Life and Captivity
Ezekiel descended from a priestly lineage, being the son of Buzi and belonging to the kohen (priest) class; he served as a priest like his father. According to Jewish tradition, he may have been related to the prophet Jeremiah and descended from Joshua through Joshua's marriage to Rahab. Some rabbinic sources go further, suggesting that he was Jeremiah's son, with 'Buzi' understood as a disparaging epithet meaning 'despised.'
In 597 BC, during Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Jerusalem and the deposition of King Jehoiachin, Ezekiel was carried into exile in Babylon along with the king and the nobility of Judah. According to Josephus, approximately 10,832 people were exiled after King Jehoiachin's deposition. By one account drawn from Orthodox tradition, Ezekiel was about twenty-five years old when he was taken captive with King Jechoniah during Nebuchadnezzar's second invasion. He lived in exile at Tel Abib near Nippur, by the Kebar Canal. According to the biblical accounts he had a wife but no children.
Visions and Prophecy
Ezekiel's first divine encounter occurred in 'the thirtieth year' (593 BC), when he beheld a vision of a shining cloud with fire flashing continually, containing four living creatures and wheels. Orthodox tradition reads the four living creatures as symbols of the four Evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — and the sapphire throne bearing a human figure as a prefiguring of the incarnation of Christ.
His prophecies spanned approximately twenty-two years. Among his major visions were the Merkabah (chariot) vision, featuring God and the four living creatures with four wheels; the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, symbolizing the restoration of Israel; and the Temple Vision, depicting a future rebuilt temple with sacred waters issuing from it. His two great visions of the temple and the valley of dry bones are understood in Orthodox tradition to prefigure the resurrection and the Church.
Ezekiel announced the tribulations that would come upon Israel for its unfaithfulness, and proclaimed restoration and the return from Babylon. His final recorded prophecy is dated to April 571 BC, sixteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when he would have been around fifty-two years old. Tradition also relates that he performed miracles, including dividing the waters of the River Chebar.
Death and Burial
According to tradition, Ezekiel was put to death for denouncing the idolatry of a Hebrew prince, being torn apart by wild horses. He is said to have been buried in the tomb of the forefathers of Abraham; one account places this in Maur Field near Baghdad. He likely died around 570 BC.
Relics & Shrines
The principal tomb attributed to Ezekiel is at al-Kifl, Iraq, near ancient Babylon — long a Jewish religious site in Mesopotamia. A disused synagogue remains at the location; in 2020, efforts reportedly began to convert it into a mosque. A secondary tomb site is claimed at Ergani in Turkey (Diyarbakır Province), some five kilometers from the city center, revered and visited by local Muslims.
Ezekiel appears as a prophet in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religious traditions; in Islamic tradition he is sometimes identified with Dhu al-Kifl. He is commemorated on differing dates across confessions: in Orthodox Christianity (OCA calendar) on July 21, in Catholicism on July 23, in Lutheranism on July 21, and in the Armenian Apostolic Church on August 28.
