Intro Part 2

Download Notes

13 dated scrolls each containing a vision given to the prophet over a period of 25 years whilst he was in the Babylonian Exile (597BCE).

TRADITIONAL DATING METHOD: traditionally Chapter 1:V.2-3 being A DESCRIPTIVE DOCET has thrown off all traditional dating methods. By men not taking into consideration that Chapter 1:vs2-3 is the only date NOT affixed by Ezekiel – but a descriptive scribal tab written in the third person has muddled their whole dating method.

This leads to the erroneous belief that  EZEKIEL BEGAN HIS MINISTRY IN HIS THIRTIETH YEAR, the thirtieth year being in their mind his age NOT the thirtieth year of captivity of King Jehoiachin.

They believe his age (30 years old) corresponds to the fifth year of the exile of Jehoiachin (the editorial note of V.2-3 NOT affixed by Ezekiel himself). Commentators edit and combine 1:1 and 1:2-3 to get “it was in the fifth year of the captivity,  in the fourth month and the fifth day of the month 4/5/5.” The edit: is the removal of THIRTIETH YEAR because to them that is his age NOT a date; which flies in the face of the rest of Ezekiel completely!

Ezekiel 1:1-2  1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month (4/5/30), as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.  2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity…(?/5/5).

They take the month from verse 1 (Ezekiel; first person)  insert it into verse 2  (editorial docket written in the third person; NOT by Ezekiel)…..

…..and leave the year behind ending up with 4/5/5! Whereas 8:1 should be first: 6/5/6 written by Ezekiel and predating the KJ/Masortetic start of Ezekiel by 24 years!

Ezekiel 8:1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was SITTING in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Master יהוה  fell there upon me.

The date is established: 6th year, 6th month, 5th day: 06/05/06!

Ezekiel 8:1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was SITTING in my house….

Ezekiel 4:4-6   4 lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; according to the number of days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.  5 For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.  6 And when you have fulfilled them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days; a day for a year; a day for a year, I have set for you.

Ezekiel is instructed to lie down for a total of 430 days!

Why is he sitting up in his house in the month of Elul/the 6th month (06/05/06); exactly 14 months after the prophecy of Chapter 1?

If you want to keep the chapters as they are in the Masoritic Text and the King Jimmy you have to admit that Ezekiel got up from lying on his side in rebellion to YHWH 10-30 days early! (30X14=420 days) some Jewish calendaration compute 415 days, some no more than 400 days!

But Ezekiel was instructed to lie down for a total of 430 days! HE TOTALLY DISOBEYED יהוה LIKE ALL THE FALSE PROPHETS SURROUNDING HIM AND GOT UP 10-30 DAYS EARLY?

You have one of two choices:

1. Keep the current non-inspired chapter and verse divisions and conclude that Ezekiel was being disobedient to יהוה and got up from 10-30 days early! He’d had enough of יהוה.
2. Follow the order of the scrolls as dated BY EZEKIEL;  NOT MAN which eradicates the problem completely….and will give you the most important revelation to these end times we live in…..יהוה kept this for you and I for this very day! 

These 13 scrolls, would have been rolled up one of 2 ways and placed into a stone jar depository.

1. Jeremiah 32:10-11,  10 “and I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales.  11 So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open…..”  the scroll would be hole punched in the middle, the lower half contains the deed – is rolled tied and sealed with 7 seals – reflecting the year of release/Schemata or date of writing. The top half would have an abridged description of the deed left open for reference with a scribal date tab often attached by the jar merchant.
2. In the case of Revelation 5. The deed is written on one side rolled and sealed with 7 seals and then an abridged description is written on the outside for reference.

Due to careless handlers breaking the date seals upon there discovery and compiling the text into one scroll we have the ‘book’ of Ezekiel as we find it today.

Ezekiel’s visions were to the House of Israel that had been scattered abroad (721 BCE) during the Assyrian Captivity. Many of Israel’s princes were scattered in the province of Ecbatana in Media just a short journey from where Ezekiel was exiled in NE Babylonia. He visited them (Ch. 2 & 3) and was visited by them (Ch. 14 & 20).

**Download of the Chart Above is available in the download section before these notes**

• All dates in the text EXCEPT 1:2,3  were affixed by Ezekiel.
• All dates are from 1st year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, 599 BCE (2 Kings 24:15) which lasted 37 years, then later alleviated (2 Kings 25:27). Ezekiel’s visions lasts 25 years of this period.
• The closing chapters (inc. the temple visions) predate the opening chapters by 5 years!
• *Scroll 9/Fall of Egypt prior to fall of Jerusalem: Jerusalem was destroyed by fire 05/?/11 of Jehoiachin’s rule (2 Kings 25:8, Jeremiah 52:12). If news didn’t reach the exiles until the twelfth year, tenth month, it took over a year and a half for the news to travel a distance covered by Ezra in four months (Ezra 7:9). A few Hebrew texts and one ancient translation read “eleventh” year instead of “twelfth year”.

• • Scroll nine: 11th = עַשְׁתֵּי `ashtey: 11th (ayeen, sheen,tav, yod #6249/6240/6235)
  • Scroll nine: 12th = עֶשֶׂר `asar: 12th:(ayeen, sheen, resh #6240/6235). The difference is only the hook and score of the Tav and Yod in the Hebrew!  So “twelfth” looks to be another later Masorite copyist mistake. it should be ‘eleventh’ to coincide with the earlier fall of Egypt!

• Tel-Aviv: Ezekiel was taken captive and prophecies to us from תֵּל אָבִיב
  • têl ‘âbı̂yb. Tel Aviv (Tel Abib) near the River Cheber; a canal flowing into the Euphrates S.E of Babylon.

So what it this a remez/hint of to the present day reality we find ourselves in?

A shake up in the Middle East, that an Embassy move may in fact be the very catalyst:

Zechariah 13:8-9   8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith יהוה , two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.  9 And I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. (Same judgment from Ezekiel’s day).

Where will hit happen? From Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod – the sea cost of Israel will become pastures, Dead Sea will dry up: 

Zephaniah 2:4-8   4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up.   5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of יהוה is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines; I will destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.  6 And the sea-coast shall be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.  7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed their flocks thereupon; in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening; for יהוה their Elohim will visit them, and bring back their captivity.  8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, wherewith they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.