Like the author of Deuteronomy, the prophet Ezekiel lived around the time of the Babylonian exile. A prophet’s job in the Bible was to interpret for the people the events of the day from God’s point of view—in Ezekiel’s case, to proclaim that the sack of Jerusalem and the (for all intents and purposes) end of the nation of Judah was no accident of history, but God’s punishment for generations of corruption, namely, worshiping false gods.
