Sefer Yechezkel (Ezekiel) is the book of the prophecies of Yechezkel ben Buzi, a kohen (priest, prophet), and one of the books of the Neviim Acharonim (the Later Prophets). Yechezkel lives among the exiles of Yehudah (Judah) at Tel Aviv on the river Kevar, in Bavel (Babylonia). The word of Hashem first comes to him there in the fifth year of the exile of King Yehoyachin (Jehoiachin) (1:2–3), and he prophesies both before and after the fall of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). (The Gemara, Bava Batra 15a, says that the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (the Men of the Great Assembly) wrote Sefer Yechezkel.)
By the river Kevar, Yechezkel sees the Merkavah (Hashem's chariot), a throne above four chayot (living creatures). Hashem calls him ben adam (son of man), sends him as a navi (prophet) to a rebellious people and appoints him a watchman for Beit Yisrael (the house of Israel). Through sign-acts he shows the coming siege of Yerushalayim. In a vision he sees avodah zarah (idol worship) in the Beit HaMikdash (the Jewish Holy Temple), and the kavod (glory) of Hashem leaving the house and the city.
Yechezkel teaches that each person answers for his own sins and that Hashem wants the wicked to return and live (18). In long parables he compares Yerushalayim to an unfaithful wife (16, 23). When his own wife dies, Hashem tells him not to mourn openly, as a sign of what the people will do when the Beit HaMikdash falls (24). Prophecies follow against Ammon, Moav, Edom, the Pelishtim (Philistines), Tzor (Tyre), Tzidon (Sidon) and Mitzrayim (Egypt) (25–32).
In the twelfth year of the exile, a survivor brings the news that Yerushalayim has fallen (33:21). Hashem will shepherd His flock Himself (34) and give the people a new heart (36). The dry bones come back to life, and two sticks for Yehudah and Yosef become one in Yechezkel's hand (37). Gog of the land of Magog comes against Yisrael and falls (38–39). In the last vision (40–48), Yechezkel is shown the future Beit HaMikdash, the service of the kohanim, the river that flows out from under the house and the division of the land among the shevatim (tribes). The sefer ends with the name of the city, Hashem shamah (Hashem is there).
The Gemara (Shabbat 13b) relates that the Sages nearly hid Sefer Yechezkel away, because parts of it seemed to contradict the Torah, until Chananyah ben Chizkiyah reconciled them.
Sefer Yechezkel has forty-eight perakim, and ten haftarot come from it. They are the haftarot of the first day of Shavuot, Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach, Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot, Parshat Parah and Parshat HaChodesh, and of Parshat Vayigash, Vaeira, Tetzaveh, Kedoshim and Emor.