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Ezekiel
Category: Religious
Ezekiel was a Hebrew prophet. In Judaism and Christianity, he is also viewed as the author of the Book of Ezekiel that reveals prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the Millennia Temple visions, or the Third Temple.
We don’t know much about him, but we do know that at the age of 25, he was amongst 3,000 upper class Jews who were exiled to Babylon. We also know that his wife died young, in the ninth year of exile, when Ezekiel was only 34 years of age. So we have grief and loneliness and isolation from his home as two possible causes for his subsequent state.
In July 592 BC, at the age of 30, Ezekiel started to have visions. For the next five years he incessantly prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, which was understandably met with some opposition. However, Ezekiel witnessed the fulfillment of his prophecy when Jerusalem was finally sacked by the Babylonians. The date of the sacking, 587 BC, [so 5 years after his prophecy] is confirmed by Babylonian cuneiform records discovered by archeologists.
Ezekiel was 50 years old when he began to have visions of a new Temple. He served as a prophet for at least 22 years until, according to scriptures, it is believed Ezekiel's last vision occurred in April 570 BC.
His time of death has not been recorded.
Observations
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