Ezekiel 1

Chebar Canal was part of a large irrigation network, a way of providing water to farmland around the Babylonian town of Nippur. It was a politically powerful desert town about 60 miles (95 km) southeast of Babylon’s capital city of Babylon, in what is now Iraq. Nippur, now a rocky ruin, was roughly 100 miles (160 km) south of Baghdad.

Babylonian invaders destroyed Judah’s capital city of Jerusalem in 586 BC, along with other cities. Babylonians were the superpower of the moment, and their leaders grew weary of Judah’s repeated attempts to rebel and to refuse to pay taxes that Babylon imposed. Babylon deported many of the people, especially the leaders, and erased the nation from the world map. Half a century later, Persians from what is now Iran, swallowed up Babylon and freed all political prisoners and exiles to go home. But after a generation in Iraq, many stayed.

More literally, Ezekiel’s visions began on the fifth day of the fourth month of the 30^th year. The fourth month on the Hebrew lunar calendar was Tammuz (June/July). Ezekiel never says what the date refers to. Scholars are left guessing. One popular guess is that he was talking about his age. The writer of Genesis refers to Noah’s age this way: “It all started when Noah was 600 years, two months, and 17 days old” (Genesis 7: 11). Many scholars date this to 593 BC., seven years before Babylonian invaders erased the Jewish nation from the world map and deported most of the survivors.

“King Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king of Judah. He reigned in Jerusalem for three months and 10 days. Jehoiachin was an evil king. The LORD did not approve” (2 Kings 24:9).

Five days into the month of Tammuz likely would have dated the beginning of Ezekiel’s visions to the summer of 593 BC.  Bible scholars come up with that guess because Ezekiel says his vision came five years into the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin. Babylonian invaders from what is now Iraq exiled the king in 597 BC. And if we subtract five years from that, we end up with 593 BC.

Ezekiel’s descriptions sound like he was talking about Assyrian and Babylonian pictures of gods and protectors of the gods. One image shows two half-men, half-bulls (scholars call them bullmen) holding up the sky. Each creature had four wings. There were also gods with four faces, pointing in all directions.

The original text says only “spirit.” Scholars have to guess what spirit. Could it be the spirit of instinct within the creature, something comparable to a gut feeling? Not likely, many scholars say. It’s more likely a reference to God controlling everything through his Spirit that, in a way, takes up residence within his creatures and gives them direction.

Emeralds are one of many forms of beryl, a mineral composed of beryllium aluminum cyclosilicate. It’s colorless in its pure state, but it’s often mingled with other minerals that produce various brilliant colors.

This is a vexing verse to explain. It’s unclear what Ezekiel is describing. A wheel with hubcaps, which could look like a wheel inside a wheel? Or was it more like a ball or a gyro of two intersecting circles/wheels? The point of the description seems to be to indicate that the wheels can go in any direction, a bit like tables today on wheels that look like little balls. If that’s so, Ezekiel is probably not describing a typical wheel like those we would see on a wagon or a chariot. More likely, he is describing something that can go forward, backward, left, and right.

Some say the “eyes” on the wheel “rims,” as many Bibles translate the verse, are nails driven into the rims of wooden wheels. A car today runs on rubber tires mounted on metal rims. But in Bible times, wagons ran on wooden wheels with nails driven into the bottom of the wooden wheels. So, the wagon ran on nails, to keep the wood from wearing down. It’s a bit like shoeing a horse, but they were nailing a wagon.

This is one of more than 7,000 times the Bible refers to the name of God, abbreviated in ancient Hebrew writings as YHWH. Bible experts are left to guess what vowels to add. The current guess: Yahweh (YAH way). Many English Bibles translate the name as LORD, printed in capital letters.