1:1–3 The book’s introduction serves to locate Ezekiel’s ministry in space and time. His prophetic ministry begins in his thirtieth year, the age at which as a priest he normally would have begun his service in the Jerusalem temple (cf. Num. 4:3). Since he is in exile, Ezekiel cannot undertake this priestly temple ministry, but the Lord has a different calling for him to pursue: prophet to the exiles. His compatriots taken alongside him to Babylon from Judah would mostly be from the upper and middle classes in Judah, but they are assigned a variety of different occupations by their captors. Some, like Daniel and his friends, are sent to Babylon itself for intense cultural assimilation and incorporation into the royal administration (cf. Daniel 1). Others are sent to the countryside to work in menial agricultural or construction tasks very different from their upbringings. At least the Babylonians settle them together in communities, where they can maintain their cultural and religious identity—unlike the Assyrians, who had scattered and dispersed their captives in an effort to destroy their former identities. The Babylonian system enables a significant group of the captives from Judah to return after seventy years, unlike the remnant of the northern tribes, who were exiled by the Assyrians 150 years earlier and would never return.

The Chebar canal was located in the Nippur region southeast of Babylon; it is mentioned twice in Babylonian documents from the fifth century BC. Since Babylon was located in a flat, dry area, irrigation streams such as the Chebar were essential to agricultural productivity, and communities of exiles from all over the empire would have been resettled into underpopulated areas like this in an effort to boost production by providing cheap labor. “By the Chebar canal” does not necessarily mean that Ezekiel is physically beside the water when he saw his vision; this could merely be a more general description of the region. However, some of Daniel’s vision takes place beside a waterway (Dan. 8:2; 10:4), and later Jews gather by a river to pray in Acts 16:13, so it may be that the prophet has gone there to pray.

Ezekiel sometimes refers to the Babylonians as Chaldeans (unlike Daniel, for whom “Chaldeans” usually means a subgroup of the court diviners and magicians). A significant number of Chaldeans immigrated into Babylon over the early centuries of the first millennium BC, and during Ezekiel’s time the Babylonian rulers are from the Chaldean community, so the two names become interchangeable.

Ezekiel’s priestly background and his location in exile are both formative for the ministry to which he is called. As a priest he would have grown up in the context of the Jerusalem temple, hearing the law of Moses read regularly and being deeply familiar with its provisions, as well as the consequences pronounced in that law on those unfaithful to their covenant commitments (cf. Leviticus 26). He would also understand the tight connection in antiquity between nation, land, and deity, which made it hard for those in exile to believe there was any future in their relationship with the Lord as long as they lived in exile (Ezek. 37:11; cf. Psalm 137). His vision of the future in Ezekiel 40–48 is likewise shaped by his priestly background and articulates a powerful hope to those on the brink of losing hope: after the time of comprehensive judgment is over, God’s people will be returned to their land, and the Lord will build for them there a future unlike the tragic past through which they have lived.

The date of the vision is referenced not only against events in Ezekiel’s own life but also against the wider historical background. King Jehoiachin was carried off into exile in Babylon in 597 BC, and, five years on, his uncle Zedekiah now rules Judah as king under Babylonian overlordship. The fact that Ezekiel still dates events with reference to Jehoiachin demonstrates that he views Zedekiah as merely a stand-in for the lawful king, despite Jehoiachin’s brief reign. Around the same time as Ezekiel begins his ministry, Zedekiah pays a visit to Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon (Jer. 51:59), which likely raises the exiles’ hopes of an imminent return. But four years later Zedekiah will foolishly rebel against Nebuchadnezzar; the city of Jerusalem endures a lengthy siege before it is finally destroyed and the temple is burned to the ground. The arrival of the news of the fall of Jerusalem among the exiles in Ezekiel 24 is a key turning point in Ezekiel’s prophecy, as he shifts from proclaiming the certainty of further judgment on God’s people to a proclamation of future hope, beginning with words of judgment on the nations surrounding Judah for their part in its demise.

