The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel*

WALTER ZIMMERLI

Professor of Old Testament

University of Göttingen

"Ezekiel is the Old Testament prophet who proclaims more

radically than any other that no righteousness of the people called
by God can stand up before God."

S INCE the second quarter of our century a storm of critical challenges

has surrounded the person and book of the prophet Ezekiel which
long appeared to offer no particular problems. Since G. Hölscher1
"rescued" Ezekiel the "poet" by reducing his authentic words from the
1273 verses of the existing text to 144, and C. C. Torrey 2 in 1930 judged
the entire book to be a pseudograph from the third century B.C., discus-
sion on the prophet and his book has continued. V. Herntrich 3 con-
tributed yet another question to this discussion : Would Ezekiel, who was,
according to the text, one of those deported to Babylon with King
Jehoiachin and yet so outspokenly addressed Jerusalem and its inhabi-
tants, be better understood as a prophet active in Jerusalem? Of course
the question immediately arose whether some words ought not to be
located in the time of the Exile. If so, then Ezekiel must have worked
* Translated by Mrs. Lewis Wilkins and Professor James P. Martin.
1. Hesekiel, der Dichter und das Buch, eine literarkritische Untersuchung (ZAW, 39; Giessen:
Verlag Alfred Töpelmann, 1924).
z.Pseudo-Ezekiel and the Original Prophecy {Tale Oriental Series, X V I I I ; New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1930).
3. Ezechielpróbleme (ZAW, 61 ; Giessen: Verlag Alfred Töpelmann, 1933).

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in both places.4 Finally, there came the thesis that Ezekiel worked first
with the exiles, then came to Jerusalem, and later returned to preach
among the exiles again.5
Various solutions have been examined in the course of this critical
investigation. New critical schemes, however, which eliminated diffi-
culties on one side turned up new problems on the other. Recently,6 there-
fore, the question has been raised again whether the book's own assertions
about the place and time of the prophet's proclamation ought not to be
considered very seriously. According to the book, the prophet went into
exile with King Jehoiachin following the capitulation of Jerusalem. From
the new Babylonian Chronicle,7 this can be precisely dated as the second
day of Adar of the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar (i.e., according to
Parker-Dubbenstein's calculations,8 March 16, 597 B.C.). According to
3:15, Ezekiel lived there in an exile district named Tel Abib. This name
comes from the Akkadian til abübi, "hill of the deluge";9 it is to be
understood as a hill which had not been inhabited for a long time.
Obviously the place had been given to the deportees for a new residence.
In the following discussion, we assume that the book's own assertions
are correct.

II
The critical work on Ezekiel has not, however, been in vain. Even
where the new syntheses have not endured, a number of insights were
reached which prohibit a simple return to the views held prior to Hölscher
and Torrey. In 1880 Smend10 still understood the Book of Ezekiel as
"the logical development of a series of thoughts in a carefully thought-out
and, in part, quite systematic plan" from which one could not remove
a piece "without destroying the whole ensemble." He believed that in
the evening of his life Ezekiel "wrote his summary of Israel's situation at
4. Thus, e.g., A. Bertholet in his commentary (Tübingen: J.G.B. Mohr, 1936).
5. R.H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941)
according to the dissertation (Boston, 1939) of O.R. Fischer, The Unity of the Book of Ezekiel.
6. Cf., e.g., the commentaries of G. Fohrer ( H A T ; Tübingen: J.G.B. Mohr, 1955) ; J. Ziegler,
Echter-Bibel, 1948; W. Eichrodt ( A T D ; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959/66).
7. D J . Wiseman, Chronicles of the Chaldean Kings {626-556 B . C . ) , in the British Museum,
1956.
8. R.A. Parker and W.H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C. to A.D. y5 {Brown
University Studies, X I X ; Providence : Brown University Press, 1956).
9. Code of Hammurabi, reverse X X V I I , line 79 (cf. A N E T , p . 179a).
10. R. Smend, Der Prophet Ezechiel ( K e H ; Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1880), p p . X X I , XVI.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
Interpretation

that period, as well as its past and future.55 In contrast, criticism has
revealed a lively history of tradition, editing, and additions to the
prophet's words as the book took on the form we know today.
Whoever reads the book carefully must conclude that the prophet's
words have been collected and transmitted within the framework of a
circle of disciples, a sort of "school55 of the prophet.11 The transmission
brought more than expansions and explanatory additions. A peculiar
characteristic of the process by which the words of Ezekiel were passed
on is that individual passages were developed and expanded in terms
of new perspectives. Thus, for example, the allegory of Jerusalem as the
unfaithful wife in 16:1-43, already here enriched by several elaborations,
is taken up in a quite new form in verses 44-52. Here the two sisters,
Samaria and Sodom, not mentioned in verses 1-43, are added to the
unfaithful wife, Jerusalem. This is not an independent speech which the
collectors placed next to verses 1-43. Rather, the theme introduced in
1-43 is taken up again with a new start and is further developed from a
new perspective. Comments are added in verses 53-58 which indicate
an impending change and probably belong to the sphere of the prophet's
proclamation of salvation which was first uttered after Jerusalem's final
fall in 587. Finally, in verses 59-63 a fourth exposition is attached whose
theme, "oath and covenant,55 dominates chapter 17. This raises the
question whether it has not been added with a view to the continuation in
chapter 17.
Whether this final supposition proves true or not, one can scarcely
avoid the conclusion, both here and in other speech complexes (cf., e.g.,
chap. 34), that the apparatus of a school, a "teaching house,55 stands
behind this process of taking up words anew and further elaborating
certain themes.
We might add that where reference is made to the more precise con-
ditions of EzekiePs work, he is often presented as sitting in his house and
receiving people ( 8 : 1 ; 14:1 ; 20:1—33:30-33 also seems to presuppose
this situation).12 Nowhere is the prophet portrayed as speaking and
preaching in the streets. These facts are illumined by the history of
11. For details, I must refer to my commentary on the Book of Ezekiel in BK, X I I I
(Neukirchen Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsvereins, 1968), esp. the Introduction.
Cf. further the individual studies in Gottes Offenbarung; Gesammelte Aufsätze zum Alten Testa-
ment (Theol. Bücherei, 19; Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1963).
12. One might ask whether 3:24 should be added here. Or do we hear something there of a
special prophetic examination?

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133
schools in preclassical, preliterary prophecy, according to which Elisha
(II Kings 4:38; 6:1, and esp. 32) is described in a remarkably similar
manner as a teacher of groups of disciples or elders gathered around him.
It is easy to demonstrate, as materials of chapters 16 and 34 presume,
the scholastic development of various prophetic themes within such a
group.
At the same time, however, this process makes it difficult to decide in
particular cases the question of how far the prophet himself partook
(shared) in the further development of his words, and how far the devel-
opment was independently taken over after his death by his disciples.
The distinction between genuine and nongenuine is in every case incom-
parably more difficult, and the transitions much less sharply defined
than in the case of the proclamation of Isaiah. The polishing of his public
speeches distinguishes Isaiah's proclamation much more clearly from
that of his disciples, who are expressly mentioned in 7:16-18.
Consequently, any presentation of the message of Ezekiel must always
keep in mind this peculiarity in the process of tradition by which the
prophet's words became the materials now deposited in his book.

