Chebar Canal, Ezekiel's home

Ezekiel's home by the Chebar Canal in Iraq

Ezekiel lived with other Judean exiles in Babylon, in what is now Iraq.

He said his visions began “by the Chebar Canal” (Ezekiel 1:1). Scholars say Ezekiel, a priest taken during the Babylonian deportations of 597 BC, lived with fellow exiles near this waterway. They likely farmed and worked the land for their captors.

Chebar isn’t a known river in Iraq today. Most say it was an irrigation canal, not a natural stream. Many link it to the kābaru canals near the ancient city of Nippur or to nearby Tell Abib — the “Tel Aviv” of Ezekiel 3:15.

Babylonians dug huge canals to pull water from the Euphrates. These channels fed crops, floated boats, and kept cities alive. Along their banks, refugees built homes and tried to start over. Ezekiel’s mention of the Chebar pins his story to a real spot—a refugee community on one of Babylon’s man-made waterways.