BR - and onto the strange

The Book of Ezekiel group read - roughly July 2015

Here are links to all our previous threads.

from le Salon:
Prep: http://www.librarything.com/topic/127545
Genesis: http://www.librarything.com/topic/129966
Exodus: http://www.librarything.com/topic/131811
Leviticus: http://www.librarything.com/topic/133405
Numbers: http://www.librarything.com/topic/135184
Deuteronomy: www.librarything.com/topic/136380
Joshua: http://www.librarything.com/topic/137927
Judges (same thread as Joshua, starts on post #69): http://www.librarything.com/topic/137927#3452932
Ruth (same thread as Joshua, starts on post #142): http://www.librarything.com/topic/137927#3478722
1 & 2 Samuel: http://www.librarything.com/topic/139684
1 & 2 Kings: http://www.librarything.com/topic/142552
1 & 2 Chronicles: http://www.librarything.com/topic/146697
Ezra and Nehemiah: http://www.librarything.com/topic/154880
Tobit & Judith: http://www.librarything.com/topic/159435

from Club Read 2014:
Ester http://www.librarything.com/topic/168909
Job: https://www.librarything.com/topic/171374
Psalms: https://www.librarything.com/topic/179892
Proverbs: https://www.librarything.com/topic/183854

from Club Read 2015:
Ecclesiastes: https://www.librarything.com/topic/187190
Song of Songs: https://www.librarything.com/topic/188278
Book of Isaiah: https://www.librarything.com/topic/189974
Book of Jeremiah: https://www.librarything.com/topic/191443
Book of Lamentations (same thread as Jeremiah, post 50): https://www.librarything.com/topic/191443#5208549

Like Jeremiah, I'm starting Ezekiel without knowing much of anything about it, except some strange bits here and there, like eating a prophecy. So, I don't have much of an introduction. The main intro in my Harper Collins Study Bible says he does some strange things, so apparently that's a prevalent theme, or occurrence - hence the thread name.

I read some introductory stuff today. Very entertained by the end of the wikipedia article that says that apart from Revelation, "there is very little allusion to the prophet {Ezekiel} in the New Testament; the reasons for this are unclear...and in any case Ezekiel was under suspicion of encouraging dangerous mystical speculation, as well as being sometimes obscure, incoherent, and pornographic."

From the introduction in The Harper Collins Study Bible, by Daniel L. Peterson:

Ezekiel covers 597 to 571. He was exiled to Babylon in 597 where he did most of his prophecies. So, while there is overlap in time with Jeremiah, there really isn't much overlap in place.

He is Zadokite and anti-Levite.

Basic Structure:
1 - 24 Judgment against Israel
25 - 32 Oracles against foreign nations
33 - 39 on future restoration
40 - 48 Utopian visions of a new temple

Three key visions plus one of dry bones
1-3:15 - first vision which describes Gods' thrown with the wheel with a wheel and eyes all around it
8-11:25 - second vision where God leaves the temple because of abominations
37:1-14 - dry bones vision
40-48 - final Utopian vision of second temple.

From wikipedia.

Themes: presence of God, purity, Israel as a divine community, and individual responsibility to God.

Highlights
- Thrown vision ( chapter 1)
- 1st temple vision (8)
- Israel as a harlet bride (15-19)
- Valley of dry bones (37)
- destruction of Gog and Magog (38-39)
- Utopian new temple (40-48)

Historical Ezekiel
- according this article, most scholars think Ezekiel was a real person.
- he is born in 623. So, he is exiled at 25 in 597, gets his calling in 593 at age 30, and gives his last vision in 571 at age 52.

Wikipedia has an interest table of very precise dates:
Event                                 Verse Reference and Date (BC)
Chariot Vision (Merkabah)   1:1-3 June 6, 593 BCE.
Temple Vision                     8:1 August 23, 592
Discourse with Elders         20:1 July 19, 591
Second Siege of Jerusalem 24:1 December 22, 589
Judgment on Tyre              26:1 March 30, 587
Judgment on Egypt            29:1 December 13, 588
Judgment on Egypt            29:17 March 3, 571
Judgment on Egypt            30:20 April 5, 587
Judgment on Egypt            31:1 May 28, 587
Lament over Pharaoh         32:1 February 18, 586
Lament over Egypt            32:17 April 2, 586
Fall of Jerusalem               33:21 December 13, 586
New Temple Vision            40:1 September 26, 573

extra notes:

"glory of God" is a translation of Kavod YHWH, or the presence of YHWH, also called Shekhinah.

