Ezekiel

Ezekiel יְחֶזְקֵאל‎
Depiction by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Prophet and Priest
Born	Possibly c. 623 BCE Jerusalem, Kingdom of Judah
Died	After c. 571 BCE Babylon, Neo-Babylonian Empire
Venerated in	Judaism Christianity Islam Baháʼí Faith
Major shrine	Ezekiel's Tomb, Iraq
Feast	August 28 – Armenian Apostolic Church July 23 – Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism July 21 – Lutheranism
Controversy	Babylonian captivity

Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (/ɪˈziːkiəl/; Hebrew: יְחֶזְקֵאל Yəḥezqēʾl [jə.ħɛzˈqeːl]; Greek: Ἰεζεκιήλ Iezekiḗl [i.ɛ.zɛ.kiˈel]), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and activities, is named after him.

The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. During the Babylonian captivity, Ezekiel prophesized the destruction of Judah's capital city Jerusalem, but following the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, which destroyed Solomon's Temple and brought an end to the Jewish–Babylonian War in 587 BCE, also the restoration of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel in the aftermath.

It is believed that he died around 570 BCE; Ezekiel's Tomb is the most important Jewish religious site in Mesopotamia. The name "Ezekiel" means "God is strong" or "God strengthens" in the Hebrew language.^[1] In 539 BCE, three decades after the believed date of his death, the Babylonian captivity ended with the Persian conquest of Babylon and the Jews were subsequently repatriated in an event known as the return to Zion, which began after the Persian king Cyrus the Great issued the Edict of Cyrus.