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Bible Dictionaries
Ezekiel
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Ezekiel (e-zç'ki-el), the strength of God. A prophet who was taken captive eleven years before the destruction of Jerusalem. He was a member of a community of Jewish exiles who settled on the banks of the Chebar, a "river" of Babylonia. He began to prophesy b.c. 595, and continued until b.c. 573, a period of more than 22 years. He was married and had a house, Ezekiel 8:1; Ezekiel 24:18, in his place of exile, and lost his wife by a sudden and unforeseen stroke. He was esteemed by his companions in exile, and their elders consulted him on all occasions. He is reputed to have been murdered in Babylon, and his tomb, said to have been built by Jehoiachin, is shown, a few days' journey from Bagdad. Ezekiel was noted for his stern and inflexible energy of will and character and his devoted adherence to the rites and ceremonies of his national religion.
The Book of Ezekiel.— The book of his prophecy is divided into parts, of which the destruction of Jerusalem is the turning-point. Chapters 1-24 contain predictions delivered before that event, and chaps. 25-48 after it, as we see from chap. 26:2. Again chaps. 1-32 are mainly occupied with correction, denunciation and reproof, while the remainder deal chiefly in consolation and promise. A parenthetical section in the middle of the book, chaps. 25-32, contains a group of prophecies against seven foreign nations, the septenary arrangement being apparently intentional. There are no direct quotations from Ezekiel in the New Testament, but in the Apocalypse there are many parallels and obvious allusions to the later chapters.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Ezekiel'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/e/ezekiel.html. 1893.
