Hebrew (MT)

1 וַיְהִ֣י ׀ בִּשְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֗ה בָּֽרְבִיעִי֙ בַּחֲמִשָּׁ֣ה לַחֹ֔דֶשׁ וַאֲנִ֥י בְתֽוֹךְ־הַגּוֹלָ֖ה עַל־נְהַר־כְּבָ֑ר נִפְתְּחוּ֙ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וָאֶרְאֶ֖ה מַרְא֥וֹת אֱלֹהִֽים׃

2 בַּחֲמִשָּׁ֖ה לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ הִ֚יא הַשָּׁנָ֣ה הַחֲמִישִׁ֔ית לְגָל֖וּת הַמֶּ֥לֶךְ יוֹיָכִֽין׃

3 הָיֹ֣ה הָיָ֣ה דְבַר־יְ֠הוָה אֶל־יְחֶזְקֵ֨אל בֶּן־בּוּזִ֧י הַכֹּהֵ֛ן בְּאֶ֥רֶץ כַּשְׂדִּ֖ים עַל־נְהַר־כְּבָ֑ר וַתְּהִ֥י עָלָ֛יו שָׁ֖ם יַד־יְהוָֽה׃

Translation (Compare to CSB, ESV)

¹In the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth day of the month, I was in the midst of the exile community, at River Kĕḇār. The heavens opened up and I saw visions of God!

²(In that fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year for the exile of King Yôyāḵîn—³the word of YHWH came directly to Yĕḥezqēʾl Ben-Bûzî the Priest, in the land of Kaśdîm, at River Kĕḇār, and the hand of YHWH was upon him there.)

Initial Observations

• The “thirtieth year” is opaque. It might refer to Ezekiel’s thirtieth year, to the thirtieth year since Josiah’s reforms, to the thirtieth year since the last Jubilee, or to something else. If it is Ezekiel’s thirtieth year, it is significant because a priest like Ezekiel (see v. 3) in his thirtieth year would have been ordained for service in the temple (see Num 4.30; 1 Chron 23.2–5).
• The “fourth month” is in mid-summer (June and July on the Gregorian calendar).
• Most archaeologists think that River Kĕḇār (כבר, English Bibles: Chebar) was a large irrigation canal near Nippur, Iraq, which would have been deep in the territory of Babylonian control.
• “Visions/appearances [מראות] of/from God” are divine revelation and are characteristic of OT prophets, not usually of priests, though there is no principle that excludes someone holding the office of priest (determined by genealogy and lot in the Mosaic covenantal administration) from also holding the office of prophet (determined directly by YHWH; see Deut 18.15–19).
• “The fifth year of the exile of King Yôyāḵîn” is a very important time-stamp. King Yôyāḵîn (English Bibles: “Jehoiachin”) was deported by Nebuchadnezzar in 598/7 BC. So if Ezekiel was in his thirtieth year in 593/2, then he would have been born in 623/2 during Josiah’s reign. This time-stamp gives us a clear historical marker for all of Ezekiel’s ministry, which spans over twenty years of visions and oracles. With few other prophets do we have such precise time-markings.
• The opening formula for Ezekiel’s prophecy is unusual. Where many prophets say that “the word of YHWH came,” the text has an emphatic construction to say that “the word of YHWH surely came” or “came directly.”
  • The language (הָיֹה הָיָה, pointed in the MT as a leading infinite absolute construction for היה) is so unusual that many text critics believe that it is an error. Now, the burden of proof is on the text critics to say how the error arose in the text. Most say that it is dittography, but it would be unusual for dittography to occur in such an obvious place at the beginning of a familiar clause (היה דבר־יהוה). If one spends enough time reading Ezekiel’s prophecies, it becomes obvious that the writing style overall is highly dramatic and often near the boundaries of the Hebrew language, of all human language.
• “Yĕḥezqēʾl Ben-Bûzî” (English Bibles: “Ezekiel son of Buz[z]i”) is introduced here in the third person. But much of Ezekiel’s writing is first-personal (see v. 1). Critical scholars like to point to changes of person within a text and suggest that there are multiple sources or editors. But their arguments are never sure and often depend on fallacies. (They are often applying present-day English and German style preferences upon an ancient text.) In Biblical Hebrew, changes in person are common and serve to highlight one thing or another. Even if we do suppose that vv. 2–3 were inserted by an inspired editor—and we know that there were inspired editors because of, for one example, the end of Deuteronomy—we should see that the language is drawing from normal prophetic idiom while emphasizing certain things: the actual date, the “word” that accompanies the visions and makes it not a private mystical experience but a true revelation for the people of God, the fact that it happened on foreign soil, and the directness of the revelation (both the infinitive absolute construction and the reference to the “hand of YHWH”). All of these data identify Ezekiel clearly as a prophet of YHWH while they also amplify the strangeness, the newness, of what YHWH is doing in and through Ezekiel.
• “The Priest” is appended also to Ezekiel, not merely to his father Buzi. Ezekiel was of the priestly genealogy and class. This datum becomes significant because his later words against the priestly class (e.g., Ezek 22.26) would have been directed at his closest relatives and maybe even at himself. Priestly training and imagery pervade the prophecies; this datum furnishes an example of how God uses the personality and culture of the human prophet in perfect coordination or concurrency with his revelatory purpose and message (see Warfield’s “Inspiration,” §9 and §12).
• “The land of Kaśdîm” is Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans. The demonym Kaśdîm refers to Keśed (כשד, English Bibles: “Chesed”), a nephew of Abram mentioned in Gen 22.22 and the progenitor of what were later called the “Chaldean” people.
• “The hand of YHWH” being “upon” Ezekiel is another indication of the directness and force of the revelation that YHWH gave to and through Ezekiel.

Extension

Do you notice anything in the superscription of the book of Ezekiel? Do you have any questions or comments on my observations above? Any questions about Ezekiel? Leave a comment below.

References

• Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Edited by K. Ellige and W. Rudolph, 4th ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1977.
• Block, Daniel I. The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 1–24. NICOT. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997.
• Duguid, Iain M. Ezekiel. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999.
• Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, and Johann J. Stamm. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Translated and edited under the supervision of Mervyn E. J. Richardson. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2001.