Reference: Ezekiel, Book of
Easton
consists mainly of three groups of prophecies. After an account of his call to the prophetical office (Eze 1:1-3:21), Ezekiel (1) utters words of denunciation against the Jews (Eze 3:22-24), warning them of the certain destruction of Jerusalem, in opposition to the words of the false prophets (Eze 4:1-3). The symbolical acts, by which the extremities to which Jerusalem would be reduced are described in ch. 4,5, show his intimate acquaintance with the Levitical legislation. (See Ex 22:30; De 14:21; Le 5:2; 7:18,24; 17:15; 19:7; 22:8, etc.)
(2.) Prophecies against various surrounding nations: against the Ammonites (Eze 25:1-7), the Moabites (Eze 25:8-11), the Edomites (Eze 25:12-14), the Philistines (Eze 25:15-17), Tyre and Sidon (Eze 25:17), and against Egypt (Eze 25:17).
(3.) Prophecies delivered after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar: the triumphs of Israel and of the kingdom of God on earth (EZE 33-39); Messianic times, and the establishment and prosperity of the kingdom of God (40;48).
The closing visions of this book are referred to in the book of Revelation (Eze 38 = Re 20:8; Eze 47:1-8 = Re 22:1-2). Other references to this book are also found in the New Testament. (Comp. Ro 2:24 with Eze 36:2; Ro 10:5, Ga 3:12 with Eze 20:11; 2Pe 3:4 with Eze 12:22.)
It may be noted that Daniel, fourteen years after his deportation from Jerusalem, is mentioned by Ezekiel (Da 12:13) along with Noah and Job as distinguished for his righteousness, and some five years later he is spoken of as pre-eminent for his wisdom (Da 12:13).
Ezekiel's prophecies are characterized by symbolical and allegorical representations, "unfolding a rich series of majestic visions and of colossal symbols." There are a great many also of "symbolcal actions embodying vivid conceptions on the part of the prophet" (Eze 4:1-4; 5:1-4; 12:3-6; 24:3-5; 37:16, etc.) "The mode of representation, in which symbols and allegories occupy a prominent place, gives a dark, mysterious character to the prophecies of Ezekiel. They are obscure and enigmatical. A cloudy mystery overhangs them which it is almost impossible to penetrate. Jerome calls the book 'a labyrith of the mysteries of God.' It was because of this obscurity that the Jews forbade any one to read it till he had attained the age of thirty."
Ezekiel is singular in the frequency with which he refers to the Pentateuch (e.g., Eze 27; 28:13; 31:8; 36:11,34; 47:13, etc.). He shows also an acquaintance with the writings of Hosea (Eze 37:22), Isaiah (Eze 8:12; 29:6), and especially with those of Jeremiah, his older contemporary (Jer 24:7,9; 48:37).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
You will do likewise for your ox and for your sheep and goats; seven days it will be with its mother; on the eighth, you will give it to me.
Or if a person touches anything unclean, {whether} an unclean [wild] animal's dead body or an unclean domestic animal's dead body or an unclean swarmer's dead body, but {he is unaware of it}, he [is] unclean and he is guilty.
And if indeed some of the meat of his fellowship offerings' sacrifice is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted; it will not be considered [of benefit] for the one who presented it--it shall be unclean [meat], and the person who eats it shall bear his guilt.
and a dead body's fat or mangled carcass's fat may be used for any {purpose}, but you certainly must not eat it.
"And [if there is] any person who eats a dead body or a mangled carcass, [whether] among the native or among the alien, then he shall wash his garments, and he shall wash [himself] with water, and he shall be unclean until the evening, and he shall be clean.
And if it is indeed eaten on the third day, it [is] unclean meat; it shall not be regarded as accepted.
He shall not eat a [naturally] dead body or a mangled carcass, {so that he becomes unclean} by it; I [am] Yahweh.
"You shall not eat any carcass; you may give it to the alien who [is] in your {towns}, and he may eat it, or you may sell [it] to a foreigner, for you [are] a holy people for Yahweh your God; you may not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
And I will give to them a heart to know me, that I [am] Yahweh, and {they will be my people}, and {I will be their God}, for they will return to me with the whole of their heart.
