Introduction

Having performed a series of sign acts dramatizing the demise of Jerusalem and the temple in (Ezek 4-5) and explaining the justification for God’s punishment (Ezek 6), in Ezekiel 7 the prophet tries to jolt the exiles with the reality of the impending doom. Ezekiel 7’s main feature is its dramatic repetition of doom, a feature necessitated by the belief of many Israelites in the inviolability of Zion. Ezekiel disabuses his hearers of that myth in Chapter 7.