News of the actual fall of Jerusalem reached him in the village of Tel-Abib (on the southern bank of the Euphrates)，where he made his home.
He continued to live there until the day of his death.
The literary quality of his work is far beneath that of the Unknown Author of Isaiah.His style is rigid.The man himself lacks those human qualities which make such an appeal to us in many of the older leaders.He is far from modest.
He often gets into a veritable trance of artificial excitement.Upon such occasions he sees strange visions and hears mysterious voices.
But withal he was a man with a good deal of practical sense.
Like Jeremiah，he never ceased to argue against those misguided fanatics who believed that Jerusalem was bound to be impregnable because the town happened to be the capital of God's Chosen People.
He warned them.He told them that faith without deeds had never saved a nation.
But when the city had been taken and many people of little faith became at once despondent about the future of their race，Ezekiel stood forth as the triumphant advocate of a better future.
He never ceased to predict the happy day when the Temple should be restored and the altar of Jehovah drip once more with the blood of the offered bullocks.
This resurrected state，however (according to his views)，could not survive unless the Jewish nation was willing to submit to certain practical reforms which Ezekiel then described in great detail.
Here，for a moment，he assumed the role of his Greek neighbour，Plato.
He gave us the deion of an Ideal State，according to his own views of life.He wanted to strengthen and reёnforce those parts of the Laws of Moses which in former times had given several heathenish forms of worship a chance to incor-porate themselves within the holy rites of Jehovah.
In a general way，he advocated the reestablishment of the Kingdom of David and of Solomon.
But in his new state，the Temple and not the royal palace must become the centre of all national life and activity.
The Temple，according to the Prophet，was the House of Jehovah，and the palace was merely the home of the sovereign.
That difference ought to be severely impressed upon the people.
Furthermore，the average man should have a profound respect for the holiness of his God and should be made to understand that He was a Being far removed from ordinary human traffic.
The Temple，therefore，in Ezekiel's ideal state，was to be surrounded by two enormous walls and should stand in the middle of vast courtyards，so that the gaping multitude could at all times be kept at a respectable distance.
Everything connected with the Temple was to be holy ground.
No foreigner was ever to be allowed within the enclosure.
And the Jews，with the exception of the priests，were to be admitted only on rare occasions.
The priests were to form a closely knit union or guild.
Only descendants of Zadok should aspire to this dignity.
Their influence was to be greatly increased until they should be the actual rulers of the state，as it had already been planned by Moses.
In order to strengthen their hold upon the common people，the number of feast days was to be greatly increased and special attention was to be paid to the offerings of atonement for sin.
The idea of perpetual sin was to be held firmly before the nation.
Private offerings were to be discouraged.
Everything connected with worship in the Holy of Holies ought to be done in the name of the whole people.
The King，upon such occasions，was to act as the representative of the nation.
For the rest，he was to be merely an ornamental figurehead without any actual power.
In the olden days，David and Solomon had been given the privilege of appointing all priests.
This privilege was to be taken away from the sovereign.
The priestly class was to become a self-perpetuating body which was to treat the King as one of its servants and by no means as its master.
Finally，all the best land of the country，in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem，was to be given to the priests that they might be certain of a decent revenue，and there was to be no appeal from any law or decree they might wish to pass.
Here indeed was a strange programme.
But it sounded reasonable enough to the contemporaries of Ezekiel.And as soon as the Temple should have been rebuilt and the exiles allowed to return to their old home，they intended to establish such a rigid ecclesiastic state.
That day was to come sooner than most of the exiles expected.
Beyond the distant mountains of the east，a young barbarian chieftain was drilling his horsemen.He was to be the Messiah who delivered the Jewish captives from their foreign bondage.
His Persian subjects called him Kurus.
We know him by the name of Cyrus.
