EZEKIEL, BOOK OF. The Book of Ezekiel is one of the larger prophetic books in the Canon of the Old Testament. Ezekiel, the author, was one of those who with Jehoiachin was carried captive to Babylonia in 597 B.C. by Nebuchadrezzar. He was a priest as well as a prophet, and it has been suggested that " possibly he was singled out by Nebuchadrezzar as a chief man among the priests " (C. H. Toy). He represents a transition period, a period in which the prophets were giving place to the priests. Jeremiah also was a priest, and, as Prof. Harper says, the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are far more priestly than pro phetic. " Ezekiel, as a prophet, was alive to the dependence of the people on the immediate word of God, to the necessity, that is, of a constant living contact between the mind of God and the mind of man: but, as priest, he also saw that the people had reached a stage which demanded a more precise formulation of the law of worship. He lived on the verge of a great religious revolution—the abolition, namely, of idolatry, and the establishment of the sole worship of Yahwe in Israel. The religious leaders of Josiah's time, both priests and prophets, had with true insight insisted on the necessity of centralising the worship at Jerusalem in order to destroy the corrupt local cults. Ezekiel carries on the fight for ethical monotheism, not only by denouncing the worship of other gods than Yahwe as the source of the national misfortunes, but also, more effectively, by furthering that strict organisation of the cultus which alone could train the people to the purer worship of the one God of Israel " (C. H. Toy in the Encycl. Bibl.). The text of the Book of Ezekiel is in considerable dis order, but this is not due to composite authorship. The contents may be divided into three sections. (1) Chapters i.-xxiv. were delivered at the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem, and have in prospect its imminent destruction. This section contains the " Vision of the Chariot " (i. 1-iii. 15). Chapters xxv.-xxxii. contain
oracles against foreign nations, against Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt. Chapters xxxiii.-xlviii. contain prophecies of Israel's restoration and triumph, with a vision of the restored theocracy. The last part of this section and of the whole book is rather different in character from the rest of the work. It presents an ideal state; it puts forward " a conception which constitutes the germ of the doctrine of the kingdom of God " (Harper). There are many points of contact between Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Ezekiel would seem to have been familiar with discourses or writings of the earlier prophet; or it may be supposed that in some cases use was made of a common source. Compare Ezek. iii. 3 with Jer. xv. 16; Ezek. iii. 17 with Jer. vi. 17; Ezek. vii. 14, 27 with Jer. iv. 5-9; Ezek. sill. with Jer. xiv. 13-16; Ezek. xiii. 10 with Jer. vi. 14; Ezek. xvi. 51 with Jer. iii. 11; Ezek. will. with Jer. xxxi. 29 f.; Ezek. xx. with Jer. xi. 3-S; Ezek. xxiv. 16-23 with Jer. xvi. 3-9; Ezek. xxlx.-xxxi. with Jer. xlvi.; Ezek. xxxiv. with Jer. xxiii. 1-4; Ezek. xxxvi. 26 with Jer. xxiv. 7; Ezek. xxxvii. 24 with Jer. xxx. 9; Ezek. xxxviii. 15 with Jer. vi. 22. There are also points of contact between Ezekiel and the Code of Holiness (see LEVITICUS). The latest date given in the book of Ezekiel is 570 B.C. (xxix. 17). The text on which the Septuagint translation was based seems to have been shorter than the Hebrew text. See C. H. Toy in the Encycl. Bibl.; A. B. Davidson, Ezekiel in the " Cam bridge Bible," 1592; C. Cornill, Das Bach des Prophet Ezechiel, 1886; A. Bertholet, Das Bitch Hesekiel, 1897; R. Kraetzschmar, Das Bitch Ezechiel, 1900; W. R. Harper, The Priestly Element in the Old Testament, 1905; C. Cornill, Intr.; G. H. Box; O. C. Whitehouse.