Ill
The relationship of 8:1, 14:1, and 20:1 with II Kings 6:32 (4:38;
6:1) points to a certain closeness between EzekiePs prophecy and that of
preclassical, preliterary prophecy. This relationship in the history of
tradition, however, comprehends much more than mere references to the
prophet and his circle of hearers. It invests several features of the
prophecy of Ezekiel with a pronounced archaic character.13
The phenomenon of the "spirit55 was of central importance for the
preliterary prophecy, which understood it, not as intellectualism or specu-
lative, inquiring reason, but rather as the moving power which comes
from Yahweh. We see this in the account of the prophet band which
descended from the heights of Gibeah and from whom the spirit sprang
over to Saul so that he became ecstatic and was changed into another
person (I Sam. 1015 f.). Also, after Elijah was taken away, his disciples
assumed that the "spirit of Yahweh55 had snatched up the master and
13. On the following, cf. also the presentation in "The Special Form and Traditio-historicaJ
Character of Ezekiel's Prophecy," VT, X V (1965), 515-27.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
Interpretation

cast him down on one of the mountains or in one of the valleys (II Kings
2:16).
Classical literary prophecy before Ezekiel—Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and
55
even Jeremiah—resolutely avoids speaking of "spirit as that power
55
which authorizes the prophet. Was this because the "man of the spirit
was connected so strongly with outward oddness which attracted atten­
55
tion and caused the prophets to appear as "crazy? "The man of the
55
spirit is mad was the opinion of the people with whom Hosea was
confronted (9:7). And the young prophet who anointed Jehu king was
immediately and derisively called mad by the companions of Jehu (II
Kings 9:11).
55
Ezekiel, in contrast, does not hesitate to speak of the "spirit. He
speaks exactly as Elijah's disciples presumed concerning their master.
He says that the spirit seized him, picked him up, carried him from the
place of his calling by Yahweh back to Tel Abib (3:14^) and later
s t
(8:3) to Jerusalem and, according to 11:24, ^ later returned him
again to the exiles.
55
Alongside "spirit and almost synonymous with it, the term "hand of
55 5
Yahweh occurs also in the Elijah story. After God s judgment on
55
Carmel, the "hand of Yahweh comes upon Elijah so that he runs swiftly
5
alongside Ahab s chariot as far as Jezreel (about thirty kilometers, as
the crow flies) (I Kings 18 :φ). Ezekiel also speaks in exactly the same
55
way of the "hand of Yahweh which fell on him and removed him from
the sphere of daily life (8:1). A man's hand seized him by the hair, and
14
the spirit lifted him through the air to Jerusalem.
The remarkable features of vision at a distance are closely related to
the effects of seizure by the spirit or by the hand of Yahweh. Ezekiel
views what is happening in the temple in Jerusalem, the abomination
5
which vaunts itself there, and God s consequent punishment through the
mysterious agents of vengeance (9 f. ). He sees the newly built sanctuary
5
in Jerusalem (40if.). This recalls the story of Elisha s servant Gehazi,
who secretly ran off to collect a payment his master had turned down.
When he returned with innocent countenance, Elisha said to him, "Did
14. The "hand of Yahweh" also occurs occasionally in Isaiah and Jeremiah. In Isa. 8 : i i
there seems to be a hint of something like a harsh seizing of the hand. There it is a matter of
communication of a word. Jer. 15:17 also means the burden of the receipt of the word. The
word with its content of judgment isolates the prophet from the circle of the happy. But nothing
is said here of the experience of being raptured.

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I not go with you in spirit when the man turned from his chariot to meet
you? Was it a time to accept money. . . ? Therefore the leprosy of
Naaman shall cleave to you . . .55 (II Kings 5:26 f.).
Furthermore, one also finds in Ezekiel the peculiar form of a Kibla,
facing the addressee of a message in order to establish optical contact :
"Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy
against them55 ( 6:1 ; cf. also 13:17 ; 21:2, 7 ; 25:2, among others). This
does not occur in the classical prophets before Ezekiel, although it is
found in the ancient story of the seer Balaam who was called to curse
Israel and who then had to stand at a place where he had Israel before
his eyes and could then deliver his message (Num. 22141 ; 23:13 ; 24:2 ).
These contacts with preliterary prophecy behind classical literary pro-
phecy could be multiplied.15 Ezekiel is, therefore, special among the
classical prophets in his use of older materials.

IV
On the other hand, we cannot fail to recognize that Ezekiel also knows
the earlier great literary prophets and their word and that he up-dates
their message in his own way. In Amos, an assonance of words leads
(from one of his visions) to a short statement of proclamation : "The end
has come55 (8:1). In Ezekiel 7 there is something like an extensive
sermon on this sentence which is now broadly developed in various forms.
Similarly, a number of other themes which Ezekiel develops undoubtedly
derive from preceding prophecy. Compare, for example, Ezekiel 16 with
Hosea 2; Ezekiel 22:17 if. with Isaiah 1:22, 25 and Jeremiah 6:27-29;
Ezekiel 23 with Jeremiah 3:6 ff. ; Ezekiel 34 with Jeremiah 23:1 ff.
Here we may point to a unique transposition of such stimuli which dis-
closes something of this prophet's particular sensibility and power of
experience. In one of the so-called confessions of Jeremiah in which
he both laments and extols before God the pain and sweetness of his
distress (Jer. 15:16), the prophet says: "Thy words were found, and
I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my
heart; for I am called by thy name, O Yahweh, God of hosts.55 In Jere-
miah this is a figure of speech, as comparison with Psalms 19:11; 119:103
and Proverbs 16:24; 24:1-3^ will show. Ezekiel, however, in telling
15, Gf. also the presentation on the form of the word of self-demonstration in Pt. VIII.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
Interpretation

about his calling, reports that he was given a scroll, written on the front
and back with words of lamentation, mourning, and woe, which he ate
5
at Yahweh s command, and that in his mouth it became as sweet as
honey (3 : ι ff.). In an unusual transposition, Jeremiah's figure of speech
becomes experienced reality for Ezekiel.
Similarly with an image from Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah employs a
striking image at the time of the Syria-Ephraim war, when a sharp
observer could already discern in the background the dark shadow of the
brutal Assyrian conqueror: "In that day, the Lord will shave with a razor
which is hired beyond the [Euphrates] River—with the king of Assyria—
55
the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also
( Isa. 7:20). Yahweh is portrayed as a barber ! A daring picture becomes
again in Ezekiel a dramatic, experienced reality. As a symbolic act,
5
Ezekiel, at Yahweh s behest, cuts off his hair with a sword (knife). He
throws a third of his hair into the fire, he cuts up a third with the sword,
and he scatters a third to the winds (5:1 ff.). By this surprising drama
he presents to his fellow countrymen the fate of the city of Jerusalem
threatened by Nebuchadnezzar. The message proclaimed a hundred and
fifty years earlier by the prophet Isaiah is rendered visible by means of
a corporeal act and thus made into the message for his day.
Thus, despite the archaic elements which bind him with preliterary
prophecy, Ezekiel also stands in the line of the literary prophecy which
preceded him, and is certainly not to be understood apart from it. A
particular problem in this connection is posed by the remarkable close­
ness of many of the statements in his book to those of Jeremiah, who was,
16
in part, his contemporary. Ezekiel shares with him, among other things,
a basic political proclamation; the call for unconditional submission to
the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. For Ezekiel, as for Jeremiah,
5
Nebuchadnezzar is God s instrument of punishment against the sinful
people of Judah and the world beyond. Ezekiel 17 charges that Zedekiah
(the successor of, or perhaps only the regent for, the deported Jehoia-
17
chin, who had once again broken away from the dominion of the
16. To this esp. J.W. Miller, Das Verhältnis Jeremías und Hesekiels sprachlich und theologisch
untersucht (Assen: Van Gorcum & Company, 1955).
17. W.F. Albright, "The Seal of Eliakim and the Latest Preexilic History of Judah, with
Some Observations on Ezekiel," JBL, LI (1932), 77-106. In addition, M. Noth, "Die
Katastrophe von Jerusalem im Jahre 587 v. Chr. und ihre Bedeutung für Israel," Gesammelte
Studien zum Alten Testament, Theolog. Bücherei, 6, 1960^, pp. 346-71.

