Ezekiel 33:1-20

A. A warning to the exiles 33:1-20

Since this message is undated, it may have come to Ezekiel about the same time as the previous two in chapter 32, namely, in the last month of 585 B.C. If so, Ezekiel received it about two months after God gave him the six messages recorded in Ezekiel 33:21 to Ezekiel 39:29 (cf. Ezekiel 33:21). Perhaps the writer inserted the present message in the text here because its strong encouragement to repent was more typical of Ezekiel’s emphasis before news of Jerusalem’s fall reached the exiles (Ezekiel 33:21) than it was of his emphasis after they received that news. When the exiles learned that Jerusalem had fallen, Ezekiel’s messages changed. Before then he announced judgment on Judah and Jerusalem (chs. 4-24) and proclaimed several messages of judgment on the nations that opposed Israel (chs. 25-32). After that event his messages were more encouragements that God would restore Israel to her land (chs. 33-48).

There are only two dated prophecies after the fall of Jerusalem: Ezekiel 33:21 and Ezekiel 40:1. These texts introduce all the messages from Ezekiel 33:21 to Ezekiel 48:35, the end of the book. The message in Ezekiel 33:23-33 is an exception; it is a strong call to the Israelites to repent and to recommit to obeying the Mosaic Law. Alexander considered the message in Ezekiel 33:1-20 as the conclusion to the section of oracles against the nations (chs. 25-32). [Note: Alexander, "Ezekiel," p. 904.] Most commentators viewed this message as an introduction to the messages promising future blessings for Israel (chs. 33-48). Obviously it serves a transitional (janus) function in the book and looks both ways, backward and forward.