This article focuses on the descriptions of Israel's restoration scattered throughout the book of Ezekiel against the background of traditional prophetic portrayals of national redemption. This investigation aims to analyze the various unique motifs found in the restoration prophecies and their function in each particular occurrence. Consideration of these prophecies demonstrates a literary progression within the book of Ezekiel, and also reflects the uniqueness of Ezekiel's descriptions of the restoration of Israel.

Comparison between Ezekiel’s visionary temple and Neo-Babylonian temples shows similar organization of space and personnel. These formal similarities stem from a similar root purpose: maintaining strict standards of sanctity.

Several Babylonian talmudic sources call for the withdrawal of the book of Ezekiel from circulation. This article examines the development of this tradition and demonstrates how later rabbis integrated early texts in its creation and also used exegetical means to address the contradictions between Ezekiel’s stipulations and pentateuchal law. Another area of concern was Ezekiel’s prophetic status: some rabbinic texts granted Ezekiel the power of a lawgiver; others framed him as transmitting Mosaic traditions; and still others lowered Ezekiel’s prophetic status.

The importance of Mendelssohn’s commentary to Qohelet lies, inter alia, in its influence on nineteenth-century Jewish commentators and more precisely in its reception among eastern and western Europe’s Orthodox commentators, who adopted, explicitly or implicitly, his unique form of scriptural interpretation. In this article, I demonstrate unique characteristics in Mendelssohn’s commentary on Qohelet and the ways in which these were adopted by later biblical commentators, shedding light on features of Mendelssohn’s writings, reputation, and influence.

In evaluating the roles of the temple personnel in Ezekiel’s vision of the future temple (Ezekiel 40–48), three spheres of concern are taken into account: the broader biblical context, the more restricted context of the book of Ezekiel, and the Babylonian backdrop of his prophecies. This chapter demonstrates that the temple functionaries differ from their biblical precedents, on the one hand, and from what was known of their Babylonian environment on the other. What determines the roles of the priests, the Levites, and the nasi in Ezekiel’s temple vision is the driving theological force of preserving the temples’ sanctity. Thus, for example, the uniquely positioned nasi integrates the roles of two Babylonian temple officials; unlike the Babylonian functionaries, however, the nasi is not second to a human king, but answers only to God.