According to some scholars, chapters 40–48 attained their final form through the labours of disciples of Ezekiel who, like their mentor, anticipated the return of the Jews to their homeland, as related in Ezra and Nehemiah.4 R. E. Clements observes that these chapters constitute ‘an immediate and well-directed summons to build a temple in Jerusalem on the site where the ruins of the old building lay, torn
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