It has been many a year since I last read the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament.  I am rereading it to see what I may have missed, and to make note of the valuable and usable things that are therein.  They are few.  Most of the book is a compilation of prophecies against the Jewish nation, and against her enemies, which were long ago fulfilled.

The one real gem in the book of Ezekiel is his prophecy about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the "stick of Joseph," which was to be joined with the "stick of Judah."  (Ezekiel 37:15-20).  I love those verses.

While reading Ezekiel this time I've learned some things.  I was interested to realize that he is the only ancient prophet who took care to date his writings and his revelations.  Many of his chapters begin with words such as these:  "And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house ..."  (Ezekiel 8:1)

I asked myself, "in the sixth year of what?"

It wasn't until I got to the 40th chapter that I was able to answer my question.  That chapter begins with these words:  "In the five and twenty year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me thither."

Ezekiel was one of the Jewish captives that Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon.  Ezekiel dated his writings and revelations according to the length of time that he had been in captivity.  The event of his being carried off to Babylon was the pivotal event of his life.  His dating of everything puts his life and writings in context, and enables us to better understand his situation and his prophecies.

The Bible Dictionary says that Ezekiel was "carried away" to Babylon.  What did that carrying away entail?

It's a long, long way from Jerusalem to Babylon.  Because of the desert that lies between those two points, it was necessary for Nebuchadnezzer's army to take much the same route that Abraham took many centuries earlier.  That route involved a circuitous journey north to Haran.  From Jerusalem to Haran to Babylon might be as much as 900 miles.  I'm sure the Jewish captives weren't given their own horses or camels to ride.  Did Ezekiel have to walk the whole way, or were the captives put in wagons?  It was an arduous, upsetting, and life-changing event.

It is thought that Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and was destroyed in 587 B.C.  The verse that I quoted from the 40th chapter of Ezekiel would have, therefore, been written in 572 B.C., being 14 years from Jerusalem's fall.  Twenty five years before that was 598 B.C., the year Ezekiel was carried away captive to Babylon.

The Babylonians took captives from Jerusalem to Babylon on at least three occasions.  The first group included Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.  I think they were made captive in about 605 B.C.  The Babylonians took the Jews' most promising and intelligent youth.  Nephi and his brothers were young men the same age as Daniel, and were there.  I've often wondered why and how they were spared.

The Babylonians returned in 598.  I would suppose that they followed their earlier practice, and took the most promising young men captive.  I would imagine that Ezekiel probably filled the bill as a promising young person.  They also took the new, young king, Jehoiachin, and installed his uncle, Zedekiah, in his place as the new king of Judah.

Here we run into a problem with the dates.  The Book of Mormon says that Lehi had his visionary and missionary experiences in "the first year of the reign of Zedekiah" (1 Nephi 1:4), and that the Savior would be born 600 years from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem.  (1 Nephi 10:4, 19:8, 2 Nephi 25:19).  Either the Book of Mormon dates are off by two years, or else secular dating is wrong, and the siege of Jerusalem actually took place in 589 B.C.  I would prefer to think that the Book of Mormon dates are correct, but perhaps those verses simply meant that the Savior would come in about 600 years after Lehi left Jerusalem.

At any rate we know from the fact that Ezekiel took care to date his writings and prophecies that he began prophesying five years after he arrived in Babylon (Ezekiel 1:2-3), and that he continued prophesying for at least another 25 years.  (1:1).

We also know from these datings that Lehi and Nephi avoided the second Babylonian invasion by a hairbreadth.  Ezekiel was either carried away in the same year that Lehi left Jerusalem or just two years later.

Did Ezekiel and Daniel know one another?

I think that probable.

Did Daniel and Ezekiel know Lehi and Nephi?

Probably not, but it is important to know that they were all contemporaries.

Ezekiel issued many prophecies about the coming destruction of Jerusalem.  How did he find out about his prophecies' fulfillment?

He may have been aware when the Babylonian army marched off toward Judea, but he would have most certainly learned the outcome when the army returned and added more captives to those they'd already collected.

How did Ezekiel feel about the news of Jerusalem's fall?

He would have felt vindicated about his warnings, but was surely saddened to know of the fate of the land of his nativity and of his relatives and acquaintances.

Would those inhabitants of Jerusalem have been aware of the prophecies that he made about them in far-off Babylon?

Probably.  Sending copies to Jerusalem was surely his purpose in writing them.

Was Ezekiel a slave or a free person in his captivity?

He settled by the river Chebar in Babylonia (1:1), was married (24:15-18), spoke to and taught his people, and was probably as free as Daniel and his companions appear to have been.  Returning to Jerusalem, however, was probably not a viable option because of the distance and the dangers involved.

Ezekiel was a real person, and a chosen prophet of God.  His teachings are validated in D&C 29:21 where it is written:

"And the great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall be cast down by devouring fire, according as it is spoken by the mouth of Ezekiel the prophet, who spoke of these things, which have not come to pass but surely must, as I live, for abominations shall not reign."