As a “sentinel for the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 3:17), Ezekiel had repeatedly warned of God’s pending penalty for Judah’s transgressions, including its fondness for idolatry (Ezekiel 5:7-10).

Neither would Ezekiel, the only prophet in the Hebrew Bible who carried out his mission while in exile. As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin writes in Biblical Literacy (1997), ...