Dissonant Prophecy in Ezekiel 26 and 29

Abstract

Ezek 26:1–21 and 29:17–21 present a formidable challenge to the deuteronomic criterion for a true prophet. In the former passage Ezekiel predicted that Nebuchadnezzar's army would conquer Tyre and plunder its wealth. In the latter passage, written 16 years later, Ezekiel admitted that Nebuchadnezzar's army obtained no plunder from its campaign against Tyre. He issued a corrective prophecy that promised Egyptian booty as a consolation. For the most part scholarship has considered the historical problem the key to the first prophecy. Whereas some interpreters appeal to multiple historical fulfillments, others allow the evidence to impugn Ezekiel's integrity. By appealing to the function of mythological imagery in Ezekiel's oracles against the nations, this article proposes an alternate approach to the impasse.