parents to be visited
also on their children. Ezekiel speaks of individual responsibility:
A man's salvation or condemnation depends on him alone, on his personal
attitude to God, that is, his response to the grace he has been given,
as it was in the beginning.
Ezekiel therefore explains the meaning and purpose of divine punishment
and teaches that it is possible for each individual to be reconciled
with God, going on to explain further about individual retribution.
Since man is responsible for his actions, he must suffer the consequences
of his unfaithfulness, although--even in exile--he can recover
lost grace by being converted, which is the true purpose of any punishment
God metes out:
"But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has
committed and keeps and my statutes and does what is lawful and right,
he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions
which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness
which he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death
of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn
from his way and live?" (Ezek. 18:21-23).
Ezekiel's work did much to regroup the exiles around the priests and
the Law; it revived their religion, making it more interior and personal;
it gave new hope to those who stayed faithful to Yahweh; it gave them
a vision of their future and, in particular, it showed them a new
spiritual horizon, a type of renewal deeper than anything they had
so far experienced.
In this future which Ezekiel predicts, it will be God himself who
purifies and renews their hearts:
"I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean
from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse
you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within
you, and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give
you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause
you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances"
(Ezek. 36:25-27).
Ezekiel concludes his prophecies, as we have seen, by announcing that
there will be a New Covenant:
"I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting
covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them and set
my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever more" (Ezek. 37:26).
The book closes with a description of the future city:
"The circumference of the city shall be eighteen thousand cubits,
and the name of the city henceforth shall be, 'Yahweh is there'"
(48:35). This prophecy looks to the reconstruction of Israel as symbol
of the messianic kingdom, the Church.
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