Ezekiel 1–20 (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentary | AYBC)
Overview
In Ezekiel 1–20, the first of two volumes of commentary on the Scripture attributed to the third major Old Testament prophet, Moshe Greenberg uses accessible prose to explain Ezekiel’s ecstatic, erratic, almost incomprehensible otherworldly visions and prophecies. One of this century’s most respected biblical scholars, Greenberg translates the text, identifies the critical issues raised by the book, and offers an impressively balanced, thoroughly holistic interpretation of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 1–20 rigorously engages the biblical text with all the tools of historical critical analysis. Drawing upon the rich history of Jewish and Christian interpretation, Greenberg employs ancient and modern sources in his elucidation of this most difficult prophetic book.
- Offers original translations, including alternative translations, annotations, and variants
- Provides verse-by-verse commentary on the text
- Presents the reader with historical background, including analysis of authorship and dating
- Features an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature
- Ezekiel’s Call: The Vision (1:1–28ba)
- Ezekiel’s Call: The Commissioning (1:28bß–3:15)
- The Lookout (3:16–21)
- Confinement and Symbolic Acts (3:22–5:17)
- Doom upon the Highland of Israel (6:1–14)
- The End of the Civil Order (7:1–27)
- The Defiled Temple and Its Abandonment (8:1–11:25)
- Symbolizing the Exile (12:1–16)
- The Coming Terror (12:17–20)
- Discounting Prophecy (12:21–28)
- Substitutes for True Prophecy (13:1–23)
- God Will Not Respond (14:1–11)
- An Exception to the Rule (14:12–23)
- The Vinestock and Jerusalem (15:1–8)
- Jerusalem the Wanton (16:1–63)
- The Fable of the Two Eagles (17:1–24)
- Divine Justice and Repentance (18:1–31)
- A Dirge over the Kings of Israel (19:1–14)
- Threat of a Second Exodus (20:1–44)
Top Highlights
“Virtually every component of Ezekiel’s vision can thus be derived from Israelite tradition supplemented by neighboring iconography—none of the above-cited elements of which need have been outside the range of the ordinary Israelite.” (Page 58)
“The major concern of Ezekiel’s doom prophecies is to convince his audience that their hope of independence and well-being—fanned by prophecies of Ezekiel’s rivals—was false.” (Page 14)
“Four kinds of proud beings were created in the world: the proudest of all—man; of birds—the eagle; of domestic animals—the ox; of wild animals—the lion; and all of them are stationed beneath the chariot of the Holy One …’ (Exodus Rabba 23.13). That is to say, the most lordly of creatures are merely the bearers of the Lord of lords.” (Page 56)
“‘fell upon me.’ Thus the prophet describes ‘the urgency, pressure, and compulsion by which he is stunned and overwhelmed’” (Page 41)
“no event after 571 is reflected in them, and any that precedes 593 is clearly past” (Page 12)
- Title: Ezekiel 1–20
- Author: Moshe Greenberg
- Series: Anchor Yale Bible (AYB)
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication Date: 1983
- Pages: 408