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Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Kohen. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him.
The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a Hebrew prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied the destruction of Judah's capital city Jerusalem. In 587 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon's Temple, and sent the Judahite upper classes into the Babylonian captivity.
However, Ezekiel also prophesied the eventual restoration of the Jews to the Land of Israel. It is believed he died around 570 BC; Ezekiel's Tomb is a Jewish religious site in Mesopotamia. Three decades later, in 539 BC, the Persian empire conquered Babylon and the Edict of Cyrus repatriated the exiles.
The name "Ezekiel" means "God is strong" or "God strengthens" in Hebrew.
According to Ezekiel 1:1 and , Ezekiel and his wife lived during the Babylonian captivity on the banks of the Kebar Canal in Tel Abib near Nippur with other exiles from the Kingdom of Judah. There is no mention of him having children.
The "thirtieth year" may refer to Ezekiel's age at the time of his first vision, making him fifty-two years old at his final vision. However, the Targum Jonathan on Ezekiel 1:1 and the 2nd-century rabbinic work Seder Olam Rabba (chapter 26) interpret it to mean "in the thirtieth year after Josiah was presented with a Book of the Law discovered in the Temple" in 622 BCE, the time of Josiah's reforms and Jeremiah's prophecies.
Tremper Longman, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Hendrickson Publishers, 2008, p. 6 These two interpretations can be reconciled if Ezekiel was born around the same time as Josiah's reforms.
Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is said by Talmud(Meg. 14b) and Midrash(Sifri, Num. 78) to have been a descendant of Joshua by his marriage with the proselyte and former prostitute Rahab. Some statements found in rabbinic literature posit that Ezekiel was the son of Jeremiah, who was (also) called "Buzi" because he was despised by the Jews.Radak – R. David Kimkhi – in his commentary on Ezekiel 1:3, based on Targum Yerushalmi
According to Josephus, Ezekiel was already active as a prophet while in the Land of Israel, and he retained this gift when he was exiled with King Jehoiachin and the nobles of the country to Babylon.Josephus, Ant. x. 6, § 3: "while he was still a boy"; comp. Rashi on Sanh. 92b Josephus relates that Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian armies exiled three thousand people from Judah,Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Book X, 6.3.98 after deposing Jehoiachin in 598 BCE.
Rava states in the Babylonian Talmud that although Ezekiel describes the appearance of the throne of God (merkabah), this is not because he had seen more than the prophet Isaiah: on the contrary, Isaiah described the divine glory as a courtier would describe the royal court where he served; whereas Ezekiel wrote as a peasant floridly embellishing a distant majesty.(Ḥag. 13b) Ezekiel, like all the other prophets, has beheld only a blurred reflection of God, as if seen in a poor mirror.Midrash Lev. Rabbah i. 14, toward the end
According to the midrash Shir HaShirim Rabbah, it was Ezekiel whom the three pious men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (also called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) asked for advice as to whether they should resist Nebuchadnezzar's command and choose death by fire rather than worship his idolatry. At first God revealed to the prophet that they could not hope for a miraculous rescue, and the prophet grieved for these men who were the "remnant of Judah". But when they left fully determined to sacrifice their lives to God, Ezekiel received this revelation:
Certain Lutheranism also celebrate his commemoration on July 21.Emmaus Evangelical Lutheran Church, Daily Catechesis on the Way, published 15 July 2018, accessed 21 February 2020
Saint Bonaventure interpreted Ezekiel's statement about the "closed gate" as a prophecy of the Incarnation: the "gate" signifying the Virgin Mary and the "prince" referring to Jesus. This is one of the lection at Vespers on Great Feasts of the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches. This imagery is also found in the traditional Catholic Christmas hymn "Gaudete" and in a saying by Bonaventure, quoted by Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori: "No one can enter Heaven unless by Mary, as though through a door."Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Liguori, Mo.: Liguori Publications, 2000, p. 623. . The imagery provides the basis for the concept that God gave Mary to humanity as the "Gate of Heaven" (thence the dedication of churches and convents to the Porta Coeli), an idea also laid out in the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen) prayer.
John B. Taylor credits the subject with imparting the Biblical understanding of the nature of God.Taylor, John B. (1976). Ezekiel. Downer's Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press. Series: The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. pp. 39-41. .
The Quran mentions a prophet called Dhu al-Kifl (ذو الكفل). Although Dhu al-Kifl's identity is disputed, he is often identified with Ezekiel. Carsten Niebuhr, in his Reisebeschreibung nach Arabian, says he visited Al Kifl in Iraq, midway between Najaf and Hilla and said Kifl was the Arabic form of Ezekiel. He further explained in his book that Ezekiel's Tomb was present in Al Kifl and that the Jews came to it on pilgrimage. The name "Dhu al-Kifl" means "Possessor of the Double" or "Possesor of the Fold" (ذو dhū "possessor of, owner of" and الكفل al-kifl "double, folded"). Some Islamic scholars have likened Ezekiel's mission to the description of Dhu al-Kifl. During the exile, the monarchy and state were annihilated, and political and national life were no longer possible. In the absence of a worldly foundation, it became necessary to build a spiritual one and Ezekiel performed this mission by observing the signs of the time and deducing his doctrines from them. In conformity with the two parts of his book, his personality and his preaching are alike twofold.
Regardless of the identification of Dhu al-Kifl with Ezekiel, have viewed Ezekiel as a prophet. Ezekiel appears in all collections of Stories of the Prophets. Stories of the Prophets, Ibn Kathir, Story of Ezekiel (Hizqil) Muslim exegesis further lists Ezekiel's father as Buzi ( Budhi) and Ezekiel is given the title ibn al-‘ajūz, denoting "son of the old (man)", as his parents are supposed to have been very old when he was born. A tradition, which resembles that of Hannah and Samuel in the Hebrew Bible, states that Ezekiel's mother prayed to God in old age for the birth of an offspring and was given Ezekiel as a gift from God. Encyclopedia of Islam, G. Vajda, Hizkil
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