Vrede in die boek van Esegiël

Abstract

Peace in the Book of Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel lived in a time when the people of Judah did not experience peace. He was a captive in Babylonia and preached to the exiles about the fall of Jerusalem, and after having heard about the fall, he preached about the restoration of the people. The book does not use the Hebrew word םולֹ שׁ very often; moreover, the Hebrew word does not always denote ‘peace’. This article discusses the use of the word in Ezekiel, comparing it with the other prophetic books in the Old Testament. The word occurs only seven times in the book. In Ezekiel 7:25, it deals with a vain search for peace. In Ezekiel 13, the false prophets are admonished for proclaiming peace when there is no peace. In Ezekiel 34:25 and 37:26, a covenant of peace is proclaimed for the time of the eventual restoration of the people. The fact that ‘peace’ is not mentioned explicitly very often in the book can be related to the reaction of the prophet against the peace-prophets of his time.