Delimiting the Contours of Israel in Ezek 12:21–25 and 12:26–28

Abstract

Even though the concept of Israel would appear to many to be one of the most straightforward ones in the Hebrew Scriptures; it is not always clear what it actually refers to. Yet, delimiting or eliciting the implied [physical, social and ideological] contours of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures in their totality is way beyond the scope of any single article. Here we shall concentrate on Ezek 12:21-25, 26-28. It is my hypothesis that in these two short disputation speeches more than one view of Israel are implicitly presented.