Prophets
יְחֶזְקֵאל
Ezekiel
Written from exile: visionary, strange, and tightly structured.
Hebrew nameYechezkel, meaning god strengthensChapters48Position7 of 8 in Prophets
Read it
Open chapter 1What is in it
It opens with a vision of wheels and living creatures that readers have argued about ever since, and includes street theatre performed as prophecy, lying on one side for months at a time.
The later chapters turn to restoration, including a valley of dry bones and a long architectural vision of a temple measured in detail.
If you read one chapter
Ezekiel 37
The valley of dry bones, and the question of whether they can live.
Passages worth knowing
- Ezekiel 1The opening vision.
- Ezekiel 4 to 5Prophecy performed as public action.
- Ezekiel 18Each person answerable for their own life, not their parent's.
- Ezekiel 37:1 to 14The dry bones.
- Ezekiel 47A river deepening as it flows out from the temple.
Questions to sit with
- 01
Chapter 18 rejects inherited guilt. What is it arguing against?
- 02
Why deliver a message by performing it rather than saying it?