Ezekiel 8:2

I beheld, and lo a likeness Namely, of a man; the man whom he had seen upon the throne; as the appearance of fire This seems to have been the same appearance as that mentioned before, Ezekiel 1:27, signifying that God was about to inflict heavy judgments on the Jewish nation, but so as not entirely to destroy it. It is probable, while those who are here called the elders of Judah were sitting before the prophet with silence and attention, waiting for an answer to some inquiries they had made of him, as God's prophet, concerning what was to be the future condition of the Jewish nation, that Ezekiel was on a sudden seized with an ecstasy, and had the things he gives an account of in the following verses presented before his eyes; or such a strong impression of them made upon his mind, that it seemed to him as if he actually saw them.