The “hand of the Lord” is upon Ezekiel (1:3): when the hand of the Lord is “against” someone (the Hb. preposition b-), this usually refers to his acts of judgment against his enemies (e.g., Judg. 2:15; 1 Sam. 7:13). When used with the proposition ʿal (“upon”), however, the “hand of the Lord” refers to God’s Spirit coming on someone in power, enabling him to prophesy (cf. 2 Kings 3:15). Prophecies are not the inspiring imaginings of the prophets themselves but the revelation of the Lord, communicating his will and purposes for humanity (2 Pet. 1:21). Ezekiel sees “visions of God,” a reference not simply to the opening vision of the divine throne-chariot in Ezekiel 1–3 but to all the visions that play such a key role in his message (chs. 8–11; 37; 40–48). Although Ezekiel, like other OT prophets, hears the word of the Lord, for him the visual aspect of God’s revelation has a particularly prominent place. Indeed, the book is structured around four key visions: the vision of God’s throne-chariot (ch. 1), the vision of the increasing abominations in Jerusalem that cause the Lord to abandon the Jerusalem temple to destruction (chs. 8–11), the vision of the revivification of the dry bones that represent Israel (ch. 37), and the vision of the renewed temple and land (chs. 40–48).

Both the visions themselves and the words the prophets use to describe them are directly inspired by God and inerrant. This does not necessarily mean that they are always easy to understand or interpret. Indeed, Numbers 12:6–8 contrasts the complex and confusing nature of revelation by prophets, which is by visions, dreams, and riddles, with the relatively clear nature of God’s word through Moses. There is much in the prophetic writings that requires an understanding of the context to grasp, though with the benefit of hindsight the fulfillment of prophecy is sometimes crystal clear.

1:4 Many prophets experienced a distinctive call to their ministry, often in the form of a visionary encounter with God (Isaiah 6; Jeremiah 1). These initial visions are significant in setting the tone and content for the message the prophet has to deliver. Ezekiel’s vision takes the form of a storm bearing down from the north, the traditional direction from which Judah’s enemies came (Jer. 1:13–15; Ezekiel 38). This onrushing storm represents no mere human enemy, however; the shining cloud lit up by continual flashes of fire and resembling molten metal is a theophany, an appearing of the Lord himself. The imagery of the Lord riding on the storm, surrounded by fire and lightning, is a common way of describing the coming of the divine warrior (Nah. 1:3; Ps. 18:9–14). The wheels of Ezekiel’s vision represent the Lord’s chariot, another typical aspect of the divine warrior image.9 It evokes memories of the Lord’s presence with his people at Mount Sinai and in the exodus wanderings as a pillar of cloud and fire (Ex. 19:16–18)—only this time the divine warrior is coming as the enemy of his people, in order to bring cataclysmic judgment upon them.

This contrasts sharply with Isaiah’s call vision, even while both display God’s glory. In Isaiah’s vision the Lord is seated on his throne, certainly ready to judge his people but also able to provide atonement by the mere touch of a hot stone from the altar. It seems that even though judgment is coming on the land, Zion itself is secure as long as the Lord is in her midst (cf. Psalm 46). In Ezekiel’s vision, however, the Lord himself is on the move, bringing inevitable judgment against his people. Although Jerusalem is not named in the opening vision, if the Lord is on the move it does not bode well for the future of Jerusalem and the temple where the Lord has set his name (1 Kings 11:36). Like his contemporary Jeremiah, Ezekiel is called to challenge the false confidence of those who trust in the presence of the temple of the Lord as the grounds of Jerusalem’s continual security (cf. Jeremiah 7). The people have drawn exactly the wrong lesson from the Lord’s miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrians in 701 BC, when Hezekiah cried out to God and was rescued (Isaiah 36–37). They think the Lord will tamely endure the people’s sins forever while they turn his house into a den of thieves, that he will always come to rescue them when called. They are wrong: the time has come for God to act against Jerusalem in devastating judgment.

1:5–14 The Lord’s throne-chariot is drawn by four living creatures, which the prophet will later identify as cherubim (Ezek. 10:1; cf. Ps. 18:10). These extraordinary winged creatures with humanlike bodies have four faces each, that of a man, a lion (the highest of the wild animals), an ox (the highest domestic animal), and an eagle (the highest of the birds), symbolizing that they embody within themselves all the highest attributes of living creation.10 In Revelation 4:7 the heavenly throne is flanked by these four creatures separately. If the Lord’s attendants thus embody wisdom, strength, majesty, speed, and procreative power, how much more fully does he himself embody these attributes?11 The title “living creatures” points us back to the creation account in Genesis 1–3, reminding us that the God who created all things has the power and the right to destroy what he has made, just as a potter recycles a less-than-perfect pot (Jer. 18:2–6).

