EZEKIEL = pin', [whom] God will strengthen, Gesen. Thes., or God will prevail, Rosenm. &hal. ; Sept. 'IWocojX), one of the greater prophets, whose writings, both in the Hebrew and Alexandrian canons, are placed next to those of Jeremiah. He was the son of Busi the priest (ch. i. 3), and, ing to tradition, was a native of Sarera (tic -yijr Carpzov, Izztrod., pt. iii. p. zoo). Of his early history we have no authentic information. We first find him in the country of Mesopotamia, `by the river Chebar' (ch. i. t), now Ehabiir, a stream of considerable length flowing into the Euphrates, near Circesium, Eirkesia (Rosenmiiller's Bibl. Geog. of Central Asia in Bibl. Cabinet, vol. ii. p. 18o). On this river Nebuchadnezzar founded a Jewish colony from the captives whom he brought from Jerusalem when he besieged it in the eighth year of his reign (2 Kings xxiv. 12). This colony (or at least a part of it) was settled at a place called Tel- Abib, which has been thought by some to answer to the Thallaba of D'Anville (Rosenm., Bibl. Ceog., vol. ii. p. 188); and it seems to have been here that the prophet fixed his residence. Josephus (Antiq. x. 6. 3) states that he was a youth (7rdis when carried away captive ; but, as Havernick (Commenter iiber Ezechiel, Er langen, 1843, p. viii.) justly remarks, the matured character of a priest which appears in his writings, and his intimate acquaintance with the temple service, render such a supposition highly impro bable. He received his commission as a prophet in the fifth year of his captivity (n.c. 594). Many critics suppose (from ch. i. I) that this event took place in the 3oth year of his age. Thus Carpzov (p. 2o1) understands the expression. There is, however, little reason to think that this is the epoch intended. The more probable opinion seems to be that the reckoning is from the commencement of the reign of Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchad nezzar (Scaliger, De Emezzdatione Tenzporunz, Lug. Bat. P. 374 ; Rosenm. Schol. irz Ezech. ; Eichhorn, Einleilung in d. A. T., vol. iii. p. 1S8, 3d edit. ; Winer, Bibl. Realwortenbuch, art. Ezech.') Others (as Ussher, Havernick, pp. 12, 13) take the era to be that of the finding the book of the law in the 18th year of Josiah, which is nearly synchronous with the former. The question
is not of much importance in a chronological point of view, since the date is sufficiently fixed by the reference he makes to the year of captivity. Ezekiel is remarkably silent respecting his per sonal history ; the only event which he records (and that merely in its connection with his pro phetic office) is the death of his wife in the ninth year of the captivity (ch. xxiv. 18). He continued to exercise the prophetic office dur ing a period of at least twenty-two years, that is, to the 27th year of the captivity (ch. xxix. 17); and it appears probable that he remained with the cap tives by the river Chebar during the whole of his life. That he exercised a very commanding influ ence over the people is manifest from the numerous intimations we have of the elders coming to inquire of him what message God had sent through him (ch. viii. I ; xiv. I ; xx. I ; xxxiii. 31, 32, etc.) Carpzov (pp. 203.4) relates several traditions re• specting his death and sepulchre, principally from the treatise De Vitis Prophet., falsely attributed to Epiphanius. It is there said that he was killed at Babylon by the chief of the people (1) i-yobuevos rof Nao0) on account of his having reproved him for idolatry; that he was buried in the field of Maur (ep d-rp43 Mascip) in the tomb of Shem and Arphaxad, and that his sepulchre was still in existence. Such traditions are obviously of very little value.
Ezekiel was contemporary with Jeremiah and Daniel. The former had sustained the prophetic office during a period of thirty-four years before Ezekiel's first predictions, and continued to pro phesy for six or seven years after. It appears probable that the call of Ezekiel to the prophetic office was connected with the communication of Jeremiah's predictions to Babylon (Jer. li. 59), which took place the year preceding the first reve lation to Ezekiel (Havernick, p. ix.) The greater part of Daniel's predictions are of a later date than those of Ezekiel ; but it' appears that his piety and wisdom had become proverbial even in the early part of Ezekiel's ministry (ch. xiv. 14, 16 ; xxviii. 3).