Ezekiel 1-12: On the move

I have written much of the dialectical tension that shape the biblical narrative, the push and pull between the word of God and the will of humankind. Intertwined with this plot-forming device is the device of movement. Throughout much of Israel's history, it has moved toward and away from the promised land. Now, long after conquering the promised land, Israel finds itself again out of God's favor and out their proper space.

At this point in the biblical narrative, it seems that God's people are permanently removed from the promised land. After they are given the land of Canaan, they fail to fulfill their contract and are expelled. In popular parlance, they blew it. (But that's human nature, as the bible widely attests.) The Babylonian exile represents the first time that Israel feels the bitter pull toward the land they possessed for so long.

The literature that developed during the time preceding and following the expulsion deals with the sense of loss in different ways. The Book of Job teaches how to deal with injustice. Lamentations mourns present conditions and looks to God for a panacea. Psalms offers myriad interpretations of punishment and reward. Prophets, like Jeremiah and Isaiah (First, Second, and Third), bring to light improper worship practices and preach social justice, while they deliver both predictions of terror and prophecies of salvation.

Ezekiel responds to the plight of the exile, and as a part of this offers the reassuring image of God in motion. Judah, home of God's people and God's residence on earth, is destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE. Therefore in his tenure as a prophet from 593 to 571 BCE, Ezekiel can be seen as comforting the exiles from the deportations from Jerusalem. Part of this comfort comes from Ezekiel's particular vision of God as a mobile deity.

God in Motion
The Book of Ezekiel opens with Ezekiel's vision of God's chariot, but before turning to that, it is important to note the setting. Ezekiel receives his vision "in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was on him there." (Ezekiel 1.3)

Jeremiah is the first prophet we encounter that prophesies redemption explicitely  from captivity, delivering a distinct message to his audience. Jeremiah was in Israel for his entire tenure, Isaiah 1 and 3 prophesied from Israel, and Isaiah 2 consists of God's direct message to Israel (without the explicit medium of a prophet).

God's Chariot
Ezekiel's vision of God's chariot takes place in 593 BCE, five years after the first exile, and still six before the second in 587.
 
I recommend reading the entire vision sequence of Ezekiel 1-3.11 to get the full effect of the literature. For those of you who would rather not, here is an artist's rendition, courtesy of Wikipedia:

A stormy wind from the north (the direction of Babylon) blows in a phantasm that can only be described using the noncommittal mystical terms such as like and as. The four living creatures of the vision have legs and arms for mobility, and for whatever reason only move directly straight, without turning. Never mind exactly why, as Ezekiel is trying to put into words an ineffable mystical experience. (A description of mystical experience is not part-for-part allegory, by the way, but a "translation" of a mystical encounter).

That being said, we may focus on the prominent images of movement throughout the vision to guess at what exactly Ezekiel is trying to say. Ezekiel writes of his encounter:

"As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them."
(Ezekiel 1.15)

One wheel or four? Both? In a vision, it doesn't really matter. The image is that of a wheel, which might signify completeness or more likely movement.

As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl; and the four had the same form, their construction being something like a wheel within a wheel. When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved. Their rims were tall and awesome, for the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When they moved, the others moved; when they stopped, the others stopped; and when they rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
(Ezekiel 1.16-21)

These wheels are capable of special locomotion, made possible by a wheel within a wheel. Four sets of tall and awesome double wheels propel the cart/chariot wherever it goes, forward and backward, up and down. The device is free to move in any direction in three dimensions. Additionally, the wheels function as a symbol of divine attentiveness. Eyes adorn all four wheels, indicating God's ubiquitous knowledge and presence. God is not only mobile, but all-seeing as well.

Ezekiel's Second Vision: Transportation
After this encounter, Ezekiel heads to Tel-abib, to reveal God's message to the exiles there. Here again Ezekiel encounters God. A year later in Judah (592 BCE), Ezekiel encounters God in a vision:

...and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north...
(Ezekiel 8.3)

The vision is very similar, a fact that is even made explicit:

And the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I had seen in the valley.
(Ezekiel 8.4)

Again, Ezekiel faces north, the direction from which the Babylonians attack. He is then transported to various parts of the city, where he encounters the abominations that still occur in Jerusalem. Ezekiel is warned of the future hardships before being brought back.

This section is notable because again God has a remarkable range of motion. He is not limited to the Jerusalem temple, but can observe and even interact with his people in captivity.

Again we see the details of movement in his encounter:

I looked, and there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like gleaming beryl. And as for their appearance, the four looked alike, something like a wheel within a wheel. When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved; but in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without veering as they moved. Their entire body, their rims, their spokes, their wings, and the wheels—the wheels of the four of them—were full of eyes all around. As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing “the wheelwork.” Each one had four faces: the first face was that of the cherub, the second face was that of a human being, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle. The cherubim rose up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the river Chebar. When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise up from the earth, the wheels at their side did not veer. When they stopped, the others stopped, and when they rose up, the others rose up with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in them.
(Ezekiel 10.9-17)

God's capability of movement is a remarkable development, and has a great influence on prophets and God's people, as we shall see in future chapters and later books.

Lamentations: Poems and Synesthesia

Being midway through the bible,
I would like to analyze some poetry. I
Bid you stay with me - I will break down
Lamentations and
Explain the meaning of its lines.

Today we look at The Book of Lamentations, an intricate web of five interwoven poems, each of which speaks of the Babylonian exile in a different way. These are the events immediately following the book of Jeremiah, which can be read in 2 Kings.



