like his contemporary Jeremiah, was of the sacerdotal race. He
was carried away captive to Babylon with Jehoiachim, king of Judah, B.
C. 598, and was placed with many others of his countrymen upon the river
Chebar, in Mesopotamia, where he was favoured with the divine
revelations contained in his book. He began to prophesy in the fifth
year of his captivity, and is supposed to have prophesied about
twenty-one years. The boldness with which he censured the idolatry and
wickedness of his countrymen is said to have cost him his life; but his
memory was greatly revered, not only by the Jews, but also by the Medes
and Persians. The book which bears his name may be considered under the
five following divisions: the first three chapters contain the glorious
appearance of God to the prophet, and his solemn appointment to his
office, with instructions and encouragements for the discharge of it.
From the fourth to the twenty-fourth chapter inclusive, he describes,
under a variety of visions and similitudes, the calamities impending
over Judea, and the total destruction of the temple and city of
Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar, occasionally predicting another period of
yet greater desolation, and more general dispersion. From the beginning
of the twenty-fifth to the end of the thirty-second chapter, the prophet
foretels the conquest and ruin of many nations and cities, which had
insulted the Jews in their affliction; of the Ammonites, the Moabites,
the Edomites, and Philistines; of Tyre, of Sidon, and Egypt; all of
which were to be punished by the same mighty instrument of God’s wrath
against the wickedness of man; and in these prophecies he not only
predicts events which were soon to take place, but he also describes the
condition of these several countries in the remote periods of the world.
From the thirty-second to the fortieth chapter, he inveighs against the
accumulated sins of the Jews collectively, and the murmuring spirit of
his captive brethren; exhorts them earnestly to repent of their
hypocrisy and wickedness, upon the assurance that God will accept
sincere repentance; and comforts them with promises of approaching
deliverance under Cyrus; subjoining intimations of some far more
glorious, but distant, redemption under the Messiah, though the manner
in which it is to be effected is deeply involved in mystery. The last
nine chapters contain a remarkable vision of the structure of a new
temple and a new polity, applicable in the first instance to the return
from the Babylonian captivity, but in its ultimate sense referring to
the glory and prosperity of the universal church of Christ. Jerom
observes that the visions of Ezekiel are among the things in Scripture
hard to be understood. This obscurity arises, in part at least, from the
nature and design of the prophecies themselves; they were delivered
amidst the gloom of captivity; and though calculated to cheer the
drooping spirits of the Jews, and to keep alive a watchful and
submissive confidence in the mercy of God, yet they were intended to
communicate only such a degree of encouragement as was consistent with a
state of punishment, and to excite an indistinct expectation of future
blessings, upon condition of repentance and amendment. It ought also to
be observed, that the last twelve chapters of this book bear a very
strong resemblance to the concluding chapters of the Revelation. The
style of this prophet is characterized by Bishop Lowth as bold,
vehement, and tragical; as often worked up to a kind of tremendous
dignity. He is highly parabolical, and abounds in figures and
metaphorical expressions. He may be compared to the Grecian Æschylus; he
displays a rough but majestic dignity; an unpolished though noble
simplicity; inferior perhaps in originality and elegance to others of
the prophets, but unequalled in that force and grandeur for which he is
particularly celebrated. He sometimes emphatically and indignantly
repeats his sentiments, fully dilates his pictures, and describes the
idolatrous manners of his countrymen under the strongest and most
exaggerated representations that the license of eastern style would
admit. The middle part of the book is in some measure poetical, and
contains even some perfect elegies, though his thoughts are in general
too irregular and uncontrolled to be chained down to rule, or fettered
by language.
was carried away captive to Babylon with Jehoiachim, king of Judah, B.
C. 598, and was placed with many others of his countrymen upon the river
Chebar, in Mesopotamia, where he was favoured with the divine
revelations contained in his book. He began to prophesy in the fifth
year of his captivity, and is supposed to have prophesied about
twenty-one years. The boldness with which he censured the idolatry and
wickedness of his countrymen is said to have cost him his life; but his
memory was greatly revered, not only by the Jews, but also by the Medes
and Persians. The book which bears his name may be considered under the
five following divisions: the first three chapters contain the glorious
appearance of God to the prophet, and his solemn appointment to his
office, with instructions and encouragements for the discharge of it.
From the fourth to the twenty-fourth chapter inclusive, he describes,
under a variety of visions and similitudes, the calamities impending
over Judea, and the total destruction of the temple and city of
Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar, occasionally predicting another period of
yet greater desolation, and more general dispersion. From the beginning
of the twenty-fifth to the end of the thirty-second chapter, the prophet
foretels the conquest and ruin of many nations and cities, which had
insulted the Jews in their affliction; of the Ammonites, the Moabites,
the Edomites, and Philistines; of Tyre, of Sidon, and Egypt; all of
which were to be punished by the same mighty instrument of God’s wrath
against the wickedness of man; and in these prophecies he not only
predicts events which were soon to take place, but he also describes the
condition of these several countries in the remote periods of the world.
From the thirty-second to the fortieth chapter, he inveighs against the
accumulated sins of the Jews collectively, and the murmuring spirit of
his captive brethren; exhorts them earnestly to repent of their
hypocrisy and wickedness, upon the assurance that God will accept
sincere repentance; and comforts them with promises of approaching
deliverance under Cyrus; subjoining intimations of some far more
glorious, but distant, redemption under the Messiah, though the manner
in which it is to be effected is deeply involved in mystery. The last
nine chapters contain a remarkable vision of the structure of a new
temple and a new polity, applicable in the first instance to the return
from the Babylonian captivity, but in its ultimate sense referring to
the glory and prosperity of the universal church of Christ. Jerom
observes that the visions of Ezekiel are among the things in Scripture
hard to be understood. This obscurity arises, in part at least, from the
nature and design of the prophecies themselves; they were delivered
amidst the gloom of captivity; and though calculated to cheer the
drooping spirits of the Jews, and to keep alive a watchful and
submissive confidence in the mercy of God, yet they were intended to
communicate only such a degree of encouragement as was consistent with a
state of punishment, and to excite an indistinct expectation of future
blessings, upon condition of repentance and amendment. It ought also to
be observed, that the last twelve chapters of this book bear a very
strong resemblance to the concluding chapters of the Revelation. The
style of this prophet is characterized by Bishop Lowth as bold,
vehement, and tragical; as often worked up to a kind of tremendous
dignity. He is highly parabolical, and abounds in figures and
metaphorical expressions. He may be compared to the Grecian Æschylus; he
displays a rough but majestic dignity; an unpolished though noble
simplicity; inferior perhaps in originality and elegance to others of
the prophets, but unequalled in that force and grandeur for which he is
particularly celebrated. He sometimes emphatically and indignantly
repeats his sentiments, fully dilates his pictures, and describes the
idolatrous manners of his countrymen under the strongest and most
exaggerated representations that the license of eastern style would
admit. The middle part of the book is in some measure poetical, and
contains even some perfect elegies, though his thoughts are in general
too irregular and uncontrolled to be chained down to rule, or fettered
by language.