baptism and the commencement of his ministry.70 If this is so, the significance of his thirtieth year, in Ezekiel’s autobiographical introduction, would not be lost on his readers and something of the pathos of his disappointed hopes of temple service would come through. It may therefore be assumed that it was by way of compensation for his loss of privilege through the exile that the Lord called Ezekiel to the ministry of prophet and watchman in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin.