Little is known of Ezekiel’s life. His father’s name was Buzi and he was likely a member of the priestly family of Zadok. Among those Judeans forced into exile by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., he lived in a Jewish colony in Babylon called Tel Aviv. It was there that he had his vision of the Throne-Chariot of God and became a prophet.
Ezekiel began prophesying in the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile, and his work as a prophet lasted at least twenty-two years. Ezekiel’s vision of Israel is dark and disturbing. He sees the people of Israel as forever falling into sin and rebellion against God.
A master of prophetic theater, Ezekiel’s prophecies are often accompanied by dramatic acts: He eats a scroll of lamentation (Ezekiel 2:9-3:3); draws Jerusalem on a clay tablet and lays siege to it (Ezekiel 4:1-8); bakes loaves of barley over a stove fueled by human manure to make plain the unclean foods the people will be forced to eat in exile (Ezekiel 4:12-13); and shaves his head and beard, using the hair to symbolize Israel — burning a third with fire, cutting a third with a sword, and scattering a third to the wind (Ezekiel 5).
