Ezekiel Style

Ezekiel's style has caused some modern commentators to question his balance and even his sanity. Chapters 1, 8, 10, 37, and 40 describ

e ecstatic visions seizing the prophet's whole person. Among his prophetic gestures are clapping his hands and stamping his feet (6, 11), digging through the wall of his house at night with a pack on his back to illustrate the exile (12, 5), lying on his side for 390 days, and arranging his cut hair in three piles (5, 1-17). Though some scholars of the previous generation argues that such behavior indicated mental instability, most today recognize that the actions are prophetic gestures, like Isaiah walking naked in Jerusalem for three years to dramatize the Assyrian conquest of Egypt (Is 20). They are a kind of living parable, designed to shock and provoke reflection. They do not provide a glimpse of "the real Ezekiel," whose personality (in the modern sense of personality) is largely hidden from our eyes.

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