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 Babylonians) has broken his oath, not only to the human authority, but
also to Yahweh the Lord, the real protector of Jerusalem.

V
Leaving these preliminary considerations on the Book of Ezekiel and
its ties with the older prophetic tradition, we must now turn to the special
elements in Ezekiel's proclamation.
The introduction of the book, which reports the call of the prophet to
his office, shows as clearly as one might wish that Ezekiel understands
himself not only as the successor and disciple of earlier prophets, but also
as the recipient of a quite personal call.
In the fifth year of his exile18 near the Exilic colony Tel Abib on the
river Chebar (i.e., most probably the nar kabari, the "great canal" near
ancient Nippus), the divine majesty appeared to Ezekiel. Did the colony
of Tel Abib perhaps have its place of prayer near the rivers where the
necessary washings could take place, as did the Jewish community in
Philippi (Acts 16:13) ?19 Then Ezekiel, like Isaiah, would have encoun-
tered the living presence of God at the community's place of worship.
The prophet is confronted in this meeting with the manifestation of
the majestic royal glory of Yahweh which proceeds from a storm advanc-
ing from the north, recalling Isaiah 6. That description in the present
text includes an abundance of additional details, which indicate the
intense interest of the "school" in the mystery of the appearing God.
Thus, the combining of the manifestation of God's throne, borne by four
creatures, with the conception of a wheeled chariot in 1:15-21 may well
be the result of such an expanded interpretation.
More significant, however, is the observation that here far away in
exile, God's glory in its full majesty now confronted the prophet. As a
priest, he well knew that God's dwelling place was in Jerusalem, the
chosen place of his presence,20 and that here at the place of worship in
exile, Yahweh had been "a sanctuary to them only in small measure"
18. The fifth day of the fourth month in the fifth year after King Jehoiachin was taken away,
which 1 : if. points to, is to be dated as July 31, 593, according to Parker-Dubberstein (n. 8 ) .
19. Gf. the situation described in Ps. 137.
20. The vocabulary and thought patterns of Ezekiel speak clearly against making Ezekiel into
simply a representative of Deuteronomic theology. One the other hand, it is quite clear
that for him Jerusalem is the only legitimate place of worship, and, as such, is the place of
Yahweh's presence. Only on this basis can the import of the pronouncement of judgment in
Ezek. 11123 be fully measured (the departure of Yahweh's glory from Jerusalem). In opposition,
43:1 ff-

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
Interpretation

(11:16). Is the appearance in full majesty also an archaism? In earlier

times Israel had experienced Yahweh's appearance from his distant
dwelling place on the holy mountain to help them in situations of need.21
But Ezekiel's description is clearly more than a simple archaism. It is
the miracle of Yahweh's faithfulness that (contrary to correct dogmatics)
he now unexpectedly confronts the prophet in a distant land in his full,
royal glory. To those far away who seem to have lost every close relation
to temple and home, God can also appear quite surprisingly as the living,
majestic One.
To be sure, the commission to which the prophet is called is first of
all extremely harsh. The scroll handed to him containing God's message
with which he is entrusted, "had writing on the front and on the back,
and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and
woe" (2:10). Under strict orders to swallow the scroll, the prophet
finds that the words become sweet as honey in his mouth. But the sweet-
ness does not refer to the content Ezekiel has to deliver; rather, as in
Jeremiah 15:16, it is the knowledge that it is grace and sweetness when
God's word is given to men at all. Misery and blessedness in tension with
each other are mirrored here, as in the confession of Jeremiah 15:15-21.
In Yahweh's summons to Ezekiel there echoes an understanding that
the messenger will experience opposition. So he is commanded not to be
rebellious himself (2:8). Does this indicate acquaintance with the
rebellious words of Jeremiah who, under the burden of his office, curses
the day of his birth, hurls charges in God's face, and seeks to escape his
burden by simply keeping silent (20:7-17)? God admonishes Ezekiel,
as he admonished Jeremiah (1:8, 17-19), to be fearless, and he equips
him with the necessary temper for his office. "Behold, I have made your
face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their fore-
heads. Like adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead"
(3:8 f. ). And it seems precisely this temper which characterizes Ezekiel's
further proclamation.
Unique to the Book of Ezekiel is a second call in 3:17-21 (cf. also
33:1-9) which follows the great narrative of the initial call. This second
call charges him specifically with the office of lookout (watchman). We
shall return to the significance of this second calling in a later context.22
21. Judg. 5:4 f., also II Sam. 5:24.
22. Pt. XII.

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 VI
The report of his call does not yet reveal any of the actual content of
Ezekiel's harsh proclamation. This content is given in the subsequent
chapters of the first half of the book.23 They also show that Ezekiel
delivered his proclamation in two ways, as Yahweh ordered. Accom­
panying the proclamation of the word is a proclamation by deeds, par­
ticular symbolic acts which he is commissioned to perform. These acts
present most graphically the real content of the prophetic proclamation.
They are not like sermon illustrations; they anticipate in a physical way
what will occur soon after God's announcement.
Already in prophecy prior to Ezekiel, symbolic actions 24 occur, and not
just in a limited way. For they are found in preclassical, preliterary
prophecy and in the great literary prophets, Hosea ( ι and 3 ) ; Isaiah
(20:1-6; cf. also the sons' names in 7:3; 8:1-4 and perhaps 7:10-14) ;
and Jeremiah (13:19; 27 f.; 43:8-13; 51:59-64). In Ezekiel they
become particularly numerous.
A short, formally complete composition of three symbolic actions con­
cerning the siege and subsequent fall of Jerusalem may well have been
the origin of the present passage 4:1—5:3. The beginning of the siege
of Jerusalem is announced by a figurative siege which Ezekiel conducts
against a brick on which a map of Jerusalem is drawn. The increasing
famine in the besieged city is anticipated by Ezekiel's partaking of rationed
food and drink (4:9a, 10 f.). And through the strange act of cutting off
and destroying his hair, which is to be understood on the basis of Isaiah
7:20, the prophet proclaims the destruction of Jerusalem's population
after the fall of the city. Two further symbolic actions have been inserted
into the present context. 4:4-8, a later expansion, makes clear by the
prophet's lying in fetters, the burden of guilt which lies on the house of
Israel.25 In 4:12-15, a passage also expanded later, the unclean food
which the prophet is to eat proclaims the situation of exile where one is
compelled to live in an unclean territory as a situation of spiritual home-
23. The clear division of the book into words of doom ( i — 2 4 ) , sayings about the nations
( 2 5 — 3 2 ) , and actual words of salvation (33—48) is not to be overlooked.
24. G. Fohrer, Die symbolischen Handlungen der Propheten (ATANT 2 5 ; Zürich: Zwingli-
Verlag, 1953) ; A. van den Born, De symbolische handelingen der oud-testamentische profeten
(dissertation, Nijmegen, 1935) ; A. van den Born, Prof ette metter dad. Een Studie over de
symbolische handelingen der profeten (Roermond-Masseik, J.J.: Romen and Sons, 1947).
25. T o this the presentation "Zur Vorgeschichte von Jes. 53" in Kongressband, Rome, 1968
(VT Supplement; Leiden: E J . Brill).

