FIRST DIVISION, CH. 1 24, PROPHECIES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE KINGDOM First Section. Ch. 1 3:21 The section consists of two divisions: First, Ch. 1 inaugural vision of Jehovah; second, Ch. 2 3:21, the various steps by which Jehovah, thus seen, initiated the prophet into his work. The inaugural v... [ Continue Reading ]
FIRST DIVISION, CH. 1 24, PROPHECIES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE KINGDOM First Section. Ch. 1 3:21 The section consists of two divisions: First, Ch. 1 inaugural vision of Jehovah; second, Ch. 2 3:21, the various steps by which Jehovah, thus seen, initiated the prophet into his work. The inaugural v... [ Continue Reading ]
_fifth year … jehoiachin_ Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim and grandson of Josiah, reigned only three months and ten days. He is also styled Jeconiah or Coniah, Jeremiah 22:24 _seq_., Ezekiel 24:1, Eze 27:20; 2 Kings 24:8. His captivity dates b.c. 597, and Ezekiel's call 592, six years before the fall o... [ Continue Reading ]
_came expressly_ Omit _expressly_. The name Ezekiel probably means "God is strong." Nothing further is known of Ezekiel or of his father Buzi. The designation "priest" appears to apply to Ezekiel, not to his father. As the prophet excludes all Levites from priestly office except the "sons of Zadok... [ Continue Reading ]
God appears in cloud and storm: clouds and darkness are round about him, Exodus 9:24; 1 Kings 19:11; Job 38:1; Psalms 50:3. _out of the north_ In Psalms 29 the theophany also comes from the north, and passes southward to the desert. The idea of the prophet can hardly be that the "place" or abode of... [ Continue Reading ]
The theophany, or, vision of God This is described first generally, as a whirlwind and great cloud coming from the North, with a luminous splendour around it, due to a fire sending out continuous flashes within it (Ezekiel 1:4). Secondly, more particularly that is described which appeared within t... [ Continue Reading ]
_out of the midst thereof_ Most naturally, out of the midst of the whole phenomenon of the tempestuous fiery cloud, though it might be out of that splendour which was like electrum. Four "living creatures," as Revelation 4, there unfortunately rendered "beasts.... [ Continue Reading ]
The four living creatures These are described as having in general the human form; they were erect and had apparently two feet (Ezekiel 1:5_; Ezekiel 1:7_); they had four faces, one looking each way: the face of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle (Ezekiel 1:10). The man's face was the front face of... [ Continue Reading ]
_had four faces_ These were a man's in front of each, an eagle's opposite to this at the back of each; a lion's on the right hand of each, and the face of an ox on the left of each. Thus four different faces were presented in each direction, so that in whatever direction the whole moved, while a man... [ Continue Reading ]
_straight feet_ "Feet" here means limbs. These appear to have been two in number, though this is not expressly stated. The foot itself was round, or as much so as that of a calf. The word "straight" applied to the limbs means strictly "even," i.e. probably without protuberance or knot such as a knee... [ Continue Reading ]
Each living creature appears to have had four hands or arms, cf. ch. Ezekiel 10:21. The last words of Ezekiel 1:8 must be joined with Ezekiel 1:9: "and their faces and their wings, of them four their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went, they went every one straightforwar... [ Continue Reading ]
Read as R. V., _and as for the likeness of their faces: they had the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side_, &c. The right side is that of the living creature, not of the beholder.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus_were _their faces_ This rendering is perhaps just possible, particularly if present text in Ezekiel 47:17-19 be accepted (which most scholars, however, alter according to Ezekiel 1:20). The words are rather to be omitted (with LXX.); or "inwards" (penîmah) is to be read for "their faces" (penç... [ Continue Reading ]
_went straightforward_ i.e. in the direction to which the living creature's face was turned. The chariot had four sides facing the four quarters of the heavens; on each side of the chariot was a living creature whose principal face, the human, looked in the same direction as the side of the chariot... [ Continue Reading ]
A slight correction of the text after LXX. is necessary in this verse, which should read as R.V. marg., AND IN THE MIDST OF THE LIVING CREATURES WAS AN APPEARANCE LIKE BURNING COALS OF FIRE, LIKE THE APPEARANCE OF TORCHES. The description of the living creatures themselves was finished in Ezekiel 1:... [ Continue Reading ]
Jerome testifies that this verse was not found in LXX. The verse both in regard to terminology and construction is untranslateable. The word rendered "ran" has no existence, and that translated "flash of lightning" is equally unknown. Attempts have been made to amend the verse by substituting for "r... [ Continue Reading ]