And I will make them as a terror, an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, as a disgrace and a proverb, as a taunt and a curse, in all the places where I will drive them.
For [on] every head [is] baldness, and every beard is trimmed. On all [the] hands, slashes, and on [the] loins, sackcloth.
And it was in [the] thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month, and I [was] in the midst of the exiles by the {Kebar River}. The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth [day] of the month--it was the fifth year of the exile of the king Jehoiachin-- read more. the word of Yahweh {came} clearly to Ezekiel the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of [the] Chaldeans at the {Kebar River}, and the hand of Yahweh was on him there.
And the hand of Yahweh was on me there, and he said to me, "Rise up, go out to the valley, and there I will speak with you." And I rose up, and I went to the valley, and, look, there the glory of Yahweh [was] standing, like the glory that I saw near the {Kebar River}, and I fell on my face. read more. And [the] Spirit came into me, and it made me stand on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, "Come, shut yourself {inside your house},
"Now, son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you must put it {before you}, and you must portray on it a city, Jerusalem.
"Now, son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you must put it {before you}, and you must portray on it a city, Jerusalem. And you must build against it siege works, and you must build against it bulwark, and you must heap against it a siege ramp, and you must set up against it camps and put against it a battering ram all around.
And you must build against it siege works, and you must build against it bulwark, and you must heap against it a siege ramp, and you must set up against it camps and put against it a battering ram all around. And take for yourself a plate of iron, and you must place it [as] a wall of iron between you and the city, and you must set your face against it, and it must be {under siege}, and you must lay the siege against it; it is a sign for the house of Israel.
And take for yourself a plate of iron, and you must place it [as] a wall of iron between you and the city, and you must set your face against it, and it must be {under siege}, and you must lay the siege against it; it is a sign for the house of Israel. And you, lie down on your left side, and you must put the guilt of the house of Israel on it. You will carry their guilt the number of days that you will lie on it.
"And you, son of man, take for yourself a sword, sharp [as] {a barber's razor}. Take it for yourself, and you must cause [it] to pass over your head and over your beard, and you must take for yourself a set of scales for weighing, and you must divide them. A third you must burn with fire in the midst of the city at {the completion} of the days of the siege, and you must take a third, and you must strike [it] with the sword around it, and a third you must scatter to the wind, and I will draw a sword behind them. read more. And you must take from these a few in number, and you must tuck them in your hem. And from them again you shall take [some], and you must throw them in the middle of the fire, and you must burn them with fire; from it a fire will go out to all of the house of Israel.
And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel [are] doing in the dark, each in the inner rooms of his idol, for [they are] saying, 'Yahweh [is] not seeing us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.'"
And you, son of man, prepare for yourself [the] baggage of an exile, and go into exile by day before their eyes. And you must go into exile from your place to another place before their eyes; perhaps they will see that they [are] a house of rebellion. And you must bring out your baggage like [the] baggage of an exile by day before their eyes, and you must go out in the evening before their eyes like {those who go into exile}. read more. Before their eyes dig through for yourself, through the wall, and you must bring [the baggage] out through it. Before their eyes, on your shoulder, you must lift up [the baggage] in the dusk, [and] your face you must cover, so that you may not see the land, for I make you [as] a sign to the house of Israel."
"Son of man, what [is] this proverb {you people have} about the land of Israel, {saying}, '{The days are prolonged}, and every vision has come to nothing.'
and I gave my statutes to them, and my regulations I made known to them, which, if a person does them, then he will live by them.
