Book of Ezekiel
book of the Hebrew Bible
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and one of the major prophetic books in the Christian Bible, where it follows Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to the book itself, it records six visions of the prophet Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon, during the 22 years from 593 to 571 BCE. It is the product of a long and complex history and does not necessarily preserve the words of the prophet.
The visions and the book are structured around three themes: (1) judgment on Israel (chapters 1–24); (2) judgment on the nations (chapters 25–32); and (3) future blessings for Israel (chapters 33–48). Its themes include the concepts of the presence of God, purity, Israel as a divine community, and individual responsibility to God. Its later influence has included the development of mystical and apocalyptic traditions in Second Temple Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, and Christianity.
Structure
Ezekiel has a broad threefold structure:
Prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem, chapters 1–24
Prophecies against the foreign nations, chapters 25–32
Prophecies of hope and salvation, chapters 33–48.
Summary
The book opens with a vision of YHWH (יהוה). The book moves on to anticipate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, explains this as God's punishment, and closes with the promise of a new beginning and a new Temple.
Inaugural vision Ezekiel 1:1–3:27: God approaches Ezekiel as the divine warrior, riding in his chariot-throne. The chariot is drawn by four living creatures, each having four faces (those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle) and four wings.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Book of Ezekiel” as book of the Hebrew Bible. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as book of the Hebrew Bible. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q178390. VIAF identifies the subject as 228351759. The Library of Congress control number is n79117856. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Book of Ezekiel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.