Home and Church Bible Study Commentaries from the Book of Ezekiel

During the second invasion of Jerusalem(597 B.C.) Nebuchadnezzar deported an even larger group of Judah’s upper and middle class citizens to Babylon and among this group was a young twenty-six year old priest in training named Ezekiel. This group of Jewish captives was placed in the region of Tel Aviv along a wide canal that links two branches of the Euphrates known as the Kebar River. There they were treated more as colonists than slaves and enjoyed many privileges. It was there on the banks of the Kebar River that in 593 B.C. a now thirty old Ezekiel received his calling from GOD (Ezekiel 1 & 2). Thirty years old is the minimum age that priests are actually allowed to begin serving in the temple (Numbers 4:1-3). And so as the LORD would have it it was from that place that Ezekiel first served the LORD by delivering his first prophetic message to his fellow captives in Babylon.