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
Interpretation

lessness. That which the prophet is commanded to do in 12 : ι f. symbol­

izes the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent deportation of its people.
26
He is to pack his small exile's baggage in bright daylight in the view of
the people and then in the evening load it on his shoulders for his
departure. The present text is daubed over with references to the catas­
trophe of the fugitive King Zedekiah as reported in I I Kings 25:4-7.
According to 12:17-20 and 21:11 f., the quaking with which Ezekiel
eats his bread and his sighing are symbols anticipating the agony which
will come to the people. In the foreground of 21:23-29 is the tension
surrounding the final threat to Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar's army:
The prophet is commanded to draw before the people two roads and a
signpost; there Nebuchadnezzar stands and decides to take the road to
Jerusalem and not that to the Ammonite capital. The sudden death of
Ezekiel's wife when he is unable to carry out the normal customs of
mourning also points to the coming catastrophe. So shattered will the
people be by the fall of Yahweh's holy place, "Israel's stronghold . . .
the delight of their eyes and their heart's desire" (24:14 ff.).
These symbolic actions make very clear how the prophet's whole person
is possessed by his proclamation. He becomes totally the servant of the
acts which he intentionally undertakes, such as the three symbolic acts
in the composition in chapters 4 f. But he is also the servant of what
befalls him, so that he is affected simply as one who suffers; his numbness
27
after his wife's sudden death is an example. Further, the sequence of
the symbolic acts in the first half of the book makes clear that the pro­
phet's proclamation is concerned first of all with the fate of the still
existing city of Jerusalem and its temple.
His proclamation in words alone, not symbolized with actions, also
points toward Jerusalem's end. This reference may not be too clear in
the judgment pronounced against the "mountains of Israel" in chapter 6
and in the proclamation of the coming "end" and "day of Yahweh" in
chapter 7, which are stated very broadly. But it is directly indicated in
the judgment on Jerusalem in the sword passage of 21:1-12 and in the
image of the furnace in 22:17-22. Judgment against the oath-breaking
26. Gf. e.g., the presentation in J. Pritchard, ANEP (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1959)9 picture 366.
27. The symbolic actions of quaking during eating in 12:17-20 and the "sighing" in 21:11
may not be interpreted as active "mimicry" of these attitudes. Rather, they reflect a passive
experience which becomes a sign for the message. So also 21:11 and 4:4-8.

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King Zedekiah who sinned against Yahweh himself, before whom he had
sworn his oath, is expressed in chapter 17. The lamentation over the
kings of Judah in chapter 19 may have been directly attached at an
earlier time to chapter 17. Above all, however, the great vision in rap-
ture, chapters 8—11, reveals to the prophet the coming judgment on
Jerusalem. Here he sees not only (in chap. 8) the abomination which
vaunts and boasts in the temple and its immediate vicinity, but also (in
chap. 9) he sees the coming of God's terrible agents of judgment who at
Yahweh's behest break forth in the city with their instruments of murder
to kill all except the small remnant28 who sigh over the abominations
and whom a priestly figure had previously identified by a protective sign.
It is then precisely this priestly figure, however, who receives the com-
mission to cast fire from God's sanctuary on the city and to spread the
judgment which begins in the sanctuary itself (9:6) throughout the city.
This process of judgment reaches its climax, however, when the prophet
sees Yahweh's glory withdraw from the sanctuary and desert the land.
Into this context, the later school has inserted in chapter 10 once again
a full description of the glory of God's throne, which is in many respects
a more extensive reflection than the description in chapter 1. Thus, for
example, the four creatures who bear the throne are here expressly
identified as cherubim. In the description of their four faces, 10:13 f.
deviates from 1:10. The interpolation of the two passages 11:1-13 and
14-21 is also to be attributed to later editing.
The scroll which Ezekiel swallowed when he was sent out from Yahweh
to prophesy contained "lamentation, mourning, and woe." The exile
Ezekiel is sent out to pronounce in God's name an unconditional "No" to
all hopes of restitution of the former life in Jerusalem and thereby also
to all hopes of those who had lived in its surroundings. God is on the
move, the prophet announces, to execute his judgment to the bitter end.
Yahweh has disposed himself to forsake Jerusalem, the holy center of
the "house of Israel."
In all this, Ezekiel radicalizes to the last degree the announcement of
disaster which had already been heard from the mouths of the earlier
literary prophets.
28. The idea recognizable here of a remnant of the "sighing" spared in Jerusalem disappears
completely in what follows. The "escapees" in 6:8-10 and 14:22 f. seem to have quite a different
character.

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VII
Is not God in all this unjust, and has he not become a demon of destruc-
tion? At this point we must speak of the second element of Ezekiel's
prophecy in which the radicalizing of the older prophetic message is still
more uncompromisingly driven forward.
The older literary prophecy also spoke of the sinfulness of Israel and
Jerusalem. Hosea sharply attacked the faithlessness of Israel, who in the
beginning in the wilderness and in her youth before her entrance into
Canaan, had belonged completely to her God. So also in Jeremiah, God
recalls : "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness, in land not sown" (2:2). Similar
statements appear in Isaiah about the earlier history of Jerusalem as a
city "that was full of justice." "Righteousness lodged in her." To this,
the promise then says : "I will restore your judges as at the first, and your
counselors as at the beginning" (1:21, 26). Even though Jeremiah in
despair confirms that Judah is as little capable of good as an Ethiopian
is of changing his skin or a leopard his spots ( 13:23 ), yet the memory of
a glorious past is not extinguished among the older prophets.
With Ezekiel this is radically altered. Jeremiah's terrible statement
on the impossibility of change is here carried to its logical consequences
in comprehensive historical-theological contours. It is made clear that
Jerusalem and Israel fell hopelessly into evil. Ezekiel takes up images of
the earlier prophets, but with terrifying rigor forms them in a message
that the people of Yahweh are radically corrupt, in the literal sense of
"radical," that is, from the roots. Ezekiel is the great prophetic pro-
claimer of "radical evil"; one is almost tempted to introduce the term
"original sin."
Thus Ezekiel 16 tells the story of Jerusalem as the unfaithful wife.
Here the prophet takes up a motif from Hosea and Jeremiah, but formu-
lates it in his own way. His introduction, "Your origin and your birth
are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your
mother a Hittite," contains historical elements of tradition. For a par-
ticularly long time, Jerusalem was a non-Israelite, Canaanite city.29
But it is the prophet, not the historian, who speaks here. The entire
29. Cf., e.g., A. Alt, "Jerusalems Aufstieg," Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel
(Munich: G. H. Beck, 1959), III, 243-57; M. Noth, "Jerusalem und die israelitische Tradi-
tion," Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament, Theol. Bücherei, 6, 1957, pp. 172-87.