And {deliver a proverb} to {the rebellious house}, and you must say to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Place the pot! Place [it] and also pour water into it. Gather its pieces to it, every good piece, thigh and shoulder, fill it [with] choice bones; read more. take the choicest of the flock, and also pile the bones under it; {boil it vigorously}; indeed, its bones boiled in the midst of it." '"
And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying}, "Son of man, set your face toward the {Ammonites} and prophesy against them, read more. and you must say to the {Ammonites}, 'Hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of your saying, 'Ah!' to my sanctuary when it was profaned, and to the land of Israel when it was desolate, and to the house of Judah when they went into the exile, therefore look! I [am] giving you to the people of the East as a possession, and they will set up their encampments in you, and they will make in you their dwelling places; {they themselves} will eat your fruit and {they themselves} will drink your milk. And I will make Rabbah as a pasture of camels and the {Ammonites} as a haunt of flocks, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh." '" For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of clapping your hand and stamping with your foot, and [because] you rejoiced in yourself with all of your malice over the land of Israel, therefore look! I stretched out my hand against you, and I will give you as plunder to the nations, and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will destroy you from the countries, and I will wipe you out, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh." Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of Moab and Seir saying, 'The house of Judah [is] like all of the nations,' therefore, look! I [am] opening the side of Moab from the cities on its frontier, [the] glory of [the] land: Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim. I will give it to the people of the East in addition to the {Ammonites} as a possession, so that the {Ammonites} will not be remembered among the nations. And on Moab I will execute punishments, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh." Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of the doings of Edom in avenging himself [with] vengeance for the house of Judah, and [so] they became very guilty and they avenged themselves on them," therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "so I will stretch out my hand against Edom and I will cut off from it [both] human and animal, and I will make it a ruin from Teman and Dedan; they will fall by the sword. And I will exact my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they will do in Edom according to my anger and according to my rage, and they will know my vengeance," {declares} the Lord Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of the {acting} of [the] Philistines in vengeance, so that they avenged themselves relentlessly with malice in themselves for destruction {with everlasting hostility}, therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I [am] stretching out my hand against [the] Philistines, and I will cut off the Kerethites, and I will destroy the remainder of {the seacoast}. And I will execute on them great vengeance with punishments of rage, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh when I exact my vengeance on them!"
And I will execute on them great vengeance with punishments of rage, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh when I exact my vengeance on them!"
And I will execute on them great vengeance with punishments of rage, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh when I exact my vengeance on them!"
And all of the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I [am] Yahweh, because of their being a staff of reed for the house of Israel.
thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because the enemy said concerning you, 'Ah, and [the] ancient high places will be to us as a possession!'" '
"And you, son of man, take for yourself {a piece of wood}, and write on it, 'For Judah and for the {Israelites} his associates,' and take another [piece of] wood, and write on it, 'For Joseph, [the piece of] wood of Ephraim and all of the house of Israel his associates.'
And I will make them into one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and {they will all have one king as their king}, and they will not again be two nations and will not again divide into two kingdoms again.
And he brought me back to the doorway of the temple and, look! There was water coming out from under the threshold of the temple eastward, because the face of the temple [was] eastwards; and the water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, from south of the altar. And he brought me out [by the way] of [the] north gate and he led me around [by the] {way leading to the outside of the outer gate} [by] way of the [gate] facing east, and look, there was water trickling from the south side. read more. As the man went eastward a measuring line [was] in his hand, and he measured a thousand {cubits}. And he led me through [on] into the water; [it was] {ankle deep}. And he measured a thousand [cubits], and he brought me over into the waters [and] [it was] {knee deep}. And he measured a thousand [cubits], and he brought me over [into] the waters [and] [it was] {waist deep}. And he measured a thousand [cubits], [and] [it became] a stream that I was not able to cross, because the water rose, {waters a person could swim in}, [and became] a stream that could not be crossed. And he asked me, "Son of man, did you see [this]?" And he made me go, and he brought me back [along] the bank of the stream. {When I returned}, then look! On the bank of the river [were] many trees {on both sides}. And he said to me, "These waters [are] going out to the eastern region, and they go down to the {Jordan Valley}, and they come [to] the sea [and flow] into the sea [where] {they issue out}, and the waters [in the sea] will be healed.
But you, go [on] to the end and rest, and you will arise for your allotted inheritance at the end of the days."
But you, go [on] to the end and rest, and you will arise for your allotted inheritance at the end of the days."
For just as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
For Moses writes about the righteousness [that is] from the law: "The person who does [this] will live by it."
But the law is not from faith, but "the one who does these [things] will live by them."
and he will go out to deceive the nations [that are] at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to assemble them for battle, {whose number} [is] like the sand of the sea.
And he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street, and {on both sides of the river} [is] the tree of life, producing twelve fruits--yielding its fruit according to every month--and the leaves of the tree [are] for the healing of the nations.