Bible Strands
Ezekiel 1:2
On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel addresses the exiles by the River Kebar, anchoring his vision to a precise historical moment. The text places this event in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, following the initial heavenly opening recorded in Ezekiel 1:1.
The words — The phrase לְ/גָל֖וּת (le./ga.Lut) translates literally to "of exile," grounding the timeline in the forced removal of the king. It is paired with הַ/חֲמִישִׁ֔ית (ha./cha.mi.Shit), meaning "the fifth," to specify the exact year of that displacement.
The thread — This dating convention recurs in Ezekiel 8:1 and Ezekiel 20:1, where the prophet consistently marks visions by the years of Jehoiachin’s captivity. The historical basis for this timeline is established in 2 Kings 24:12, which records the king’s surrender to Babylon.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to accept that divine communication is situated within verifiable historical chronology rather than abstract time. It asks the reader to correlate prophetic revelation with the concrete reality of national displacement.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 24:12 Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive.
- Ezekiel 8:1 In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.
- Ezekiel 20:1 In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and they sat down before me.
- Ezekiel 40:1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month—in the fourteenth year after Jerusalem had been struck down—on that very day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He took me there.
- Ezekiel 29:17 In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- Ezekiel 29:1 In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- Ezekiel 31:1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,