Old Testament · Prophecy · book 26 of 66 · 2 min read
The book of Ezekiel
The strangest book in the Old Testament — wheels, dry bones, a prophet lying on his side for over a year — written by a priest with no temple.
“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.”
At a glance
- Chapters
- 48
- Author
- Ezekiel, a priest deported to Babylon
- Written
- Sixth century BC
- Written for
- Exiles who thought the temple made them safe
- Themes
- glory departing, sign-acts, judgement, restoration
What it is about
Ezekiel was deported to Babylon before Jerusalem fell and prophesied to fellow exiles. He was a priest denied the one thing a priest does, and the book is preoccupied with the presence of God leaving the temple and, eventually, returning.
It is also extraordinarily strange. The opening vision of wheels within wheels has generated centuries of interpretation. The prophet is instructed to perform his message physically — lying on one side for 390 days, shaving his head with a sword, cooking over dung — and told not to mourn publicly when his wife dies.
The valley of dry bones in chapter 37 is the image everybody knows, and the last nine chapters are a detailed architectural vision of a temple that was never built.
Where to start
Chapter 37, the dry bones, which is the most accessible chapter and the book's clearest statement of hope.
The chapters worth knowing
- Ezekiel 1 — The opening vision of wheels and living creatures, which has generated centuries of interpretation.
- Ezekiel 34 — The shepherds who fed themselves rather than the sheep, which John's gospel later answers.
- Ezekiel 37 — The valley of dry bones, the image everybody knows and the book's clearest hope.
What people get wrong about it
That the strange behaviour is incidental colour. The sign-acts are the message delivered physically, to an audience that had stopped listening to words.
Questions
What are the dry bones in Ezekiel?
A vision in chapter 37 of a valley of bones being reassembled and given breath — explained in the text as a picture of exiled Israel being brought back to life as a people.
Why is Ezekiel so strange?
Because much of his message is delivered as physical performance rather than speech, to exiles who had stopped listening. The visions that frame the book are apocalyptic in style, which is a genre with its own conventions.