Ezekiel 1 - Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 1

This chapter contains a vision, which is the introduction to the prophet's call and commission to perform his office; in the account of which may be observed the time when it was seen, Ezekiel 1:1; and the place both where the prophet was when he saw it, and the object or things that were beheld by him; and the original, form, and manner of the vision, Ezekiel 1:3; next follow the particulars of it; and first, four living creatures appear, described by their general likeness, as human, Ezekiel 1:5; and, in particular, by their faces, feet, hands, and wings, Ezekiel 1:6; by their motion and progress, and the spirit by which they were influenced, Ezekiel 1:12; and by their forms of light, brightness, and heat, in which they appeared and moved, Ezekiel 1:13; and next the wheels, described by their number; for, though they seemed to be as one, they were four; and by their situation on the earth, and by the side of the living creatures, Ezekiel 1:15; by their appearance, which was alike in them all, and as the colour of beryl, and as a wheel within a wheel, Ezekiel 1:16, by their motion, which was on their sides, and not retrograde, Ezekiel 1:17; by their rings or circumferences, which were high, dreadful, and full of eyes, Ezekiel 1:18; by their dependence on the living creatures, moving as they, having the same spirit they had, Ezekiel 1:19; and then a firmament is seen, described by its situation, over the heads of the living creatures; and by its colour, as the terrible crystal, Ezekiel 1:22; by what were under it, the wings of the living creatures of which a more particular account is given, Ezekiel 1:23; by what was heard from it, a voice, Ezekiel 1:25; and by what was above it, a throne; described by its colour, as a sapphire stone; and by a person on it, who had the appearance of a man, Ezekiel 1:26; who, in general, looked like the colour of amber; within which was the appearance of fire from his loins upwards, and from his loins downwards; the fire had a brightness round about it; and that brightness was like a rainbow in a cloud, on a rainy day; and this appearance was no other than that of a divine and glorious Person; which, when seen by the prophet, caused him, through reverence, to fall upon his face; when he heard a voice speaking to him what is recorded in the following chapter, Ezekiel 1:27.