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By the River Chebar: Historical, Literary, and Theological Studies in the Book of Ezekiel is unavailable, but you can change that!

To many readers, the book of Ezekiel is a hopeless riddle. We still find many features of the man and his message difficult and sometimes even shocking—if not offensive. The bizarre opening vision catches us off guard and tempts us to stop reading. However, if we persist, and if we meditate long and hard on individual utterances and sign actions, we will discover that despite the strangeness of...

no understanding of their rich religious heritage and no sensitivity or pity for their deported compatriots (Ezek 11:14–16). Ezekiel’s primary audience was the community of Jews in Babylon. Many questions concerning the exilic social scene remain, but certain pieces may be pieced together. First, although Jehoiachin lasted on the throne of David only three months, after the initial humiliation of deportation he seems to have fared relatively well in Babylon (2 Kgs 25:27–30; ANET, 308). Ezekiel consistently
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