2: 1. As Ezekiel is lying on the ground like a dead man, God shows his gracious love to him and calls him to stand up before him. In God's action, we see his desire that man should enjoy his relationship with God and find the meaning of his life in this relationship. This revelation of God's graciousness to man complements what the vision of chapter 1 showed us of the transcendence of God. God addresses Ezekiel as 'mortal man' or 'son of man', meaning 'representative man' or 'human being' as contrasted with God. This way of addressing the prophet emphasizes the transcendence of God, who nevertheless comes close to the man he has created.

2: 2. God empowers Ezekiel with his Spirit and raises him to his feet, before telling him what his prophetic task is to be to the exiles around him.

2: 3-7. The message which God gives Ezekiel concerning his prophetic task reminds us of what Jeremiah heard when he was called to be God's prophet. Ezekiel is told that he must prophesy to his fellow-men who will be stubborn, defiant and rebellious when they hear the prophet's message: 'It will be like living amongst scorpions.' To understand this we need to remember that most of the exiles were full of despair and anger at what had happened to them, thinking that their God was defeated and powerless, and blaming what had happened to them on

 their sinful ancestors. They would find it very difficult to understand what had just been revealed to Ezekiel in his vision of God's presence with them in Babylonia. They would also find it very difficult to accept his teaching about the individual's responsibility for his own sin (Ezekiel 18). God gives Ezekiel the same word that he gave to Jeremiah: 'You must not be afraid of them or of anything they say.' Isaiah was also warned of the hardness of his task.

2: 8-3: 2. A prophet is essentially a spokesman for God. At his call Isaiah's mouth had been touched with a burning coal, and Jeremiah's mouth had been touched by God's hand. To enable Ezekiel to speak for him, God gives him a scroll of writing and tells him to eat it. In this vision, God's word is given to his prophet in a new way, through the written word. The scroll was written on both sides, which was unusual as one side only was normally used. This may symbolize the great responsibility and burden of the prophet's task in being the spokesman of God in the situation in which Ezekiel was placed. The words on the scroll were of grief and lamentation.