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to consult three English translations when doing detailed Bible study. It is a good idea to choose at least one that is outside the translation tradition that you would normally consult. For example, the NIV, NASB, and NRSV offer a good mix. If there are no substantial differences, then it can be assumed the Hebrew text is reasonably clear and without significant difficulty. In these cases, the English versions offer a unified guide as to the meaning of the Hebrew text. However, when important differences do appear, it is due to one of three difficulties: (1) the Hebrew text has suffered in transmission over the ages, so there is discrepancy between manuscripts that witness to the original text; (2) there is a difficult grammatical expression that leaves some ambiguity as to meaning; (3) there is an unusual word meaning that remains unclear. One thing is sure, in this day of abundant English translations of the Bible, a variety of translations is present in any size of audience. This cannot be ignored. Our responsibility is to walk people through the differences, clarify when possible, and refrain from making dogmatic points on disputed readings.

      It is helpful to remind people that the doctrine of inspiration does not extend to preservation of the text in the transmission process. Providentially, God has preserved for us an embarrassing overabundance of manuscript evidence for the New Testament and an adequate preservation of ancient manuscripts for the Old Testament. This includes Hebrew manuscripts as well as ancient translations, like the Old Greek that dates several hundred years before Christ. So I have endeavored to offer some explanation where significant differences appear between some of the most commonly used, modern English versions.

1. Technically, “oracle” refers to the answer received from a deity in response to a specific question for advice, but the word has come to be used commonly to refer to any divine message.

2. Based on word count, Ezekiel is second in size only to Jeremiah among the latter prophets and larger even than Psalms.

3. For a summary of the cataclysmic events surrounding the final decades of the kingdom, see Special Topic: The Last Kings of Judah at Ezek 19:1–14.

4. For discussion and defense, see Hilber, “Culture of Prophecy and Writing,” 219–41.

5. A earlier form of this statement has a pedigree stretching back through my professors, Elliot E. Johnson and Allen P. Ross, to Bruce K. Waltke.

6. The term “Jew” or “Jewish” is a common designation for the exilic community that perhaps more accurately could be called “Judean.”

7. Lyons, Introduction to the Study of Ezekiel, 79–80. The exception to proper chronological order is Ezek 29:17, where the concern for topic overrides the chronological need (see comments there).

8. Block, “Preaching Ezekiel,” 157–78. This is reprinted also in Block, By the River Chebar, 1–24. This same volume contains a number of other essays on Ezekiel that the reader might find helpful.

9. I am following here the model of application advocated by Kuruvilla, Privilege the Text!, especially 39–54.

10. Here I am influenced by a communication model called Relevance Theory. An accessible introduction can be found in Green, “Relevance Theory and Theological Interpretation,” 75–90; or Green, “Relevance Theory and Biblical Interpretation,” 266–73.

      The God of Glory Calls

      1:1–28

      Ezekiel’s Message

      The glorious God and King calls his people into submissive service.

      Key Themes

      • The King of Glory is ever present with his people.

      • God’s glory reveals his overpowering martial and royal splendor.

      • The authority of God’s call demands a response of willing submission.

      Context in Ezekiel

      Several times in Scripture, the call of a prophet begins with an inaugural vision of God’s glorious presence. Moses received his call from God’s presence in the burning bush (Exod 3:1–6), and Isaiah experienced an exceptional vision of God’s holy presence while in the temple (Isa 6:1–5). Although Hosea and Jeremiah did not report a vision of God’s glory, the substance of their prophetic call anticipates a central theme of their message (Hos 1:2–11; Jer 1:9–10). The visions served both to undergird the authority of the prophetic mission as well as shape the prophet’s understanding of the nature of God as it applied to his message. For Ezekiel, the vision of God’s glory commissions him with an authoritative message and leaves an indelible impression that even though Ezekiel and his fellow exiles are far removed from their homeland and the temple in Jerusalem, God is with them even in exile and seeks to prepare them for future, kingdom work.

How eager Ezekiel was to comply with the Lord’s call is disputed.11 However, reluctance to carry out a painful task should not be confused with resistance. Moses, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were reluctant, but Jonah was resistant. But unlike these others, Ezekiel offers no excuses. Even Isaiah’s response, “Here I am,” does not imply that he relished the seemingly fruitless ministry ahead of him (cf. Isa 6:11). When Isaiah asked God, “How long,” he used a phrase that connotes lament (e.g., Pss 6:4; 74:10; 94:3; Zech 1:12). Should anyone be eager to deliver a message of judgment? The emphasis on the need for God’s Spirit to fortify the prophet is not to overcome his resistance to the call but is to strengthen his weakness as a frail human in the face of a difficult task (“son of man”; see comments Ezek 2:1).

      The glory of God is central to the message of the book of Ezekiel. Much of the first half of the book records Ezekiel’s efforts to convince his fellow exiles that judgment on Jerusalem was both certain and imminent. An important validation of this is the prophet’s vision that God’s glory was departing from the temple, thereby allowing its destruction (Ezek 8–10). Conversely, the presence of God serves as a reminder to the exiles that God has not abandoned them. Not only does the glory appear to Ezekiel at the outset of his ministry in Babylonian territory, but God assures them that for the time of exile he is nevertheless a sanctuary to them (Ezek 11:16). The book of Ezekiel concludes with an encouraging vision of an ideal temple by which the Lord would be present in their midst (Ezek 48:35).

      Special Topic: Cherubim

      Ezekiel’s vision of the glory of God strikes modern westerners as wildly bizarre. Indeed, Ezekiel’s struggle to find language to describe what he saw suggests that he himself was overwhelmed. However, in several respects, what he saw conformed to his own sensibilities, since God appears to him in a way that accommodates Ezekiel’s cultural expectations of features associated with deities on thrones.

The bulk of Ezekiel’s description pertains to the four living creatures that carry the throne of God. A common feature in ancient Near Eastern palaces and temples was composite creatures that guarded the entrances and in some cases served as part of the throne itself. Egypt and Canaan are known for sphinxes, most often composed of a lion’s body, sometimes with wings, and a human head. But in Mesopotamia, where Ezekiel was living, such guardian creatures had human heads, often on the bodies of winged bulls or lions, sometimes with wings on human bodies, as in the background to Ezekiel’s vision. Horns on their heads indicate that they participated in the heavenly realm

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