Ezekiel 20–48 (Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 29 | WBC)
Overview
Delve deep into the language, structure, and background of the mysterious prophecies of Ezekiel. Allen’s mastery of Hebrew provides a fresh translation and is accompanied by notes interpreting the significance of textual variants. Focusing on the meaning of the text, Allen illuminates the historical setting of the book and explains the role of the prophet with clarity and precision.
The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.
Top Highlights
“The application of vv 11–19 to Satan by third and fourth century a.d. Church Fathers, Tertullian, Origen, John Cassian, Cyril of Jerusalem and Jerome, and thence in some modern popular conservative expositions, is based on MT’s equation of the king and cherub and on comparison with Isa 14:12–15. It is a case of exegeting an element of Christian belief by means of Scripture and so endeavoring to provide it with extrabiblical warrant and to fit the passage into the framework of the Christian faith. However, it is guilty of detaching the passage from its literary setting (Ellison 108–9).” (Page 95)
“In the proclamation of the resolution of Yahweh’s problem the language of vv 20–21 is echoed. What was implicit in the first verb of v 21 is now brought into the open. Israel had no claim on Yahweh, who had been entirely fair in rejecting them from his land and favor. No, his own honor was at stake (cf. 20:9 and Comment). From this perspective the exile was intolerable, and its ending was a theological necessity, in order that Yahweh’s holiness or transcendent power might be vindicated in human history. The recognition formula fittingly caps the theme of the clearing of his name.” (Page 178)
“Ezekiel was a Zadokite priest of the Jerusalem temple, who was swept up in the deportation of leading citizens, including the young king Jehoiachin, to a settlement in Babylonia, after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of the rebellious vassal state of Judah in 597 b.c. There he received a prophetic call in 593 to minister to these Judean hostages and later to the first generation of exiles after the fall of Jerusalem in 587; his ministry lasted at least to 571 (29:17).” (Page xx)
Leslie C. Allen is professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, and was lecturer in Hebrew, Aramaic and Judaism at London Bible College. He is the author of The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah, A Liturgy of Grief: A Pastoral Commentary on Lamentations, and Old Testament Library: Jeremiah.
Reviews
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Matthew
3/2/2024
Paulo Rabello
10/9/2020