_beheld the living creatures_ lit. _and I saw the living creatures and behold_. LXX. reads, _and I saw and behold_precisely as ch. Ezekiel 8:2; Ezekiel 10:1; Ezekiel 10:9. _by the living creatures_ BESIDE, as R.V. _with his four faces_ lit. _according to_, or, _at his four faces_. LXX. reads, _to t... [ Continue Reading ]
The Four Wheels The prophet saw four wheels beside the four living creatures, one wheel beside each creature. The wheels touched the ground, and were all alike, having the appearance of tarshish-stone. The construction of each appeared as if a wheel were within a wheel, that is, each of the four wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_the colour of a beryl_ Heb. _tarshish-stone_, so named from Tartessus in Spain, in which country it was found. It is the chrysolite of the ancients, the topaz of the moderns, a stone of a golden colour. Colour is "glance." The words "and their work" in first clause, and "and their appearance" in se... [ Continue Reading ]
_they turned not when they went_ Of course they ran round on their axle, but each wheel was of such a kind that it had a rim facing all four directions, and could run in any direction. _On_their four sides should rather be, TOWARD.... [ Continue Reading ]
_so high that they were dreadful_ lit. _as for their rings, there was height to them and there was fear to them;_R.V. they were high and dreadful. The word "fear," however, nowhere means terribleness but always terror. Psalms 90:11, "thy fear" is the fear due to thee, or, the fear inspired by thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
The movement of the wheels corresponded with that of the living creatures. They were animated by the same spirit as the creatures, and were part of the whole living phenomenon. In the Book of Enoch "wheels" (Ophannim) are a class of angels, named along with Seraphim and Cherubim, ch. lxi. 10; lxx. 7... [ Continue Reading ]
_thither_was their _spirit to go_ Rather, THE spirit, i.e. the general spirit moving the whole manifestation. The words are wanting in LXX., and are possibly an accidental repetition of those in the beginning of the verse; or they are a somewhat loose and elliptical repetition attached to "they went... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the likeness of the firmament_ Rather: AND THERE WAS A LIKENESS OVER THE HEADS OF THE LIVING CREATURE (of) A FIRMAMENT. The term "firmament" has come from the LXX. (stereôma) through the Vulgate. The verb is used of the creation of the earth, Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:24; Psalms 136:6, and once, J... [ Continue Reading ]
The Firmament, and Throne, and Glory of God Over the heads and outstretched wings of the four living creatures there appeared a firmament like crystal (Ezekiel 1:22); and above the firmament an appearance as of a throne, like a sapphire stone; and upon the throne the appearance of a man (Ezekiel 1:... [ Continue Reading ]
were _their wings straight_ "straight" is even, level, and the reference appears to be to the upper side of the wings stretched out horizontally under the firmament. It is not meant that the firmament _rested_on the wings or heads of the living creatures, it was over them. _the one toward the other... [ Continue Reading ]
The sound of the wings of the living creatures when in flight was as the noise of many waters, as the thunder, or, as the roar of a host. _voice of the Almighty_ that is, the thunder, Psalms 29:3; Job 37:4. The comparison to waters occurs again, ch. Ezekiel 43:2, and that to the voice of the Almight... [ Continue Reading ]
_from the firmament_ Rather: ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT, as R.V. The voice must be that of him who sat above the firmament. This voice might be supposed to command the movement or halting of the chariot, though such a voice seems nowhere else referred to. The verse repeats the last words of the preceding v... [ Continue Reading ]
The rendering of LXX. makes the sapphire stone different from the throne, the former being the ground on which the throne was placed. A special pavement, however, above the firmament, on which the throne was set is scarcely to be expected and is hardly the meaning of Exodus 24:10. Comp. Ezekiel 10:1... [ Continue Reading ]
The throne and glory of Him who sat on it Above the firmament was the appearance of a throne, like a sapphire stone; and on the throne the appearance of one sitting, from his loins upwards like amber, and from his loins downwards like fire. And round about him was a glory like the rainbow in the da... [ Continue Reading ]
_the colour of amber_ the glance (lit. eye). See Ezekiel 1:4. _fire round about within it_ This is the natural sense, but "round about" and "within it" seem to contradict one another. The rendering "fire that is enclosed round about," and therefore brighter by contrast with what surrounds it (Hitz.... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet speaks with great reverence. What he saw was the "appearance" of a throne and of one sitting on it and of a rainbow; he does not venture to say that he saw these things themselves. The rainbow is an element borrowed from the theophany in the storm cloud. It expresses the glory surroundin... [ Continue Reading ]