Ezekiel 1:1

INTRODUCTION. CHAPTERS 1-3.

Ezekiel’s Account of His Call to the Prophetic Office.

1. I This is personal narration. All critics agree that we have here a genuine account of the spiritual experiences of this ancient prophet written by himself. This book throbs with the intense life of a sensitive and majestic personality. (See Introduction, “IV. Ezekiel’s Personality.”) Literally, 1 And it came to pass in the thirtieth year on the fourth, on the fifth of the month, and I in the midst of the captivity by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. 2 In the fifth of the month; that is, the fifth year of the captivity of king Jehoiachin, 3 Surely came to pass the word of Jehovah unto Ezekiel, son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar. And the hand of Jehovah was upon him there. This is a very difficult passage. It is peculiar that the largest date mentioned by Ezekiel is in the first verse of the book. The other dates given are as follows: Ezekiel 1:2, fifth year; Ezekiel 8:1, sixth year; Ezekiel 20:1, seventh year; Ezekiel 24:1, ninth year; Ezekiel 26:1, eleventh year; Ezekiel 29:1, tenth year; Ezekiel 29:17, twenty-seventh year; Ezekiel 31:1, eleventh year; Ezekiel 32:17, and Ezekiel 33:21, twelfth year; Ezekiel 40:1, twenty-fifth year. Ezekiel 40:1, gives Ezekiel’s ordinary method of reckoning: from the “year of our captivity.” If the text really represents Ezekiel’s introduction to this prophecy, he refers to a thirtieth year which corresponds to “the fifth year of our captivity.” In this case the most natural supposition would be that the thirtieth year would refer to his own age (Kraetzschmar, etc.), although Mr. Wesley, following the Targum, believed the thirtieth year was reckoned from the discovery of the book of the covenant. Some scholars believe, however, that Ezekiel 1:1, and perhaps also Ezekiel 1:2, were originally the introduction to certain prophecies of Ezekiel which are now lost. Josephus seems to have heard that Ezekiel left two books of his prophecies. Ewald supposes Ezekiel 1:2-3 to be a comment added by Ezekiel in his last revision of the book. Cornill regards the first verse as the gloss. But most modern commentators agree that Ezekiel wrote this first verse, and that the “thirtieth year” refers to some Babylonian era, probably that of Nabopolassar, who became king of Babylon 625-624 B.C., just about thirty years previous to this time (594-592 B.C.), while Ezekiel 1:2-3 were comments added by a later editor. Professor John F. Peters (Journal of Biblical Literature, 11:39) offers what seems to be the true explanation of how this gloss arose. The era of the first verse is probably Babylonian, perhaps the era of the independence of Babylon. To use a non-Jewish era was not in accordance with Jewish usage; this peculiarity therefore led some one to write on the margin, between the lines, the date according to the Jewish era, the second verse being merely a comment on the first. This annotation finally crept into the text. The form of these annotations is familiar in the Midrashim, and in Jewish commentaries of all eras, with this very form: היא , that is. Considering Ezekiel 1:2-3, with the exception of the closing phrase, as marginal glosses, we get a very forcible introduction to the book, “The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God, and the hand of Jehovah was upon me there.” Ezekiel could never forget the day, which was the fifth day of the mouth Tammuz (June-July).

The captives There were several deportations of Judah and Israel to the east: 1, by Tiglath-pileser to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29), 741 B.C.; 2, by Shalmaneser to “Habor by the rivers of Gozan [Pasture Land], and in the mountains of the Medes” (LXX., 2 Kings 17:6); 3, by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Nebuchadnezzar seems first to have carried off Daniel and his companions, afterward Jehoiakim and his court ( 2Ki 24:1-2 ; 2 Chronicles 36:6-7; Jeremiah 24:5-6), including Ezekiel (see S. B. A., Ezekiel 15:2). Ezekiel himself tells of later raids upon Palestine and the deportation of its population. No doubt these captives were distributed in various localities. Babylonian records show that there was a “Jewish quarter” in various great cities of Babylonia, and speak also of certain new cities receiving the bulk of their population from foreigners thus transported. These captives were not treated harshly. They could buy, and sell, and build, and have most, if not all, of the privileges of citizens, if they were only willing to forget their native land and be true to the ruling government.

The river of Chebar Hebrews Kebar, “great.” The Chabor of Mesopotamia (2 Kings 17:6) must not be confounded with the Chebar of Babylonia. The distinction is shown in the Hebrew text, though it has been only recently recognized by expositors. The Chebar was supposed by Pliny (vi, 24) to be a branch of the Euphrates, called the Gabaris. Many ingenious conjectures have been offered by modern cuneiform scholars, the general opinion being that the Chebar must have been the technical name of one of the leading canals of Babylonia; even to this day in Egypt the word for canal being bahr, “river.”

This view has been confirmed by the brilliant discovery of Dr. Hilprecht, in 1897, of an inscription of the fifth century B.C., in which this very name Kabari is used of the large navigable canal near Niffer (Nippur). The inscriptions also reveal a large Jewish element in the population of Niffer itself, as is shown by the scores of Jewish names, like Benjamin, Shimeon, Samson, and Zebediah. Local names of Palestinian towns are also of common occurrence; for example, Ashkelon, Heshbon, etc. It is suggestive that these names and their archaic form correspond with remarkable accuracy to those used in Ezra and Nehemiah. It has become almost certain, therefore, that we have at last discovered the very district in which Ezekiel and his friends resided. The traditional tomb of Ezekiel is still shown not far from that place.

Heavens were opened This was not a dream, it was a manifestation (Matthew 3:16; Matthew 17:2). Whether these heavenly visions appeared on the Sabbath or not (Wesley), they prove the devout spirit of the seer. It is only to deep contemplative natures that such revelations are given.

I saw The heavens are always full of glory, but they are not always open to human eyes. The open eye is as necessary to the vision as the open heaven (2 Kings 6:17).

Visions of God This was better than to see the golden streets and the pearly gates of a New Jerusalem. This was the best vision the open heaven could disclose. The quest of the Holy Grail was worth long travel and sorrow; to see God was worth Ezekiel’s trip to Babylon and exile from his Judean home.