Week # 47 Study Page

Ezekiel 19-37

About the Book(s)

Ezekiel

Date of Authorship: We can use the historical information in 1:2 to date the call of Ezekiel to 593 BC. The last historical marker that we have is in the introduction to Ezekiel’s vision of the restored Jerusalem (40:1) which can be pinpointed to April 28th, 573 BC. Our first historical marker in this week’s reading is August 15, 591 BC (20:1), our last historical marker in this week’s reading is January 19, 585 BC (33:21) about five months after the fall of Jerusalem

Author: Ezekiel was a priest who was exiled in the second small (~10,000) batch of prisoners taken by the Babylonians in 597 BC. Ezekiel was exiled together with the Israelite king Jehoiachin, the grandson of Josiah. Ezekiel’s career happens away from the promised land. He is prophesying from Babylon where he is a prisoner.

Her’s a refresher on the final kings of Judah. Ezekiel was deported to Babylon with Jehoiachin

Historical Setting: Ezekiel’s begins when the writing is on the wall for Judah’s demise. Twice already, the resistance of the nation of Judah to control by the Babylonian empire has resulted in military threats, and deportations. The first exiles were taken away in 605 BC, just four years after the death of Josiah, and included Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The second deportation occurred as a result of further Judahite resistance to Babylonian control and saw the exile of king Jehoiachin to Babylon. In Jehoiachin’s place, Nebuchadnezzar installed his uncle Zedekiah who had sworn loyalty to the Babylonians. It is a this moment that Ezekiel begins to prophecy. during Ezekiel’s career, Zedekiah will ally with Egypt against Nebuchadnezzar, and that rebellion will result in the total devastation of Jerusalem at the hand of the Babylonians, and a large exile of people out of the promised land. These cataclysmic events occur during this week’s reading (33:21).

Purpose: Ezekiel is commissioned to bring charges against Judah for violating their covenant with God before the arrival of God’s Judgment. In service to that role, Ezekiel is explaining God’s anger and justice while remarking upon the utter unfaithfulness of His people. But that is just one pole of Ezekiel’s message. Ezekiel is also a deliver of hope. God uses Ezekiel to tell his people that there will be restoration on the other side of Judgment, because God’s faithfulness will not fail them.

As You Read Notes:

Historical markers in our Reading

There are a number of historical markers in this week’s reading. As we discussed above - more than any other prophet - Ezekiel keeps anchoring his prophecy in a concrete historical timeline. He clearly wants the readers to know when these words were spoken. As your see the dates below, understand these two important factors, chapters 24-31 are written while Jerusalem is under siege and their destruction appears immanent. The prophecies against the nations (chapters 25-32) are spoken to the exiles in Babylon to reassure them that their native Judah is not the only kingdom which will taste God’s wrath. Additionally, it is important to recognize that the fall of Jerusalem in chapter 33 marks a major turning point in the book of Ezekiel. The destruction of the temple and city walls was tantamount to armageddon for the Israelites, now watch as the character of Ezekiel’s prophecy changes towards the end of the book.

Ezekiel 20:1; August 15th 591, BC
Ezekiel 24:1; January 5, 587 BC (the day that Nebuchadnezzar begins his siege of Jerusalem)
Ezekiel 26:1; sometime in 586 BC
- notice the footnote in your NIV Bible. the words “month of the twelfth” are likely not original to the text. As will be explained below, this date is really only one year after the date listed in 24:1.
Ezekiel 29:1; January 7, 587 BC
- even though this date appears to be 1 year later than the one described in 24:1, most commentators believe that Ezekiel there used an “nonaccession” year system (which would not count the first year of Jehoiachin’s exile) rather than an accession year system. (IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary, note on 29:1).
- the Egyptian response to the siege (an easily defeated effort to repel the Babylonians from Judea) occurred in the summer of 587.
Ezekiel 30:20; April 29, 587 BC
- At this point the Egyptian attempt to repel the Babylonians is imminent, but Ezekiel warns that it will not be successful
Ezekiel 31:1; June 21, 587 BC
Ezekiel 32:1; March 3 585 BC (a few months after the report of the fall of Jerusalem had reached Ezekiel - this is out of Chronological order)
Ezekiel 33:21 January 19, 585 B.C. (about 5 months after the fall of Jerusalem)

Ezekiel 20:25: “Bad LaWs”

because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their parents’ idols. So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live; (Ezekiel 20:24-25)

The Hebrew terms used here are extremely important to a proper understanding of Ezekeil’s controversial statement. This in not a reference to the Law given at Sinai, and the word “Torah” is not used. The word that the NIV translates as “statutes” is the same word that in verse 24 is translated “decrees,” except that there it is feminine (as usual) rather than masculine (as here). The word the NIV translates “Laws” is the word for God’s judicial decisions. Therefore the consequence of Israel’s unfaithfulness, then, was that God decreed events that were not in their favor, and he made judicial decisions that threatened their survival. This resulted in God’s use of forces that devastated Israel, such as war, famine, plague, and foreign armies. (IVPBBC:OT, 705)

Ezekiel 25:1: the ammonites

The Ammonites kick off an 8-chapter-long (25-32) section where Ezekiel prophecies against Israel’s neighbors. All but chapter 32 of this section is spoken by Ezekiel while Jerusalem lay under siege by the Babylonian army. See the map provided here to locate each of the kingdoms spoken against and many of the cities referenced here by Ezekiel. This section bears many similarities to Ezekiel’s contemporary prophet, Jeremiah’s, words in Jeremiah 46-49, and Isaiah 15-23 from more than a century earlier.

