It’s around 593 BCE. And Judah is having a full-blown identity crisis.
The Babylonians have already invaded once. Jerusalem has surrendered. The king has been hauled off to Babylon. A load of the country’s elite (the people Babylon thought were worth keeping) have been deported hundreds of miles east.
But Jerusalem itself is still standing. The Temple is still there. There’s still a king on the throne.
If you’re one of the people left behind, you can tell yourself: Well, this sucks... but at least God is still here. At least we still have the Temple.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Babylon, sitting among the deportees beside the River Kebar, is a priest called Ezekiel.