The Chebar River was an irrigation canal in ancient Babylon, in the region that today corresponds to Iraq. It diverted the waters of the Euphrates and passed near the city of Nippur, south of Babylon.
A large community of Jewish exiles lived there, taken from Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. Among them was the priest Ezekiel, far from the temple in Jerusalem, striving to keep his people’s faith alive in a foreign land.
In the year 593 BC, beside the Chebar River, the heavens opened before Ezekiel. He saw four living creatures, wheels full of eyes, and the glory of the Lord upon a throne, and there he received his call as a prophet.
After the vision, Ezekiel sat among the exiles at Tel Abib, near the same river, for seven days, overwhelmed by what he had seen. The Chebar River thus became the place where God revealed himself to a people who seemed to have lost everything.
