1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
1:1
The chronology of the period is as follows (the dates are approximate):
Josiah Jehoahaz Jehoiakim Jehoiachin Zedekiah
638-608 BC
608 (3 months)
608-597
597 (3 months)
597-587/6
Josiah was the last good king of Judah, and with his death at the battle of Megiddo in 608 BC the last hope for God's people was extinguished (see 2 Kings 23:31ff). Following his death, his son Jehoahaz reigned, but only for three months, when Pharaoh of Egypt took him prisoner and put his brother Eliakim (known as Jehoiakim) on the throne. Jehoiakim was succeeded in 597 by his son Jehoiachin, who reigned only three months before being carried captive to Babylon along with the cream of Judah's population. Zedekiah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar as puppet-king and reigned for 11 years until, rebelling against Babylon in spite of the warning entreaty of Jeremiah, he was subdued, and Jerusalem was razed to the ground in 587/6 BC. The Captivity thus took place in two stages, with a 10-11 year period between them, with the city of Jerusalem still standing after the capture of the princes and nobles of Judah, then the final visitation which saw the devastation and destruction of the city. It is clear that Ezekiel was taken captive with the first contingent, while there were still many in Jerusalem and Judah and the city was still standing. And briefly - if we may anticipate the teaching of the prophecy - Ezekiel's message was to assure the exiles already in Babylon that there was no ground for their false hope, that their stay there would be short and that they would soon be back in their beloved city. 'No', he said, 'the city will fall, and the exile will be long.'