"you shall no my name is the Lord" occurs over 50 times

Ezekiel is frequently at odd with the Torah, and there was some resistance to making him Cannon.

He is credited with founding the mystical tradition in Judaism.

I can't wait till we get to the pornographic parts! All I know about Ezekiel is that he saw de wheel.

Wow. Just googled: did ezekiel see a ufo?

Well, I recently read an interview of a guy who claims to have visited the secret FBI/CIA/alien/illuminati/whatever bases on the Moon and Mars, so I'm ready for anything.

>8 FlorenceArt: I had never heard that before in.
>10 FlorenceArt: well that's got to be one qualification for a modern prophet.

I read chapters 1 - 5 today and only took a little over a page of notes. It's pretty straight forward stuff here, albeit very strange.

The main I have to say about chapter 1 is that if you gave me 6th BCE Hebrew and then showed me a UFO land and take off in the desert, that in chapter 1 is about the best I could have done to describe it. But then I would say the same thing if it here a helicopter, or a mobile rocket launcher or even just a jeep with blinding headlights - presumably with some bronze or amber color. Maybe he had a vision of the Iraq war. And was it a wheel within a wheel with eyes all around it, or just some disk with lights around the edges? Anyway, very strange stuff and after all that he doesn't actually see God.

In chapter 2 God talks to Ezekiel and tells him, "open your mouth and eat what I give you and then hands him a scroll of "lamentation and mourning and woe". Then in chapter 3 Ezekiel eats the scroll. All this dour text tastes sweet as honey.

Of course it only gets weirder. He it taken up by the aliens in the UFO, or the angles or whatever. When they are done with him, and drop him off among the exiles, he "sat there among them, stunned, for seven days..

I guess Ezekiel has some authority under the argument that you just can't make this stuff up.

In Chapter 4 he does a weird penance for Israel and Judah, lying on his side for 390 days and then the other side for 40 days, all while eating food cooked on dung. When he was told to use human dung he finally protested.

Chapter 5 is the (weird) ritual with hair. He shaves his head and beard than does various things with the hair, burning it, scattering into the wind, working it into his clothes. The hair represent the Israelites undergoing judgment.

So what to make of this all? Bizarre. But what is the meaning and purpose?

Side note. Early this year I read Lila by Marilynne Robinson, which came out last year. Lila, the character, gets really worked up on Ezekiel, and quotes a lot of weird stuff, stuff which I haven't encountered yet in the text. I'm wondering what Robinson was doing and wondering if I'll gain anything about it by this read.

Friday I read chapters 6-11, that includes Ezekie's 2nd vision. Today I read chapters 12-15, which was comparatively dull. Ezekiel's visions add a new dynamic to the OT.

Chapter 6 - Oracles on Judgment
This kind of stuff is old news after Isaiah and, especially, after Jeremiah. One new thing here is that the dead will be laid down in front on their idols, as if they have sacrificed themselves to them.

Chapter 7 - long judgment oracle.

Chapters 8-11 - the second vision. There is enough cool stuff here to break it into chapters.

Chapter 8
Ezekiel in a meeting with elders is carried by the hair and taken to Jerusalem. He sees jealousy, which is left open to interpretation. I thought he meant he was seeing a jealous God. Then he sees three different religious abominations. In the first he goes into the temple to find a room full of wall art (I picture hieroglyphs), and full of elders involved in some ritual. The second is a group of women weeping for Tammuz (Dumuzi, Ishtar's consort). In the third seen he comes to 25 men worshiping the sun. This is of course offensive to God, it's also fascinating.

Chapter 9
A slaughter with panache. Seven men come to Jerusalem. One is dressed in linen and carries a writing case (and brings to mind the Judge from Blood Meridian. Surely McCarthy had this mind...??). He is instructed to mark anyone who actively is revolted by the religious abominations. The other six, the "Executioners of the City", are instructed to kill everyone not marked, men, woman, children, everyone. Ezekiel pleads with God for mercy, but God says, "my eye will not spare". The chapter ends where the man in linen returns and says, ‘I have done as you commanded me.’ It leaves a bit of a chill.