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sinful propensity of Jerusalem is already contained in this Canaanite
origin. It is a hereditary condition. The elaboration in verses 44 ff.
begins with a proverb: "Like mother, like daughter." As a modern
proverb puts it : "The apple does not fall far from the tree." The descrip-
tion continues how Yahweh raises this child who had been turned out
by her parents, as a foundling,30 gives her rich jewelry, even takes her in
marriage, but receives nothing from her but thanklessness and faithless-
ness. The judgment that she will be treated "according to the law con-
cerning adulteresses and murderesses"31 is the only possibility left.
The same motif is taken up again in chapter 23. Although clearly
starting with Jeremiah 3:6-10, the writer here speaks of two women
representing the two kingdoms of Israel. He adds the ancient creedal
statement of Israel's exodus from Egypt,32 and traces the paths of both
women from Egypt. But here also, even beyond the beginnings of the
Exodus, the theme of the original depravity of these two women is
included: "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one
mother; they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their
youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled"
(23:2). Then follows the story of Yahweh, who married them: "They
became mine, and they bore sons and daughters." But the history quickly
turns toward evil. If chapter 16 considered primarily, as in Hosea (chap.
2), the religious digression into the cults of Baal and the high places,
chapter 23, taking up ideas from Hosea (and Isaiah), 33 considers the
political adultery with foreign powers—the Assyrians and the new
Babylonians. Precisely as in chapter 16, here also the original depravity
of the women gains the upper hand. The sinfulness of the beginning
leads with an inner compulsion to the later faithlessness. That is the
nature of the house of Israel, in both kingdoms.
There is also a third elaborated presentation. In 20:1-31, the school's
later work expanded the text, especially with verses 27-29. Here without
symbolic coverings, Israel's beginnings in Egypt and the Exodus are
30. To this "tradition of finding," cf. R. Bach, Die Erwählung Israels in der Wüste (disserta-
tion MS., Bonn, 1951 ).
31. The reference to Jer. 3:6-11 makes the search for mythical backgrounds of the story un-
necessary (J. Hempel, Die althebräische Literatur [Wildpark-Potsdam: Akademische Verlags-
gesellschaft, 1930], p. 168).
32. On the term "creed" cf. G. von Rad, "Das formgeschichtliche Problem des Hexateuch,"
Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament, Theol. Bücherei, 8, 1958, pp. 9-86.
33.Hos. 5:13; 7 : " f.; 8:9f.; 12:2; Isa. 30:1 ff.; 31:1 f.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
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34
related, as also in the creedal tradition. But what is said here of these
35
beginnings? Immediately at the election of the people when Yahweh
promised to be their God and to bring them out of Egypt, God com­
manded the people to turn away from the idols of Egypt. But already
at this beginning, when the people were still in Egypt, they showed their
36
evil nature. They rebelled against Yahweh and did not listen to his
command, so that even in Egypt, before he had led them out, he had to
threaten the people with destruction. In the wilderness the same thing
happened again, so that in his anger God condemned the first wilderness
generation to death. The story was repeated with the second wilderness
generation. Thus, even before the people were led into the land, Yahweh
decided on their later dispersion among the peoples—the exile of Ezekiel's
day. It can be shown that in this historical presentation there are traces
of the spy story of Numbers 13 f. and perhaps of the story of the golden
37
calf. The overall view is uniquely Ezekiel's, however, and lies within the
perspective of Ezekiel 16 and 21. Here in a powerful reformulation of
the ancient tradition the radical sinfulness of the house of Israel
from its beginnings and the unresisting decline to God's judgment are
expressed.
In this context, the prophet makes a statement which, as far as I can
tell, is unique in the Old Testament and which candidly approximates
Pauline statements. In view of the sinfulness of the second wilderness
generation, Yahweh decides not only that he will disperse Israel among
the peoples, but over and beyond that he gives them "statutes that were
not good and ordinances by which they could not have life; and I defiled
them by their very gifts by making them offer by fire all their firstborn"
(20:25 f.). Here the puzzle is pondered, that Israel finds in its law the
38
commandment to bring its firstborn to Yahweh. Second Kings reports
that Ahaz and Manasseh burned their sons as offerings (16:3; 21:6)
and recognizes in this the height of sinfulness against Yahweh and the
cause of Judah's decline (II Kings 17:17). Ezekiel had to face the
riddle of "statutes that were not good" which came from Yahweh which
34. Cf. η. 32.
35. The express statement of election occurs in Ezekiel only in 2 0 : 5 .
36. Thus Ezekiel can call the "house of Israel" precisely the "rebellious house." Cf. 2 : 5 ! ; 3 : 9 ,
26 f.; 12:2 f., g, 25; 17:12; 2 4 : 3 ( 2 : 7 ; 4 4 : 6 ) .
37. Exod. 32:34 may contain a hidden reference to the catastrophe of Northern Israel.
38. Exod. 1 3 : 2 ; 22:27b; 3 4 : 1 9 ^ The earlier period clearly viewed redeeming through an
animal sacrifice, as Exod. 3 4 : 2 0 expressly decrees, as an obvious regulation.

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no more led to life as good laws were intended (Ezek. 20:11-13), but
to death. Ezekiel could understand it only out of the dark mystery of
God's will for a judgment of hardening which breaks forth where sinful-
ness reaches its peak. In another way, the same idea is intimated also in
Ezekiel 3:20 and 14:9—an idea of last resort which emerges when
human thought encounters impossible excesses of opposition to God and
yet attempts to come to terms with the reality disclosed by such events.
Jerusalem's excess of guilt is expressed in another way in 22:1-16 by
the catchword "bloody city." In 6-12 in his presentation of the sinful
city, the prophet proceeds through lists of legal prescriptions in the style
of the Decalogue or the lists in Leviticus 18—20 and accuses the city of
every single sin. Such a legal "accusation of sin" was already introduced
in 16:2 and 20:4 with similar introductory words: "And you, son of
man, will you not judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare
to her all her abominable deeds." The stereotyped repetition of this
introductory formula leads one to think that we have here a fixed form
(Gattung) of judicial accusation (perhaps only from Ezekiel's school).
Finally, we must not overlook in this connection the allegory of chap-
ter 15. The images of the vineyard and the vine are not foreign to Israel's
cultic language. They like to use them to express the nobility of the
people chosen by Yahweh.39 Ezekiel does something shocking with this
image, however : He employs it in the form of a debate into which he
has woven historical parables. In his introductory question he simply
bypasses what constitutes the nobility of the vine. He does not ask about
the sweet fruit, but about the usefulness of the wood of the vine, and
inserts throughout features of contemporary historical experience. What
can one do with a piece of wood that has already been charred? The
question refers to the events of 597. Out of the internal logic, the answer
can only be that this wood cannot serve any purpose but to be thrown
into the fire and burned up. Thus the noble image of the vine is
destroyed internally. But there is no joy in such negation and destruction.
It certainly has to do, however, with the destruction of all the self-
glorification of the people and of their holy city of Jerusalem. With the
people and the city nothing is praised, nothing. Everything is evil,
depraved, useless, ready for the fire. All "glory" is here destroyed. Man,
even now the man within Yahweh's chosen people (20:5), can only
39. The positive use of the image among the people can be supposed in Ps. 80:9 ff., as well
as behind Hos. 1 0 : 1 ; Jer. 2:21. Cf. also Isa. 5:1-7 and John 15:1 f.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
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confess before God that God is just and that God's people are full of
injustice and sin.
VIII
Here a most decisive point is introduced. We might formulate the
question, How did Ezekiel come to this proclamation? Do we find in
him a person with an especially developed ethical conscience? Is it the
anger of the prophet over the corruption and ungodly life of his people
which moves his hand and forces his mouth to speak?
To explain Ezekiel in this way would be to misunderstand him. Here we
must point to a form of address which occurs with particular frequency
in his language and which cannot be overlooked in any interpretation
of his proclamation. This is the so-called word of demonstration
40
(Erweiswort) , Ezekiel's announcement of an approaching action by
Yahweh repeatedly leads to proclamation : ". . . and you [or they] shall
55
know that I am Yahweh. There are certain variations : ". . . and they
55
shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my jealousy (5:13), or
55
". . . that I am Yahweh who smites (7:7). Ezekiel in no way invented
this form or used it for the first time. A particularly elegant double
example of this short formula is to be found in the older prophetic his­
tories in I Kings 20:13 and 28. In verse 28 a man of God tells the king
of Israel, prior to the battle against the Syrians: "Because the Syrians
c
have said, The LORD is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the
5
valleys, therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hands
and you shall know that I am the LORD.55 In this text we see anew
something of the archaic character of Ezekiel's proclamation. In this
element of speech, which he employs often, he stands in the tradition of
41
the earlier, preliterary prophecy (cf. Pt. I l l above).
A more detailed form-critical analysis of this language reveals that two
42
different elements are combined in the final formulation. The formula
55 55
"and you shall know or "thus you will know derives from the legal
language of a process of proof. Thus, for example, Pharaoh says to the
40. Cf. the presentation in Gottes Offenbarung (η. 11), pp. 120-32.
41. When G. Fohrer ([Sellin-Fohrer] Einleitung in das Alte Testament [Heidelberg:
Quelle and Meyer, 1950/65]) finds it necessary to reject the form of the "word of self-demonstra­
tion" {Erweiswort) because I Kings 20:13, 28 is a secondary insertion in I Kings 20, he
overlooks the wide distribution of related forms in preliterary prophecy. The material is presented
in the study cited in n. 42.
42. On this, "Erkenntnis Gottes nach dem Buche Ezechiel," Gottes Offenbarung (see n. 11),
pp.41-119.

