A. When and Where it Happened (1:1-3)

It is impossible for us to know what Ezekiel meant when he referred to the thirtieth year. Many take it to mean his own age, finding support in Nu 4:3, which sets the minimum age of a priest at thirty. The Jewish Targum or Aramaic paraphrase of Eze 1:1 counts the thirtieth year “from the time that Hilkiah the High Priest found the Book of the Torah in the Temple” (Levey, 20). Counting back thirty years from the fifth year of the Exile (v.2), one does arrive at the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, the point at which the book of the law was found (2Ki 22:3). Still, one must ask why he would count from that event. All we really know is that Ezekiel’s vision came during the fifth year of the exile of Jehoiachin, 593 B.C.E.

The location of the vision was at the Kebar River, which was really a canal near Nippur, just south of the city of Babylon. It must be assumed that a community of exiles was living at that place. So overwhelming was the experience that came to Ezekiel while among the exiles that he could explain it only as the result of the hand or power of the Lord being upon him (see introduction).