Tel-Abib

Tel-abib is the settlement in Babylonia where the Jewish exiles lived along the river Chebar. Ezekiel goes to it after his commissioning vision and sits silent among his fellow captives there.

A Settlement of the Exile

The name is fixed to the river Chebar and to the community of those carried away from Judah: "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, who dwelt by the river Chebar, and there where they were dwelling; and I sat there dismayed among them seven days" (Eze 3:15). The verse marks the place as both the prophet's destination after his vision and the dwelling-place of the exiles. The seven silent days among them frame the start of his ministry to that community.