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 brothers whom he suspects of being spies, but who in defense of their
innocence have told him about their younger brother Benjamin : "Bring
your youngest brother to me; and then I shall know that you are not spies
55
but honest men (Gen. 42:34). Bringing the youngest brother is the
5
proof by which the Pharaoh will recognize the truth of the brothers
statements.
Combined with this way of speaking, in the recognition formula of
55
Ezekiel and II Kings 20 is the element "that I am Yahweh. In Hebrew
this is a short objective clause (in the form of a predicate nominative)
55 55
introduced by "that. This form, " I am Yahweh, has a clear Sitz im
4
Leben. * It is the form of self-presentation by which in encounter an
unknown person introduces himself. Thus in the great scene at Sinai,
Yahweh in the first sentence of the Decalogue emerges from his mystery
and reveals himself to his people with " I am the LORD your God, who
55
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage
44
(Exod. 20:2J. Thus, here, according to the full recognition formula,
that which is to be recognized is Yahweh, who comes forth in revelation.
Closer examination shows that the recognition formula always pre­
cedes a statement about Yahweh's actions; in our context, his judgmental
action toward his people. This formula seeks to say that the ultimate
5
meaning of God s action toward his people is to recognize God's revela­
tion in this action. He presents himself to his people in his action as the
one he is. By his deeds he wants to be recognized as the Lord with whom
Israel has to do.
5
Here the real purpose of God s action and judgment is expressed. It
is not ethical anger which moves the hand of the prophet in his writing
and opens his mouth in speaking. Rather, he knows that through every­
thing that he proclaims, Yahweh, the God of Israel, is underway to
reveal himself to his people. Where men bow their knees before this God
and acknowledge that in his just action he is on the move, there Ezekiel's
5
proclamation achieves its proper goal. The man affected by God s
action properly answers God's address to him through the prophet's
word and the deed of judgment by recognizing God, by acknowledging
him and submitting to him,
43. To this, "Ich bin Jahwe," Gottes Offenbarung (η. 11), pp. 11-40. Also Κ. Elliger, "Ich
bin der Herr-euer Gott," Theologie als Glaubenswagnis, Festschrift for Κ. Heim, 1954, pp. 9-34.
44. That it must be translated thus and not " I , Yahweh, am your God" is clearest in the
quotation from the Decalogue in Ps. 50:7 when one goes back through its Elohistic editing.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
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Here it would perhaps be helpful to glance at the general style of the

entire book.45 The order and uniformity of the general structure of the
book are striking. That explains the long delay in critical work and
makes understandable Smend's judgment which we cited earlier. The
framework for the various sections of the book is a first-person report by
the prophet. This form might at first indicate a strong biographical
character. Closer examination shows, however, that Yahweh's action
and speech are the thoroughgoing content of the prophet's first-person
report. The great visionary intrusions into his life open his eyes for God's
appearance and action (ι : ι ff.; 3:220.; 8:1 ff.; 37:1fr.; 40: iff.).
Almost all the other pericopes include the formula "and the word of
Yahweh came to me." It speaks of the inbreaking of the divine word
into Ezekiel's life; God's word is the principal experience reported.
This reference to the word of God as the true event leads to remarkable
consequences. Even the words the prophet hears from his environment
and with which he must contend come to him, not simply as commonly
accessible knowledge, but by way of the word of Yahweh. Repeatedly
Yahweh informs the prophet that people in Israel are saying certain
things, are answering him in certain ways or with certain questions.46
Thus we cannot overlook that all of Ezekiel's reporting is full of
Yahweh's action, and seeks to point to the deeds of the God of Israel
and to lead men to submission to this God and his majesty. "They shall
know that I am Yahweh."

IX
The only dated pericope does not seem to fit this characterization. It
is the short passage 33:21 f ,47 There is neither the intrusion of the divine
vision nor the event of the divine word. The passage simply says that
an escapee from Jerusalem reports to the prophet, "The city has fallen."
This information, however, releases the prophet's tongue which the hand
of Yahweh had bound the evening before.
To the statement that the prophet's mouth is opened is added, ". . .
and I was no longer dumb." This alludes to an event of broader impor-
45. Gf. esp. K. Von Rabenau, "Die Entstehung des Buches Ezechiel in formgeschichtlicher
Sicht," Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther Universität, Halle-Wittenberg, Vol. V,
1955/56, No. 4, Gesellschafts-und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe.
46. Thus, e.g., 12:9; 21:8; 37:18.
47. The dating may have originally named the n t h year; cf. commentary on this text.

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149
tance for the prophet's proclamation. 3:26 f., which is certainly editorial,
leaves the impression that the prophet's inability to speak began seven
days after his calling.48 The expansion 24:25-27, which once may have
been the direct transition to 33:21 f., foretells his renewed ability to
speak when the escapee will have arrived. But everything handed down
in chapters 4—2449 about the preaching between the time of the pro-
phet's call and the fall of Jerusalem speaks against such an extended
time of dumbness; it must have been for a shorter period. With the
sensitivity of the prophet, which is to be observed elsewhere, we must
not rule out that such periods of dumbness could have happened before.
These would account for the school expansions in chapters 3 and 24.
When, however, 33:21 f. speaks of a freeing for proclamation for an
unlimited period, it contains more than a short biographical note. It is
to be understood within the framework of the prophet's entire procla-
mation. The school expansion of the word of the prophet in 16:63 says
that after she is pardoned, the unfaithful wife will not be able to open
her mouth. On the other hand, the late passage, 29:2i, says that when
the salvation promised to Israel has fully come, the prophet will be given
full freedom to open his mouth. When compared with these passages,
it must not be overlooked that 33:21 f. also intends to point to Yahweh's
mighty action. Through the message of the eyewitness who comes from
Jerusalem,50 the prophet is informed how Yahweh has proved himself in
his act of judgment. This opens the prophet's mouth in a deeper sense
and gives him freedom (parrhësia) to speak this word anew.

X
Before we turn to the new speaking of the prophet after God proves
himself in judgment, we should also consider briefly the extent to which
Yahweh's intrusion in judgment affects Israel's surroundings.
In the general editing of the book, statements in chapters 25—32
against seven peoples or cities and their leaders were inserted between
48. The date of 3 : i6a was originally connected with 3:22 f. as the present difficult sequence
of 16a and 16b shows.
49. The dating of the Egyptian sayings in chaps. 29—31 could also be mentioned here.
50. Other language usage in the Book of Ezekiel suggests that the "escapee" was not an in-
dividual refugee who had fled to Babylon in a mysterious way, but one company of those
deported in 587.

