Ezekiel 1:1

A Vision of God’s Glory

1:1 In the thirtieth year, ¹  on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles ²  at the Kebar River, ³  the heavens opened ⁴  and I saw a divine vision. ⁵ 

Ezekiel 12:4

12:4 Bring out your belongings packed for exile during the day while they are watching. And go out at evening, while they are watching, as if for exile.

Ezekiel 16:4-5

16:4 As for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water; ⁶  you were certainly not rubbed down with salt, nor wrapped with blankets. ⁷  16:5 No eye took pity on you to do even one of these things for you to spare you; ⁸  you were thrown out into the open field ⁹  because you were detested on the day you were born.

Ezekiel 20:6

20:6 On that day I swore ¹⁰  to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land which I had picked out ¹¹  for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ¹²  the most beautiful of all lands.

Ezekiel 23:39

23:39 On the same day they slaughtered their sons for their idols, they came to my sanctuary to desecrate it. This is what they have done in the middle of my house.

Ezekiel 36:33

36:33 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt.

Ezekiel 38:14

38:14 “Therefore, prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you will take notice ¹³ 

Ezekiel 45:25

45:25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, ¹⁴  he will make the same provisions for the sin offering, burnt offering, and grain offering, and for the olive oil, for the seven days.

¹ sn The meaning of the thirtieth year is problematic. Some take it to mean the age of Ezekiel when he prophesied (e.g., Origen). The Aramaic Targum explains the thirtieth year as the thirtieth year dated from the recovery of the book of the Torah in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 22:3-9). The number seems somehow to be equated with the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile in 1:2, i.e., 593 b.c.

² sn The Assyrians started the tactic of deportation, the large-scale forced displacement of conquered populations, in order to stifle rebellions. The task of uniting groups of deportees, gaining freedom from one’s overlords and returning to retake one’s own country would be considerably more complicated than living in one’s homeland and waiting for an opportune moment to drive out the enemy’s soldiers. The Babylonians adopted this practice also, after defeating the Assyrians. The Babylonians deported Judeans on three occasions. The practice of deportation was reversed by the Persian conquerors of Babylon, who gained favor from their subjects for allowing them to return to their homeland and, as polytheists, sought the favor of the gods of the various countries which had come under their control.

³ sn The Kebar River is mentioned in Babylonian texts from the city of Nippur in the fifth century b.c. It provided artificial irrigation from the Euphrates.

⁴ sn For the concept of the heavens opened in later literature, see 3 Macc 6:18; 2 Bar. 22:1; T. Levi 5:1; Matt 3:16; Acts 7:56; Rev 19:11.

⁵ tn Or “saw visions from God.” References to divine visions occur also in Ezek 8:3; 40:2

⁶ tn Heb “in water you were not washed for cleansing” or “with water you were not washed smooth” (see D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:473, n. 57, for a discussion of possible meanings of this hapax legomenon).

⁷ sn Arab midwives still cut the umbilical cords of infants and then proceed to apply salt and oil to their bodies.

¹¹ sn These verbs, “pity” and “spare,” echo the judgment oracles in 5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:18; 9:5, 10.

¹² sn A similar concept is found in Deut 32:10.

¹⁶ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”

¹⁷ tn Or “searched out.” The Hebrew word is used to describe the activity of the spies in “spying out” the land of Canaan (Num 13-14); cf. KJV “I had espied for them.”

¹⁸ sn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a figure of speech describing the land’s abundant fertility, occurs in v. 15 as well as Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 26:9; 27:3; Josh 5:6; Jer 11:5; 32:23 (see also Deut 1:25; 8:7-9).

²¹ tn The Hebrew text is framed as a rhetorical question: “will you not take notice?”

²⁶ sn That is, the Feast of Temporary Shelters, traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles (Exod 23:16; 34:22; Deut 16:16).