ABSTRACT
It is no wonder that Ezekiel has sometimes been thought a sick man. Moderns have occasionally tried to diagnose his illness. August Klostermann (1877) accounted for Ezekiel’s peculiarities in terms of what the nineteenth century called “catalepsy”. Ezekiel 8:1 dates the vision described in the following chapters to “the sixth year, the sixth month, the fifth day of the month”—that is, some time in September, 592 bc. Ezekiel sits in his house, the “elders of Judah” in attendance. Ezekiel prophesies against them, with the result that one of them, Pelatiah ben Benaiah, drops dead. There follows an oracle, its relation to its context uncertain, which appears to defend the religious status of Ezekiel’s fellow-exiles against the arrogant claims of the Jerusalemites. Only, Ezekiel will not acknowledge the fantasy as his own. He therefore projects it onto the elders, declaring that he is exposing their hidden wishes.
