Ezekiel

Where the name comes from

• Hebrew
  God strengthens; God will strengthen
  יְחֶזְקֵאל (Yeḥezqel), from ḥazaq, "to be strong, to make strong," and El, "God"
  One of the clearest biblical name etymologies: a sentence name, like Ezekiel’s near-namesake Hezekiah ("YHWH strengthens"). It reached English through Greek Iezekiēl and Latin Ezechiel.

Ezekiel across traditions

• Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel was a priest, the son of Buzi, taken to Babylon with King Jehoiachin about 2,600 years ago. He prophesied to the exiles "by the river Chebar" (Ezekiel 1:3). His book holds the vision of the chariot-throne of God (chapter 1) and the valley of dry bones that rise and live again (chapter 37).
• Jewish mysticism. His opening vision, the merkavah (chariot), became the foundation of the earliest Jewish mystical tradition, Merkavah mysticism, which later fed into Kabbalah.
• Islamic. Islamic tradition knows him as Hizqil; some commentators identify him with Dhu al-Kifl, a prophet named in the Qur’an. A shrine held to be his tomb stands at al-Kifl in Iraq, visited by Jews and Muslims alike.

Who carried it

• Ezekiel the prophet (about 2,600 years ago): Priest and prophet among the exiles in Babylon; author of the Book of Ezekiel.

Forms in other languages

Ezequiel (Spanish, Portuguese), Ézéchiel (French), Ezechiele (Italian), Hesekiel (German), Yechezkel (Hebrew), Zeke

Ezekiel in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.