The Ammonites were Judah’s neighbor to the northeast. They had also (like Judah) allied with Egypt against Babylonian rule. The campaign that Nebuchadnezzar conducted to punish Judah also had the destruction of Rabbah (capital of Ammon) as a goal, but Jerusalem was attacked first (21:20). While Jerusalem was put to siege, the Ammonites taunted the kingdom of Judah (21:28). Ezekiel prophecies occupation and destruction for Ammon. This sentence is delivered in 582 BC (five years after the fall of Jerusalem) also at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, resulting in widespread devastation of the area.

Ezekiel 26:3: Tyre

Tyre recieves a lengthy treatment in the book of Ezekiel. Tyre (& Sidon) is the capital city of the nation of Phoenicia. This was the home of Jezebel, Ahab’s wicked wife, and the widow of Zarephath. Interestingly, Jesus visits this region in Luke 10 and Mark 7. After Egypt’s defeat in 605 BC, Tyre was the main foe of Babylon in western Asia. An island-city (& corresponding coastal city) renowned for its maritime trade, it stood out from the coast approximately six hundred yards from the mainland. The Babylonians laid siege to Tyre for thirteen years, from 586 to 573 BC ending with the household of the Tyrian ruler being deported to Babylon.

Ezekiel 28:11-19: Satan?

From early on in Church history there has been an interpretive tradition understanding this passage as an account of the fall of Satan. Though this same type of interpretation in Isaiah 14 was fervently denied by well-respected exegetes such as John Calvin (who bluntly ridiculed it) among others, it has persisted into modern times. From a background standpoint, it must be noted that Satan is never portrayed as either being a cherub (28:16) or being with the cherub in the garden in any passage of Scripture. Furthermore, Israel’s understanding of Satan was far more limited than that found in the New Testament. Even in Job, Satan is not a personal name but a function. “Satan” does not become identified as the personal name of the chief of demons in Jewish literature until about the second century BC, and he does not take up his position as the source and cause of all evil until the unfolding of Christian doctrine. Consequently, the Israelites could not have understood this passage in this way (as referring to the fall of Satan), and no New Testament passage offers a basis for departing from the Israelite understanding of it. In the context, it is a metaphorical description of the high stewardship entrusted to the wealthy and successful prince of Tyre (as significant a s the cherub’s role in the garden). Rather than treating this sacred trust with reverence and awe, he exploited it to his own benefit - as if the cherub guarding the garden had opened a roadside fruit stand. He was therefore discharged from his position, relieved of his trust and publicly humiliated (IVP BBC:OT, 715)

Ezekiel 29:2: Egypt

When Babylon overtook Assyria in the east, Egypt rose and attempted to take control of the Levant. However, Nebuchadnezzar’s first westward campaign defeated the Egyptians in the decisive 605 BC battle of Carechemish. This was not the end of Egypt’s attempts to control the region. Early in the 6th century, the Egyptians were allying with Phoenicia, Ammon, and Judah, and encouraging them them to rebel against Babylon. It was this uprising that led Nebuchadnezzar to march west and punish those three states. In the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem, Egypt dispatched an army into Palestine to support their anti-Babylonian co-conspirators, but they were quickly defeated by Nebuchadnezzar and the siege of Jerusalem resumed. Ezekiel prophecies defeat for Egypt at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and this prophecy would be realized in the year 568, just a few years before his (Nebuchadnezzar’s) death.

Ezekiel 35:5: Edom’s Betrayal

There was an 8-chapter-long section in Ezekiel of prophecies against various nations in which Edom was included (25:12-14). However, Ezekiel returns to speak again about only Edom after the fall of Jerusalem. This is because of what occurred during Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Judah. Edom is the nation descended from Esau, and God, through His word, reveals that He expects them so have some familial loyalty or fellow-feeling for the descendants of his brother Jacob (Israel). However, when Nebuchadnezzar came to destroy Judah, Edom cheered on the Babylonians (see also Psalm 137, Joel 3:19, Obadiah 1-14). Ezekiel even implies an active role for Edom in Judah’s demise by saying that they “delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity” (35:5). Edom believed that they would take possession of Judah when Babylon withdrew, but God was angered by their haughtiness and disloyalty, so He promised to desolate them here.

Week #47 - Ezekiel 19-37