Chapter 10 - glory of the Lord leaves the temple.
The man is linen is instructed to take burning coals from the Cherubrim and spread them over the city to burn it. This chapter is surreal. The Cherubrim are described like the weird creatures from chapter 1, with the wheel and spaceship stuff. One hands the man in line the coals, which don't burn it or the man.

Chapter 11- glory of the Lord leaves Jerusalem
A remnant for Jerusalem is seen on the city boundary, possibly the same men who were observed committing abominations earlier. They are condemn to slaughter outside the city. Ezekiel gives them the oracle of their doom, and one man, Pelatiah, dies on the spot. Later Ezekiel returns to the elders to tell them what he has seen.

All of this vision could come from a surreal cinema, maybe Stanely Kubrick could have directed it.

I have read through chapter 28 and I need cover chapters 12-28. These weren't the most interesting chapters. So I kind of flew through them and I'll try to keep my notes brief.

Chapter 12
Ezekiel acts out a few charades. First he packs his bags in the open, then at night he digs through a wall with his bags and blindfolds himself. This is his acting out the escape of the royalty from Jerusalem, as an oracle. The blindfold probably represents Zedekiah after his eyes were gouged.

Second he shakes while eating to express fear and gives an oracle on how judgment, as in the fall of Jerusalem, is near.

Chapter 13 - against false prophets.
If I got this right, weak walls are held together by whitewash plaster representing the flimsyness of false prophets. Then God/Ezekiel goes off on prophetesses. Then there is this odd line: "therefore you {false prophets} shall no longer see false visions". I'm struggling with the logic. If they will no longer see false visions, then can they now be trusted? How is that a punishment?

Side note: God never calls Ezekiel by his name. He calls him Mortal, or mortal. Cute.

Chapter 14 - three dour oracles
Elders are condemned for worshiping prophets. Then God takes credit for deceiving false prophets. Then he condemns with four punishments of coming judgment - swords, famine, wild animals & pestilence. Also Noah, Danel and Job are designated out as the three truly righteous elders.

Chapter 15 - parable with wood of the wine.
Basically the Israelites are worthless. They are compared to a burnt piece of wood from a vine. This might have been an oracle spoken to Ezekiel in private, hinted at because the Lord came "to me".

chapter 16 - Jerusalem as whore
This is 63 lines of you're a whore. Well the last 15 lines promise restoration to Jerusalem and a new covenant, but only "in order that you may bear your disgrace " and so "you will remember your ways, and be ashamed".

chapter 17 - parable of eagle and vine.
Lines 1-10 are the parable and lines 11-21 are sort of an explanation. A noble eagle plants a vine in a good place, but the vine searches out another eagle to move it. The first eagle is Nebuchadnezzar. The vine is Zedekiah (and it comes from a Cedar, Jehoiachin), and the second eagle is Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetichus II.

chapter 18 - personal responsibility
Up till now, your children get punished for your sins, which means you are paying for the sins of your parents. Ezekiel turns that. Now we are judged on how we act. And, better yet, maybe, we can change to better, or worse ways, and then we judged on our latter actions. Lines 6-9 is a catalogue of virtues.

chapter 19 - parable with lions
A lioness has two cubs. Both become powerful and "devoured humans", but they are both taken down in the end. One sent to Egypt and one to Babylon.

The lioness is probably Hamutal, wife of Josiah, and mother of Jehoahaz who ended up in Egypt. It's not clear who the second line is, but one of the next three kings.

Chapter 20 - August 4, 591 oracle to elders
Ezekiel gets an oracle in front of the elders where God condemns them and all of Israelite history, ending by predicting the burning of all Judah.

Chapter 21
This has several different oracles including one how the Lord, with a sword, will destroy everyone. Has lines like, "And you, mortal, prophesy; strike hand to hand." and:

A ruin, a ruin, a ruin—
I will make it!
(Such has never occurred.)
Until he comes whose right it is;
to him I will give it.

Chapter 22
"The word of the Lord came to me: You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds." Then follows a long condemnation of Jerusalem.

Chapter 23 - Oholah & Oholibah - the sister whores
"The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, there were two women, the daughters of one mother; they played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; their breasts were caressed there, and their virgin bosoms were fondled. Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. "...and so on.

Oholah translates to "her tent"
Oholibah to "my tent is in her tent"

Chapter 24 - siege of Jerusalem begins
January 15, 588 BCE the day Nebuchadnezzar begins his siege.

