Old Testament
Ezekiel
48 chapters
Start reading: Ezekiel 1About this book
Ezekiel was a priest carried off to Babylon with the first wave of exiles, and God called him to be a prophet by the Kebar canal, far from the temple he had expected to serve in. The book opens with a stunning vision of God's glory on a moving throne, showing that the Lord is not confined to Jerusalem. For years Ezekiel acts out warnings through strange symbolic actions and speaks of judgment on a city that believes it is safe. After Jerusalem falls, his message turns to comfort: God will gather his scattered flock, give a new heart and his Spirit, and bring dry bones back to life. The book ends with a vision of a restored temple and the Lord's presence returning to dwell with his people. Throughout, God's refrain is that people will know that he is the Lord. Ezekiel is a book about God's holiness, personal responsibility, and a hope that does not depend on circumstances.
- Author
- The prophet Ezekiel, a priest and exile in Babylon; the book is written largely in the first person.
- Date
- Ezekiel's ministry ran from about 593 to 571 BC, with the book reaching its final form shortly after.
- Audience
- The Judean exiles in Babylon, and through them the whole people of God.
Themes
The glory and holiness of GodJudgment on idolatryPersonal responsibilityThe new heart and the SpiritA restored temple and presence
Outline
- 1:1–3:27The vision of glory and Ezekiel's call
- 4:1–24:27Judgment on Jerusalem
- 25:1–32:32Oracles against the nations
- 33:1–39:29Watchman, shepherd and restoration
- 40:1–48:35The vision of the new temple
Key verses
Chapters of Ezekiel
- 1Ezekiel 1Ezekiel, a priest among the exiles by the Chebar canal in Babylon, sees heaven opened.
- 2Ezekiel 2Ezekiel, addressed as son of man, is commanded to stand as the Spirit enters him.
- 3Ezekiel 3Ezekiel eats the scroll, and it tastes sweet as honey, a sign that God's message must first be taken in before it is spoken.
- 4Ezekiel 4God gives Ezekiel a series of acted signs about the coming siege of Jerusalem.
- 5Ezekiel 5Ezekiel shaves his head and beard with a sword and divides the hair into thirds.
- 6Ezekiel 6God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against the mountains of Israel, where the people have built high places, altars and idols.
- 7Ezekiel 7The prophet announces that the end has come upon the four corners of the land.
- 8Ezekiel 8In a vision Ezekiel is carried by the Spirit to Jerusalem, where God shows him four escalating abominations at the temple: an idol of jealousy at the north gate, seventy elders burning incense before pictures of creatures on the walls, women weeping for the god Tammuz, and about twenty-five men bowing toward the sun with their backs to the Lord's house.
- 9Ezekiel 9In the vision six executioners arrive with weapons, together with a man in linen carrying a writing kit.
- 10Ezekiel 10Ezekiel sees again the cherubim and wheels he had seen by the Chebar canal, now beneath the throne above them.
- 11Ezekiel 11Ezekiel sees twenty-five leaders at the east gate who give bad counsel, saying the city is a cooking pot and they the choice meat, safe inside.
- 12Ezekiel 12Ezekiel acts out exile: in daylight he packs his belongings, then at evening digs through the wall and leaves with his face covered, carrying his bundle on his shoulder.
- 13Ezekiel 13Ezekiel is told to prophesy against Israel's prophets who speak from their own imagination and claim the Lord has spoken.
- 14Ezekiel 14Elders of Israel come to consult Ezekiel, but God says they have set up idols in their hearts, so he will answer their idolatry himself and call them to repent.
- 15Ezekiel 15God asks a simple question: what use is the wood of a vine compared with any other tree?
- 16Ezekiel 16A long, searing allegory: God found Jerusalem as an abandoned newborn, unwashed and left to die, and lovingly raised her, clothed her and married her.
- 17Ezekiel 17Ezekiel gives a riddle about two great eagles and a vine.
- 18Ezekiel 18The exiles quote a proverb that the parents ate sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge, blaming the previous generation.