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the immediate announcement of the city's fall and the eyewitness report
of this event in 33:21 f.51
Here the words against Egypt and Pharaoh (29—32) again stand out.
At one time they must have formed a complete, chronologically well-
ordered little book. The Tyre passage in 26—28, with its incomplete
chronology at the beginning, may also have once been independent.52
From the dates, the Egyptian passage can certainly be placed around
the time of the fall of Jerusalem.53 From Jeremiah 37:3 we learn that
during this final period of fighting, after the beginning of the Babylonian
siege of Jerusalem, Pharaoh marched out to support Judah. This entan-
glement of Egypt in the fate of Judah called for the prophetic proclama-
tion of Pharaoh's judgment also at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar since,
according to Ezekiel 17, Egypt had earlier been Judah's tempter, demand-
ing its secession from Nebuchadnezzar (20:20 ff. ; 32:11 ; cf. also 29:17-
20).54 Yet it is striking that only in 2g:6b-9a is Egypt's relationship to
Judah given as a reason for the judgment. The country's internal weak-
ness is pictured by the image of the staff which breaks where one leans
on it, as in Isaiah 36:6. Only at the beginning of the Tyre passage in
26:2 is there a certain malicious delight by the commercial city of Tyre
in the destruction of its rival Jerusalem. Otherwise the words of judg-
ment against these two neighboring powers follow different rules. Inso-
far as reasons are given for their fall, the points of attack are the great
power's hubris and ostentatious display. With the picture of the fall of
the mighty into hell,55 the impending judgment is depicted in an espe-
cially impressive way. Mythical material from the environment is drawn
in to skillfully increase the imagery of the language. Thus in 28:10 ff.,
the myth of the expulsion of the original man from paradise; in 31 the
myth of the world-tree. Further, there is the understandable symbolizing
51. In the final editing of the book, the passage 33:1-20 was included before 33:21 f. because
of the theme of 33:1-10.
52. This can be seen from the similar (editorial) concluding word in 2 6 : 2 1 ; 27:36b and
28:19b.
53. The origin of the undated passage 30:1-19 is also questionable on the basis of its content.
And 29:17-21 represents, as the date shows, a late addition which is no reason to deny it to the
prophet.
54. In 29:17-20 a statement about Tyre is combined with one about Egypt in a quite unique
way.
55. This motif is to be found in 26:20 (cf. also 28:10, 12) in the ending of a word on Tyre,
in 31:14, 15-18, and esp. in the impressive description of 32:17-32.

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of Tyre in 27 as a glorious luxury ship56 and Pharaoh in 29:1 ff. and
32:1 ff. as a crocodile of the Nile.
The announcement of judgment against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and
the Philistines in 25, formed throughout as words of demonstration
(Erweisworte), has a quite different character. Here malicious delight
at and enmity against the judged people of Yahweh and Jerusalem are
the cause of the divine sentence. Thereby, however, a new zeal of God
for his people is proclaimed in which he will prove himself as the Lord.
The thought of Yahweh's self-glorification entirely dominates the short
word against Sidon (28:21-23). It was possibly added late so that the
number of powers addressed would be seven.
It may be surprising that there is no word of judgment against Baby-
lon. Doubtless this is to be understood from the prophet's clear proclama-
tion, following Jeremiah. For the prophet, King Nebuchadnezzar is
God's ordained instrument of judgment against whom no prophetic word
is to be directed. In contrast to the Book of Jeremiah, no threat against
Babylon later forced its way into the Book of Ezekiel.57 This counsels
against going too far in reconstructing the final editing of the book. How
differently Deutero-Isaiah, the prophet of the end of the Exile, speaks
on this matter ! In other places, though, he clearly takes up themes from
Ezekiel.
XI
In the judgment in Ezekiel 25 against the Palestinian neighbors of the
house of Israel, a new zeal of Yahweh for the house of Israel destroyed
by his judgment is proclaimed. This zeal for his people, which quite
surprisingly becomes the announcement of complete salvation for the
house of Israel, is to be recognized fully in chapters 34 if. In the first part
of the book, however, it also determines particular expansions of original
words of judgment made somewhat later by Ezekiel himself or by his
school. Thus 11:14-21; 16:42, 53-63; 17:22-24; 20:32-44.
The time depicted in 33:21 f. when the prophet opened his mouth
56. The magnificent lamentation on the luxury ship Tyre and its demise is included in a
prosaic commercial list in 12-125. Cf. H.P. Rüger, Das Tyrusorakel Ez. 27 (dissertation MS.,
Tübingen, 1961).
57. One may not interpret the announcement of the invasion and the destruction of Gog
by Magog in 38 f. as an abbreviated threat against the Babylonian power. Ezekiel's original
words, the intention of which is the completion of Isaiah's proclamation of Yahweh's final victory
over his enemies in the land of Israel and Jeremiah's announcement of the "enemy of the north,"
were later overlaid with apocalyptic features.

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anew suggests itself immediately as the beginning of this new proclama-

tion. But i i : 14-21, which seems to have been spoken at a time when
Jerusalem and the temple still stood, keeps alive the question whether,
in view of the deportees, the prophet may not have been empowered
to speak a word which opened up a renewed future for the people.
The vision in 37:1-14, doubtless to be dated after 587, quite clearly
allows us to see how an image quite unexpectedly becomes a dramatically
experienced reality for the prophet. In 37:11 we hear the deep sighing
of the people, shattered by the judgment : "Our bones are dried up, and
our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.55 The divine judgment has per-
formed its work to the bitter end. From these sighs arise the first of
three lamentations, employing imagery used, for example, in Psalm
31:11 and Proverbs 17:22. Seized by the "hand of Yahweh,55 the prophet
is introduced "in the spirit of Yahweh55 to a vision where what men
lament acquires corporeal reality. The prophet is led through a huge
field of dry bones which proclaim death at every turn. Here, however,
he receives the commission of speaking to these dead bones with a pro-
phetically empowered word. And during his prophecy he experiences
how the bones come together, how sinews, flesh, and skin grow; and at his
second word the dead bodies rise to life through the invoked "spirit.55
This vision he is to interpret to the house of Israel as the promise of a
new homecoming into the land of Israel.58 Here again is the recognition
formula of the "word of demonstration55 (Erweiswort) : ". . . and you
shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and I have done it.55
From this we can derive two things: First, it is clear that for the
people who experienced the judgment of the year 587 on their sins, one
can, in my opinion, speak only of the future with the category of awak-
ening from the dead. Thus, as in the original creation (Gen. 2:7), when
man was first formed into a body and then created as a living being
with God5s own breath, so "the spirit55 whom the prophet called in by
his word awakens to life again those bodies which had assembled from
the dead bones under the prophet's word. There is, however, nothing
viable from Israel's old existence which is drawn upon here. The judg-
ment has been dispensed up to the end. But by virtue of his absolute
creative authority Yahweh creates new life out of this utter lostness.
58. This scene was early miscontrued as the general resurrection of the dead, as paintings in
the Dura-Europos synagogue show. Cf., e.g., R. Wischnitzer-Bernstein, "The Conception of the
Resurrection in the Ezekiel Panel of the Dura Synagogue," JBL, LX (1941), 43-55.