The first four poems take the form of acrostic poetry. An acrostic poem is one in which the first letter of every line or verse is used to spell or say something, as in the short poem above. Poems 1, 2, and 4 of Lamentations spell out the Hebrew alphabet verse by verse, all 22 letters in order, from aleph to taw. Poem 3 intensifies poetic form, with 3 successive verses devoted to each letter. Poem 5 mimics the number of verses in poems 1, 2, and 4, but does not exhibit an acrostic form. For those of us who cannot read Hebrew, I created a visual display so you can see how the poems sounds.

Poem 1:

________________________

Poem 2:

________________________ 

Poem 3:

________________________

Poem 4:

________________________ 

Poem 5:

________________________ 

Read chronologically (how else are you going to read them?), the series of poems exhibits an intensifying effect through poem 3, before tapering in poems 4 and 5. This creates the sensation of a great buildup of emotion that peters out into ambiguity. Indeed, Lamentations shifts over the course of the poem from mere description in its opening:

How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal.
(Lamentations 1.1)

to an ambiguous closing:

But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
Why have you forsaken us these many days?
Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
renew our days as of old -
unless you have utterly rejected us,
and are angry with us beyond measure.
(Lamentations 5.19-22)

This ending question is very troubling. It explicitly doubts the relationship established by the covenant between God and Israel, something that has not been seen before, except perhaps in Job, where it was quickly rebuffed. The end of Lamentations leaves us with an open question. Is God still devoted to Israel? Will he indeed restore his people?

This question may close the work, but in fact it is the thesis of Lamentations itself. Over the course of five poems we view the exile of Jerusalem through the eyes of six different parties.

Lamentations 1
This poem features two narrators, an omniscient narrator in 1-11b and the personified City of Zion (Jerusalem) in 11c-22. After getting a metaphorical sense of Zion's suffering (Zion as virgin daughter, suffering for her uncleanliness), Daughter Zion cries out in her suffering for the metaphorical pains she has suffered both directly by God and by "false lovers."

Lamentations 2
A new narrator describes how the Lord has punished Israel, and mixes metaphor with particular horrors that Israel has suffered:

My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poired out on the ground
because of the destruction of my people,
because infants and babes faint
in the streets of the city.
(Lamentations 2.11)

Then in the last two verse the poem reverts back to the voice of daughter Zion:

The young and the old are lying
on the ground in the streets;
my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
in the day of your anger you have killed them,
slaughtering without mercy.

You invited my enemies from all around
as if for a day of festival;
and on the day of the anger of the Lord
no one escaped or surived;
those whom I bore and reared
my enemy has destroyed
(Lamentations 3.21-22)

Zion has clearly suffered, but the most emotional plea fittingly comes in the most poetically dense portion of the book, poem 3.

Lamentations 3
This poem takes the point of view of a male of Jerusalem, who describes the physical manifestations of oppression suffered by the residents of the city:

I am one who has seen affliction
under the rod of God's wrath;
...
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away
and broken my bones;
he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
he has made me sit in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
(Lamentations 3.1; 4-6)

The male speaks for the people, those shot with arrows, those laughed at by their enemies, those afflicted by the siege of Jerusalem. Such is described in the first third of his lament. Then comes the recognition of God, which expands upon the first two poems in praising God's greatness and seeking his protection. Praise of God constitutes the latter two-thirds of the poem.

For the Lord will not reject forever.
Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.
(Lamentations 3.31.33)

The narrator of Lamentations 3 knows that the Lord will one day defend him. He has called out to the Lord, and the Lord has apparently responded to him that his enemies will be judged for their actions. With God's apparent support, perhaps given through the words of Jeremiah or some other prophet, the narrator is confident that the Lord will pay back the deeds of Jerusalem's oppressors and restore his people to their proper place.

Lamentations 4
This note of hope is quickly subdued in the following poem, beginning from the first line:

How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The sacred stones lie scattered
at the head of every street
(Lamentations 4.1)

And so goes the rest of the poem, narrated by the community itself. Horrors are recalled, from the thirst of infants to the capture of King Zedekiah to even canibalism:

The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food
in the destruction of my people.
(Lamentations 4.10)

It is a truly dire situation, and yet the last two strophes of the poem speak of imminent salvation of God's chosen people.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom,
you that live in the land of Uz;
but to you also the cup shall pass;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished,
he will keep you in exile no longer;
but your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will punish,
he will uncover your sins.
(Lamentations 4.21-22)

These hopeful lines of poetry are significantly briefer than the 45 strophes that praise God in Lamentations 3. Clearly the expectation of salvation is wearing thin by this point, as the eventual reward becomes vague. Indeed, by the end of the next poem, hope will seem to all but disappear.

Lamentations 5
This poem continues to address the Lord, and offers the bleakest picture of Judah's suffering: women raped, skin black from malnutrition, downtrodden people who suffer hunger and thirst. Their hearts are sick and their eyes have grown dim. In light of the circumstances, there is one last question for God:

But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
Why have you forgotten us completely?
Why have you forsaken us these many days?
Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
renew our days as of old -
unless you have utterly rejected us,
and are angry with us beyond measure.
(Lamentations 5.19-22)

The closing of the poem - and the Book of Lamentations, reveals the potential for a great shift in Israelite belief. Up until this point, it has been common knowledge that the Lord supports and protects Israel. Now that view is being called into question. Why have they suffered so much and why do they continue to suffer? Will the Lord indeed intervene to save his people? Lamentations asks these very uncomfortable questions, and provides no answer. The bible, which has always praised God's greatness, even in times of oppression, here confronts a very difficult situation, and rather than finding an answer in God, finds no answer at all. The question hangs in the air for history to answer.