’I will be King over you!’: The Rhetoric of Divine Kingship in the Book of Ezekiel

This book examines various rhetorical ways in which the motif of Yahweh’s Kingship functions in the Book of Ezekiel and explores what these arguments contribute to our understanding of the prophetic book as a whole. It concludes that the chief purpose for such rhetoric is to bolster and/or rebuild Yahweh’s reputation among the Judean exiles in Babylon in order to encourage them to avoid assimilation and to preserve their unique faith and identity as the People of Israel. The book provides an overview of the rhetoric of the larger Ezekiel corpus, an examination of the historical and ideological context of the Babylonian exile, a discussion of the method of rhetorical analysis employed here, and a detailed exegesis of texts in which the motif of Yahweh’s kingship is most prominent. In relation to this central motif, relevant sub-themes such as paradise and the underworld, divine presence and absence, and the exodus are also explored.