In Genesis 3 the cherubim appear as God’s heavenly bodyguards, whose task it is to protect God’s holiness. When the man and the woman are exiled from the garden of Eden, cherubim are appointed to bar the way back into God’s presence, preventing any intrusion of sinful mankind into the realm of God’s holiness (Gen. 3:24). Yet, as with exclusion from Eden, the Lord’s purpose is not merely the destruction of the fallen people he has made. The tree of life is not uprooted but protected for a different, more blessed future. So also is the theme of guarding God’s sanctity so that a holy God can dwell in the midst of his people, a key theme in Ezekiel’s ministry.

Here, however, the living creatures do not merely have a defensive character to them. They are described as being like torches or burning coals of fire (Ezek. 1:13). Lightning is flashing back and forth among them, and the creatures themselves are in rapid motion, like flashes of lightning. This is the threatening language of God’s judgment, here marshaled not against Israel’s enemies but against his own land and people.

1:15–21 The prophet’s attention is drawn particularly to the wheels of the chariot. These are described as a “wheel within a wheel” (v. 16), that is, wheels intersecting with one another at right angles to enable the chariot to move in any direction without turning (v. 17).12 They shine like beryl, a class of precious gemstone that includes aquamarine and emerald.13 All these wheels move together and stop together under the control of the spirit of the living creatures (v. 20), so that the whole chariot assembly proceeds as an integrated unity. Since the chariot can move equally easily in any direction, and even fly, how could anyone flee from it? Moreover, since these enormous wheels are covered with eyes, not only is there no possibility of fleeing from this chariot, but there is nowhere to hide from it either. Everything in this vision is in motion, with wheels, legs, and wings as well as flashing fire back and forth among the living creatures. The Lord’s presence is on the move for judgment. Later we will learn that God’s presence will abandon his chosen city of Jerusalem to its enemies, while he will relocate to dwell for a while in Babylon with Ezekiel and his fellow exiles (11:16). The defiled city must be destroyed, but the Lord has not given up on his purpose of blessing his people.

1:22–28 In the creation account the expanse (v. 22; Hb. raqiaʿ) functions like the sky, separating the realm of God’s presence (heaven) from the realm of humanity (earth). The prophet is able to describe the elements of the vision below the expanse fairly clearly, but everything above the expanse seems to be slightly out of focus or impossible to put into exact words; elements above the expanse have “the appearance of” or “the likeness of.” As do the living creatures (the cherubim) and the rainbow, mention of the expanse points back to the opening chapters of Genesis, inviting us to consider the parallels between this period of history and Noah’s time, when God destroyed the world he had made with a devastating flood because of sin and then restored it (Genesis 6–9). Ezekiel’s world is about to be unmade and remade in a similarly all-encompassing way. Yet, although the Babylonian captivity will be a terrible catastrophe in which many will be wiped out, God will not forget his promise to maintain a remnant. Judgment will not be God’s final word on them, any more than it was in Noah’s day.

The realm of created beings below the expanse is filled with a terrifying noise when the living creatures fly, like the “sound of many waters” or “of an army” (Ezek. 1:24). This sound is characteristic of God’s appearing in Ezekiel’s visions (3:12–13; 43:2) and is part of the overwhelming impact of the vision on the prophet, who, unsurprisingly, is overwhelmed by this sensory overload and falls to the ground as if dead. The apostle John reacts similarly to his vision of the exalted Christ in Revelation 1:17. Who can stand upright in the presence of the Almighty?

Seated on a heavenly throne, which appears to be made of “lapis lazuli” (ESV mg.),14 is a figure with a human appearance. The glory of the Lord that once filled the tabernacle and temple, making it impossible for the priests to enter to minister, now appears to Ezekiel in human form, foreshadowing the revelation of the Son of Man in all his glory to John on the island of Patmos (Rev. 1:12–17). In the incarnation God takes human form with his glory largely veiled, except for those given eyes to see it at, for example, the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–9). But the vision of his glory in its fullness is an overwhelming reality for all who behold it, for the Son is the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3).