Abstract

Contemporary scholarship on the book of Ezekiel generally accepts a literary, and more specifically, a structural role for the prophetic word formula. However, exegetes do not treat each of Ezekiel’s forty-eight occurrences of the formula in a consistent manner as a marker of structure and fail to relate it to other formulas within the book by typically focusing only on its use within a specific passage, without regard to its purpose within the larger literary context of the whole book. This article argues that every prophetic word formula in Ezekiel serves as a secondary, macro-structural marker by dividing the thirteen largest literary units of the book into smaller subunits consisting of oracles. This proposed role for the formula provides a consistent reading by taking into account all its occurrences within the book while also demonstrating its literary and organizational role for Ezekiel. In this construal, each prophetic word formula occurrence is given the same interpretive weight and has the same function attached to it; no prophetic word formula is ignored or given special consideration. This explanation of the formula also places it in clear and direct relationship with other formulas in the book so as to create a plausible literary structure for Ezekiel.

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