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Ezekiel’s Prophecies in Chronological Order

Ezekiel’s Prophecies in Chronological Order

Table

Year 7 of Nebuchadnezzar, Month 12, Day 2 1

15 March 597

Nebuchadnezzar invades Jerusalem, takes political prisoners from the nobility, including King Jehoiachin.

No.

Section

Internal Date

External Date

1

1.1b–7.27

Year 5, Month 4, Day 5 of Jehoiachin’s imprisonment 2

31 July 593

Ezekiel’s commission. Judgment of Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem.

2

8.1–19.14

Year 6, Month 6, Day 5

17 September 592

God’s spirit leaves Jerusalem’s temple. Judgment of Judah, Jerusalem.

3

20.1–23.49

Year 7, Month 5, Day 10

14 August 591

Judgment of Judah, Jerusalem.

4

24.1–25.17

Year 9, Month 10, Day 10

15 January 588

Judgment of Judah, Jerusalem. Judgment of Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia.

5

29.1–16

Year 10, Month 10, Day 12

7 January 587

Judgment of Egypt

6

26.1–28.26

Year 11, Day 1 3

587

Judgment of Tyre, Sidon.

7

30.20–26

Year 11, Month 1, Day 7

29 April 587

Judgment of Egypt.

8

31.1–18

Year 11, Month 3, Day 1

21 June 587

Judgment of Egypt.

9

32.17–33.20

Year 12, [Month 1],4 Day 15

28 April 586

Judgment of Egypt. Judgment of Israel.

10

33.21–39.29

Year 12, Month 10, Day 5

19 January 585

News of Jerusalem destroyed. Judgment of Edom. Restoration of Israel. Judgment of Gog of Magog.

11

32.1–16

Year 12, Month 12, Day 1

3 March 585

Judgment of Egypt.

12

40.1–48.35

Year 25, Month 1, Day 1 / Year 14 of Jerusalem’s destruction

28 April 573

Restoration of Jerusalem and all Israel.

13

29.17–30.19

Year 27, Month 1, Day 1

26 April 571

Judgment of Egypt.

14

1.1a

Year 30 2

568

Compilation of the prophecies.

Visualization

Top = canonical order, bottom = chronological order.

Footnotes

1 The date is determined from the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle, reverse side, lines 11–13. This document is Nebuchadnezzar’s own account of major events from his first eleven years of his reign.

2 Ezekiel 1.1–2 mentions two different years: a ‘thirtieth year’ and the ‘fifth year’. The ‘fifth year’ is stated to be ‘the exile of King Jehoiachin’. His imprisonment by Nebuchadnezzar took place in 597 BCE (i.e. footnote 1), so the fifth year of his exile would be 592 BCE. There are varying interpretations on how to understand the ‘thirtieth year’ relative to that: Ezekiel was thirty years old in 592 BCE, Josiah’s reform (detailed in 2 Kings 23) took place thirty years before 592 BCE, or the thirtieth year of Jehoiachin’s exile. The third interpretation seems the most likely, since every other date given in the book uses Jehoiachin’s exile as its reference point. Hence, 567 BCE, the thirtieth year of the exile and just a few years after Ezekiel’s final prophecy, is probably the year Ezekiel’s thirteen prophecies were compiled into a single volume. Verse 1.1a (‘In the thirtieth year’), therefore, is a superscription for the entire book, and not the date for the first prophecy (which happened ‘in the fifth year of the exile’).

3 The text does not specify the month. We might infer it was the first month.

4 The Hebrew text does not specify the month. The Greek text specifies it was the first month.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous23.11.22

    Not to enter into a discussion about theology or anything, but do you think Ezekiel actually made real prophecies and got them right? A common “prophecy” that Christians like to point to, and that you used in your list, to “prove” that he actually predicted something is the prophecy of Tyre. It really did get destroyed in somewhat in the manner that the Bible describes, so it this evidence that the prophecy was true? I know there’s debate about who wrote the book of Ezekiel and when, so it’s possible that the “prophecy” was actually written down later but what are your thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark Edward24.11.22

      Ezekiel 26.7–14 says that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer Tyre, enter the city through its gates, and destroy it so utterly (after looting it) that no one would reside in it ever again, let alone ever rebuild it. The city's permanent end by Nebuchadnezzar is reiterated (26.17–21), and the effects of its total ruin on trade is the focus of the entire next chapter. (Followed by 28.1–19, which focuses on the death of Tyre's king.)

      Because Nebuchadnezzar didn't succeed in conquering Tyre, we can come to no other conclusion except that Ezekiel's prophecy failed to be fulfilled. Tyre was conquered centuries later, but it was never completely destroyed or depopulated, so this could not be considered fulfillment of what Ezekiel said would happen. In fact, Ezekiel himself apparently recognized that his earlier prophecy failed, since 29.17–30.19 (a prophecy delivered years later) begins with Ezekiel justifying that Nebuchadnezzar did not conquer Tyre by saying he would conquer Egypt instead (which also didn't happen).

      Any interpretation of Ezekiel 26–28 which insists Tyre met its prophesied fate—which requires glossing over details, such as delaying fulfillment until a time long after Nebuchadnezzar, or claiming the prediction of the city's total destruction and depopulation are non-literal despite their repeated insistence by the prophet—strikes me as driven by an ideological need to protect the text from historical fact. I can empathize with a theological perspective which accepts the prophecy's failure. But I cannot see a theological perspective which insists on the prophecy's fulfillment as anything but the invention of a hermeneutic specifically to arrive at a predetermined conclusion.

      This is how I consider biblical prophecy in general. The prophets were essentially political commentators, making predictions as to the outcome of a contemporary dilemma. While their efforts were sincere, I think any accurate ‘fulfillment’ of their predictions is only where history coincided with their careful reading of the political landscape, rather than divinely-revealed foreknowledge. When their prophecies fail—such as Ezekiel's prophecy of Tyre—it is in cases where the prophet did not have as strong a grasp of the situation as they thought.

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