Ezekiel's Parable of the Watchman and the Editing of Ezekiel

Abstract

Ezekiel's parable of the watchman is very important for understanding his sense of mission, explaining his intense concern in his touring of Palestine and other places 1). It is thus worthy of the highlighting it receives at the hand of the final editors in their double usage of this material to head two sections of the book addressed to God's people Israel. The parable consists of three parts: (1) xxxiii 1-6, which is preserved in Chap. xxxiii alone; (II) xxxiii 7-9, with its close verbal parallel in iii 17-19; and (III) iii 20-21, which is preserved in Chap. iii alone. One thus sees that each chapter contains two of the three parts-Chap. xxxiii containing the first two and Chap. iii the last two, each of them sharing the central portion. This duplication between Chaps. iii and xxxiii is not limited to the watchman passage alone, but it is a part of a whole series of parallels between Chap. xxxiii and the rest of the book. We shall begin by focusing upon the structure and contents of Chap. xxxiii in relation to iii 12-27. The following outlines are to be consulted in the subsequent analyses: