a response to the events of the beginning of the sixth century BCE. This remains true even if considerable parts of the book do not derive from Ezekiel himself. Unless we date the book to some period radically different from the one to which it appears to relate (which only a very small handful of scholars have ever wished to do), then the book of Ezekiel, together with its postulated layers of expansion and interpretation, arises out of the exilic situation, and addresses the problems raised by