Chebar River
Overview
- Type: Geographic Feature
- Testament: Old
- Modern Location: A canal of the Euphrates near Nippur, in southern Mesopotamia (Iraq)
Biblical Significance
The Chebar (or Chebar River) was a great irrigation canal in Babylonia beside which a community of Judean exiles had been settled after the captivity of Jeconiah. It was here, “among the captives by the river of Chebar,” that the priest Ezekiel received his prophetic call: “the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1). By that water the hand of the Lord came upon him (Ezekiel 1:3), and he beheld the four living creatures, the whirling wheels, and the radiant likeness of the glory of God enthroned above them. Ezekiel later sat overwhelmed among the exiles at Tel-abib by the Chebar for seven days (Ezekiel 3:15), and he testified that the vision he saw there was the same glory he had beheld in the temple (Ezekiel 10:15, 22). The Chebar thus marks the astonishing truth that God’s glory was not confined to Jerusalem but appeared to His people in the land of their exile.
Key Events
- Ezekiel’s inaugural vision of the glory of God (Ezekiel 1:1-3)
- Ezekiel sits among the captives at Tel-abib for seven days (Ezekiel 3:15)
Key People Associated
- Ezekiel — received his visions of God by the Chebar
Important Verses
- Ezekiel 1:1
- Ezekiel 1:3
- Ezekiel 3:15
- Ezekiel 10:15
Cross-References
Notes
- The Chebar shows God meeting His exiled people far from the temple, a comfort to all in displacement.