- 19Ezekiel 19Ezekiel raises a lament for Israel's princes, portrayed in two images.
- 20Ezekiel 20Elders again come to consult Ezekiel, and God recounts Israel's history as a pattern of rebellion: in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the land they clung to idols even though he gave them good laws and Sabbaths.
- 21Ezekiel 21Ezekiel is told to prophesy against Jerusalem and the sanctuary using the image of a drawn sword, sharpened and polished for slaughter, striking both righteous and wicked.
- 22Ezekiel 22God charges Jerusalem, the city of bloodshed, with a list of crimes: violence, idolatry, contempt for parents, oppression of the foreigner, orphan and widow, bribery, sexual sin, extortion and forgetting God.
- 23Ezekiel 23Two sisters, Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem), are presented in a stark allegory of unfaithfulness.
- 24Ezekiel 24On the very day Nebuchadnezzar begins the siege of Jerusalem, God tells Ezekiel to record the date and tell a parable of a cooking pot.
- 25Ezekiel 25Ezekiel now turns to the neighbors who gloated over Judah's fall.
- 26Ezekiel 26The oracles against foreign nations continue with Tyre, the great trading port on the coast.
- 27Ezekiel 27Ezekiel raises a lament over Tyre, imagined as a magnificent merchant ship built of the finest cedar, cypress and ivory, with sails of embroidered linen and crews from Sidon, Arvad and Byblos.
- 28Ezekiel 28Ezekiel addresses the ruler of Tyre, who claims to be a god because of his wisdom and wealth.
- 29Ezekiel 29The prophet turns to Egypt.
- 30Ezekiel 30Ezekiel announces the day of the Lord against Egypt, a day of clouds and doom for the nations.
- 31Ezekiel 31Ezekiel compares Pharaoh to Assyria, once a towering cedar of Lebanon whose branches sheltered birds and animals and whose beauty was the envy of the trees of Eden.
- 32Ezekiel 32Two laments over Pharaoh close the oracles against Egypt.
- 33Ezekiel 33Ezekiel is commissioned again as a watchman: if he warns the people and they ignore it, their blood is on their own heads, but if he stays silent, he is answerable.
- 34Ezekiel 34God condemns Israel's leaders as shepherds who feed themselves, neglect the weak and let the flock scatter.
- 35Ezekiel 35Ezekiel pronounces judgment on Mount Seir, the land of Edom.
- 36Ezekiel 36God speaks to the mountains of Israel, promising that the land will be fruitful again and inhabited, no longer a taunt among the nations.
- 37Ezekiel 37Ezekiel is set in a valley of dry bones and asked whether they can live.
- 38Ezekiel 38Ezekiel prophesies against Gog of the land of Magog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, who will gather a great coalition and sweep down on a peaceful, unwalled Israel long after its restoration.
- 39Ezekiel 39The oracle against Gog continues.
- 40Ezekiel 40In a vision fourteen years after Jerusalem's fall, Ezekiel is carried to a high mountain in Israel and shown a new temple complex.
- 41Ezekiel 41The angelic guide measures the temple's main hall, the inner sanctuary called the Most Holy Place, and the side chambers that surround the building.
- 42Ezekiel 42Ezekiel is shown the priests' chambers on the north and south sides of the temple court, where the priests eat the holy offerings and store their sacred garments.
- 43Ezekiel 43The glory of the Lord, which had left the temple in the earlier visions, returns from the east with a roar like many waters, and the land shines.
- 44Ezekiel 44The east gate through which God's glory entered is to stay shut, reserved for the prince alone.
- 45Ezekiel 45The vision sets aside a sacred district of land for the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites and the city, with a portion for the prince.
- 46Ezekiel 46Further regulations cover worship.
- 47Ezekiel 47Ezekiel sees water flowing from beneath the temple threshold toward the east.
- 48Ezekiel 48The book closes by dividing the land among the twelve tribes in parallel strips from north to south, with the sacred district for the temple, priests, Levites and prince set at the center.