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 Second, what is announced here cannot afterwards be evaluated to
honor any man. It takes place so that Yahweh will be acknowledged
insofar as in his new act of creation he reveals himself to his people.
God is the one who speaks here through his prophet's word; God5s word
is what happens.
But why this new beginning? 36:16 ff. reveal the reasons. They repeat
once more the sorry history of Yahweh with his people which necessarily
ended in exile. During the Exile, however, Yahweh's name, which is
bound up with his own people, is ridiculed among the nations. "These are
Yahweh's people and they had to leave their land.55 It is now God5s
unique logic, however, that he does not disassociate his name from this
people, but in an inexplicable faithfulness allows it to remain bound to
them. Because of this connection, he begins to be jealous of his name.
36:21 says that he concerned himself about his holy name. Therefore
he acts. "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to
act, but for the sake of my holy name . . . and I will vindicate the holi-
ness of my great name.55 It is remarkable how closely Ezekiel here
approaches the formulation of Deutero-Isaiah.59
This connection also occurs in other places. We hear in Ezekiel 20:33
the despairing self-abandonment of the dispersed people. "Let us be like
the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone.55
Here the only possibility which the house of Israel thinks it can see is
the assimilation of the exiles into their heathen environment. Against
this, however, the prophet is summoned to proclaim a new event of
exodus which God will accomplish as formerly when he led them out of
Egypt "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.55 As God then met
his people in the "wilderness of Egypt55 as the Holy One and held judg-
ment, so will he meet his own people face to face "in the wilderness of
the nations55 and separate them in judgment as one allows a flock to "pass
under the rod.55 Those thus pruned out will march to "the high moun-
tain of Israel55 in order properly to offer sacrifice to God. Here is the
proclamation of the new Exodus, already formed in Hosea 2:16 f. and
rejoicingly developed in the proclamation of Deutero-Isaiah.60
59. Isa. 4 3 : 2 5 .
60. "Der 'neue Exodus' in der Verkündigung der beiden Exilspropheten," Gottes Offenbarung
(see η. 11), pp. 192-204. T h e contact extends to still further areas; cf. the references in " D e r
Wahrheitserweis Jahwes nach der Botschaft der beiden Exilspropheten/' Tradition und Situation,
Festschrift for Α. Weiser, 1963, pp. 133-51.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
Interpretation

Furthermore, here arises the prospect of a new, peaceful life in the

land under a new David who as the one shepherd will make the house of
Israel, torn in the past into two states, again one people (37:15 ff.) and
will replace the evil shepherds of the past (34:1 ff.).
Two aspects of the new time of the future salvation are depicted. It
will be the time when Yahweh will heal the people's old disobedience
by giving them a new heart and a new spirit and by replacing their
stony hearts with hearts of flesh (36:26; cf. 11:19). And Yahweh will
also in that time once again dwell in the midst of his people and will be
their God in a new, saving covenant. The double covenant formula
61
appears in this connection (37:37; cf. also n :2ο; 14: i i ) . All this is
not to be understood in just a spiritual sense, however. The great con­
cluding vision (40—48), powerfully elaborated, describes the pure sym­
metry of the future temple where, according to 43 : iff., Yahweh's glory
will enter in anew. Here we can clearly recognize the work of the school
as it planned and considered the order of a pure worship in the sanctuary
and the proper course of the princes in the service of the sanctuary. In
40—48 the plans of the generation following the Exile, which realistically
thought and planned toward an imminent day of the return, are ever
62
more clearly expressed.
XII
One final aspect hitherto left aside in the proclamation of the
prophet himself must yet be considered. It witnesses to the realism and
concrete responsibility in which the prophet understood his mission to
his people after their great collapse. The sublime proclamation of
impending return and new creation of the people must have left open
a question in the concrete, everyday life of the exiles : What shall we do
today? Ezekiel did not sidestep this question.
He did not deal with it in meaningless generalities, but in lively dis­
cussion with the voices of resignation and cynical nihilism which threat­
ened to spread among the people after the catastrophe. 33:24 shows
that among those who still remained in the country in 587 were some who
sought to bypass the seriousness of the judgment with pious self-consola­
tion: "Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; we
61. Gf. R. Smend, Die Bundesformel {Theol. Studien, 68; Zurich: EVZ-Verlag, 1963).
62. This is proved in detail in "Planungen für den Wiederaufbau nach der Katastrophe von
587," ν Τ , Χ ν ί Ι Ι ( i 9 6 8 ) , 229-55.

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IOS
 are many; the land is surely given to us to possess." Toward such a
position Ezekiel had only new judgment to pronounce (33:25-29).
Even stronger are the voices of those who have rejected hope. On the
one hand there are cynical nihilists who reject any righteousness of God :
"The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on
edge" (18:2) ; and with this the open provocation of God: "The way
of the Lord is not just" ( 18:25, 29 ; 33:17, 20 ). On the other hand there
are the voices of pious despair which likewise believe no more in a
future : "Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away
because of them; how then can we live?" (33:10).
The teaching in 18:4-20 concerns that resignation which believes that
guilt is firmly anchored in the sequence of generations. Against this, the
prophet passionately proclaims that each generation is responsible for its
own action and receives life or death accordingly. 18:21-32, however,
has to do with the fatalistic cowardice of those who think themselves
ultimately bound in their fate by their yesterdays. To them he pro-
claims that today the freedom to turn around stands open. Behind this
call for conversion emerges the face of a God who is not simply a dis-
passionate judge casting lots with equanimity. "Have I any pleasure in
the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should
turn from his way and live?" (18:23). God is a partisan on the side of life.
One further thing in this exposition must be recognized. A general call
to conversion is not enough. In the first passage, which seeks to release
men from the fate of a guilt transmitted through the generations, the
prophet describes in a sequence of three generations a just man, an
unjust man, and a just man. In the introductory description of the just
man, we can recognize a formula which enumerates the individual traits
of the just man and probably comes from the liturgy of entrance at the
temple gates. Here these traits might have been specified: "One who
does not eat on the mountains and does not lift his eyes to the idols of
the house of Israel, who oppresses no one, returns the debtor's pawn,
seizes no loot nor robs, gives bread to the hungry and clothes the naked,
does not give money for interest, takes no profit. . . ." Over the man who
measured up to all this a characteristic form of a declaratory judgment63
of righteousness was pronounced at the temple gate : "He is just," and
63. The terminology comes from G. von Rad, ThLZ, L X X V I (1951), 129-32. Cf. also R.
Rendtorff, Die Gesetze in der Priesterschrift (FRLANT, 4 4 ; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1954), pp. 74-76.

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 The Message of the Prophet Ezekiel
Interpretation

he was allowed entrance into the sanctuary where life was promised
under God's blessing : "He shall live, says the Lord God." w Here is made
visible in individual examples what conversion must mean. Using the
temple formula in a time when the temple in Jerusalem lay in ruins and
the exiles had to worship in an unclean land in which God had become
"a sanctuary to them in small measure," Ezekiel, as it were, calls indi-
viduals anew to the temple gate and promises them even in exile entrance
into life which was once proclaimed in the sanctuary.
Is this not, however, precisely that second aspect of the office entrusted
to him in 3:17-21—a formulation presupposed both by 33:1-9 and
chapter 18? Here Ezekiel is called by God to be a lookout (watchman)
and is taken into this service with full responsibility. "So you, son of
man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. . . . If I say to
the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to
the wicked man to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his
iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the
wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall
die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life" (33:7-9).
The harsh proclaimer of the judgment which is inexorably breaking
in over a deeply guilty people, the proclaimer of God's promise to call
to new life his people dying in exile and to give them again his presence
in his sanctuary, has become, as well, the admonisher and warner of the
individual. He admonishes him to set out toward his God in obedience.
He stands there as the admonisher who knows himself to be responsible
for the individual's salvation.
Ezekiel is the Old Testament prophet who proclaims more radically
than any other that no righteousness of the people called by God can
stand up before God. After the collapse, however, he proclaims a new
future to those who have been destroyed by the judgment. In expectation
of such a future, he calls to obedience today.
All of this is not yet the message of the Son of God who, for the world's
sins, himself went to death in order that man through faith in this death
would turn toward the life given to him. But who would deny that Ezekiel
is a messenger on the way to the Son?
64. G. von Rad, " 'Gerechtigkeit' and 'Leben' in der Kultsprache der Psalmen," Gesammelte
Studien zum Alten Testament, Theol. Bücherei, 8, 1958, pp. 225-47. In Gottes Offenbarung (n.
11), pp. 178-91, " 'Leben' und 'Tod' im Buche des Propheten Ezechiel."
65. See Pt. V, the conclusion.

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