Summary
The book opens with a vision of YHWH (יהוה). The book moves on to anticipate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, explains this as God's punishment, and closes with the promise of a new beginning and a new Temple.
Inaugural vision Ezekiel 1:1–3:27: God approaches Ezekiel as the divine warrior, riding in his chariot-throne. The chariot is drawn by four living creatures, each having four faces (those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle) and four wings. Beside each "living creature" is a "wheel within a wheel", with "tall and awesome" rims full of eyes all around. God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet and as a "watchman" in Israel: "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites." (2:3)
Judgment on Israel and Judah and on the nations: God warns of the certain destruction of Jerusalem and of the devastation of the nations that have troubled his people: the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites and Philistines, the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and Egypt.
Building a new city: The Jewish exile will come to an end, a new city and new Temple will be built, and the Israelites will be gathered and blessed as never before.
Some of the highlights include:
The "throne vision", in which Ezekiel sees God enthroned in the Temple among the Heavenly Host;
The first "temple vision", in which Ezekiel sees God leave the Temple because of the abominations practiced there (meaning the worship of idols rather than YHWH, the official God of Judah);
Images of Israel, in which Israel is seen as a harlot bride, among other things;
The "valley of dry bones", in which the prophet sees the dead of the house of Israel rise again;
The destruction of Gog and Magog, in which Ezekiel sees Israel's enemies destroyed and a new age of peace established;
The final temple vision, in which Ezekiel sees the third temple commonwealth centered on a new temple in Jerusalem, to which God's Shekinah (Divine Presence) has returned.