In this chapter Ezekiel's wife dies and he doesn't mourn. Then he explains that like him, Israelites should not mourn of Jerusalem. But...his poor wife.

This closes the oracles on judgment. The oracles has now come true.

Chapter 25 to 32 are the oracles against nations. Isaiah and Jeremiah each had lengthy sections on this and they weren't all that interesting. So far the same here.

Chapter 25 - against Ammon, Edom and the Philistia.

Chapter 26-28 - against Tyre.

side note 1 - Nebuchadnezzar laid siege on Tyre for 13 years and failed. Alexander the Great would take Tyre.

side note 2 - Nebuchadnezzar translates to "May Nabu preserve my offspring". I didn't know that.

Chapter 27 is mildly interesting for two reasons. One is because it includes a long poem where Tyre is described as if it were a sailing vessel. The other is because is has a line on each of Tyre's trading partners, and there are a lot. They range from Tarshish in Spain, east through Persia.

I finished Ezekiel on Saturday last week, but haven't had a chance to write about it. I know Baswood has been anxiously awaiting my summary, so I'll try to get some it out soon. But, the quick version is that chapter 37 is kind of cool in an imagined special affects kind of way as bones reassemble and gain sinews, flesh and skin. There some other interesting bits in there, but mostly there is a lot here to skip.

Chapters 29 to 32 have seven pronouncements against Egypt. IIRC, you can skip them.

List of pronouncements, each carefully dated.

# verse date in HarperCollins Study Bible
1 29:1-16 Jan 7, 587
2 29:17-21 Apr 26, 571
3 30:1-8 ??
4 30:20-26 Apr 29, 587
5 31 Jun 21, 587
6 32:1-16 Mar 3, 586
7 32:17-32 Apr 27, 586

Chapter 29

1st pronouncement - Egypt will be destroyed, be desolate for 40 years, then restored

2nd pronouncement - Babylon failed to get Tyre, but will plunder Egypt.

This is interest because after all that on Tyre, the prophecy failed and yet it's still in the book. It's like the book is saying maybe these prophecies aren't so reliable. Anyway, Babylon would invade in 568, but Egypt would not be destroyed.

Chapter 30

3rd pronouncement - A lament for the future destruction of Egypt, then oracles of the Babylonian invasion and the destruction of several specific cities (Memphis, Pathros, Zoan, Thebes, Pelosium, On, Pi-beseth, Tehaphnehes)

4th pronouncement - how the pharaohs arms will be broken. This is possibly a reference to Nubechadnezzars's defeat of Pharaoh Hophra in 588.

Chapter 31

5th pronouncement - apparently compares Egypt's history to Assyria's, although my notes say the word "Assyria" maybe should be "cypress", in which case the poem is about Lebanon and trees?

Chapter 32

6th pronouncement - The pharaoh as a dragon (or crocodile) that, well...god says he will do this to him:

I will throw you on the ground,
on the open field I will fling you,
and will cause all the birds of the air to settle on you,
and I will let the wild animals of the whole earth gorge themselves on you.
I will strew your flesh on the mountains,
and fill the valleys with your carcass.
I will drench the land with your flowing blood
up to the mountains,
and the watercourses will be filled with you.

7th pronouncement - a dirge for Egypt's fall. Then a list of nations in Sheol (Assyria, Elam, Meshech & Tubol, (in Asia Minor), Edom, Sidonians and the Pharaoh)

Chapters 33 - 39 are oracles of restoration. But, actually there's not much room for restoration because there is a lot of doom oracles too.

Chapter 33

This is an important chapter, although I didn't understand as such while reading it. The summary is Ezekiel describes himself as sentry, then gets new of the fall of Jerusalem, condemns the sinning of Israel. He described himself as a singer of love songs - heard by not listened to. Cute.

Here is what I missed.

In 3:24-27 Ezekiel is muzzled. There is something he can't say

In 24:25-27 Ezekiel is told that when he gets news of the fall of Jerusalem, " you shall speak and no longer be silent. So you shall be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am the Lord. "

Here in 33:21-22 the messenger arrives with the message. So now, finally, Ezekiel can speak.

So, he is the sentry, his can now, finally, after judgment, speak of the future. And what comes out...well, a lot of negative stuff, but also the future utopian view of a restored Jerusalem.

Joel Rosenberg's essay in The Literary Guide to the Bible points this out.

Chapter 34

God says there have been bad shepherds and lost sheep. So, he will gather the sheep and judge the shepherds - ie leaders.

Chapter 35

Oracle against the mountain Seir, which is Edom.

Chapter 36

The first part is an oracle to the "mountain of Israel". Israel has fallen, so the oracle is addressed to a land empty of people. Actually, the land is accused of devouring people

The second part begins the actual oracles on restoration. V16-21 are a prologue to this section. The restoration is not a reward. This is made clear. It's done despite the Israelites actions. To quote:

It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

more on this later.

I was going to add that the emphasis for the rest of chapter 36 seems to be cleansing. A large part of the rest of the book feels like Leviticus in some ways, so purity implied by cleansing may be relevant.

Chapter 37

V1-14 the dry bones spiel begs for computer generated special effects. Ezekiel speaks it, and the field of bones recompose into skeletons and sinews, flesh and skin and the breath of life/spirit returns to them. One might wonder what kind of field would be full of bones, what kind of massacre or battle. It seems the Ezekiel is reincarnating an army.

The rest of the chapter is about the restoration of Israel with a unified Judah and Israel and a covenant.

Chapters 38-39 - Gog and Magog

Magog is the land of Gog, probably intended to be a nation from Asia Minor, perhaps Lydia. The army invades Israel in the oracle only to be wiped out (in a very Baal like manner with storms and such), and then given an elaborate burial. This would create a field of bones.

Chapter 39 ends with a sacrificial feast, a feast for Gog's sacrificed army.

As for you, mortal, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19You shall eat fat until you are filled, and drink blood until you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 20And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with warriors and all kinds of soldiers, says the Lord God.

There are apparently possible allusions to Canaanite myths in all this.

Chapters 40 to 48 - the future temple complex

The future paradise includes a perfect temple laid out in these chapters in elaborate detail. The method is interesting, if the details are dull. Ezekiel is led through the future temple by a guide, a man who is not human, who shines like bronze. It is hard to read that and not think of CP3O...Anyway, this guide is very formal and says very little, mostly he just leads Ezekiel and measures. He carries a linen cord and a measuring reed. In the place of the holy of holies, Ezekiel does not enter, but only the man does, to give Ezekiel the measurements. Like the wheel and the dry bones, there is a bit of a surreal, cinematographic aspect to all this. It's all very visual, but mainly by implication. The temple complex, however, if very precise.

In chapter 43 Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord return to the temple.

In chapters 47 & 48 the land is redivided for the 12 tribes, except the Levites. This division has very little to do with the initial layout of the twelve tribes. It seems arbitrary.

The scene with the bones reminds me of the animated skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/17/ray-harryhausen-special-effects-john...

in motion :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_Fi7x93PY

In How to Read the Bible, James Kugel has some interesting notes on Ezekiel

- He notes that compared to Jeremiah, Ezekiel is very detached. Actually, he is muzzled. He is just an observer.

- But, as an argument against that, he is a much more fantastical story teller. He's scifi to Jeremiah's drama.

Some notes on Judaism

- Kugel notes that Jewish law forbade the teaching of Ezekiel's visions.

- Near the end of the first vision, NRSV translates v3:12 innocuously this way: "Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose from its place,...". That is a correction. The understanding in the time development of Rabbinical Judaism was something more curious. Kugel has it: "Blessed is the Lord's Glory from His place.". Where "lifted me up" is translated as "blessed". This line leads to the Jewish prayer, the Kedusha. (Link here). The Kedusha takes Isaiah's odd line of the Seraphim and this line, as if spoken by the Cherubim and puts them together:

"Holy, Holy, Holy, The Lord of Hosts, The entire world is filled with His Glory" (Isaiah 6:3)
"Blessed is the Glory of the Lord in Its Place" (Ezekiel 3:12)
"The Lord shall reign forever, Your God, O Zion, from generation to generation, Hallelujah" (Psalms 146:10)

- Lastly, Kugel notes that Ezekiel pulls from Leviticus. He berates the Israelites about the Levitical laws they have broken. While one might look for parallel authorship, Kugel feels it shows that during the composition of this book Leviticus was a known and cited work. It is, of course, a core book for Judaism just for its sense of purity and holiness.

For anyone interested, I have kicked off a thread on the Book of Daniel, https://www.librarything.com/topic/195257