Ezekiel and politics

Already set in the Babylonian exile, the book of Ezekiel functions above all as an unremitting justification for the present and a radical vision for the future of YHWH and the nation, Israel. Politics plays an integral role in this theological project. Reflecting at length on the nation’s political past, present, and future, Ezekiel conforms on one level to a traditional pattern of royal condemnation turn royal restoration common to many texts in our prophetic corpus. On another, the book displays a profound agnosticism regarding the theological function and future of human kingship, pitting YHWH’s claims of divine sovereignty against all iterations of human rule. The book’s ongoing use and subversion of political language, as well as its sustained interest in manifestation of royal rule, suggests that its theological revisionism takes in the very nature of political rule itself. As such, the book, especially its final Temple Vision (Ezek 40–48), may contribute to ongoing discussions of political theology and political theory in the Hebrew Bible.