Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 1

The thirtieth year – being closely connected with the "I" in the text, this rather favors considering it a personal date. It is not improbable that Ezekiel was called to his office at the age prescribed in the Law for Levites (Numbers 4:23, Numbers 4:30), at which age both John the Baptist and our Lord began their ministry. His call is probably to be connected with the letter sent by Jeremiah to the captives (Jeremiah 29) written a few months previously. Some reckon this date from the accession of Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, in 625 B.C., and suppose that Ezekiel here gives a Babylonian date, as in Ezekiel 1:2 he gives a Jewish date; but it is not certain that this accession formed an era in Babylon, and Ezekiel does not elsewhere give a double date, or even a Babylonian date.

Others date from the 18th year of Josiah, when Hilkiah discovered the Book of the Law (supposed to be a jubilee year): this would give 594 B.C. as the 30th year, but there is no other instance in Ezekiel of reckoning from this year.

The captives – Not in confinement, but restricted to the place of their settlement.

The fourth month – "Month" is not expressed in the original. This is the common method. Before the captivity, the months were described not by proper names but by their order: "the first," "the second," etc., with the first month corresponding nearly with our "April." After the captivity, the Jews brought back with them the proper names of the months, "Nisan," etc. (probably those used in Chaldea).

Chebar – The modern "Khabour" rises near Nisibis and flows into the Euphrates near "Kerkesiah," about 200 miles north of Babylon.

Visions of God – The exposition of the fundamental principles of the existence and nature of a Supreme God, and of the created angels, was called by the rabbis "the Matter of the Chariot" (compare 1 Chronicles 28:18) in reference to the form of Ezekiel’s vision of the Almighty. The subject was deemed so mysterious as to call for special caution in its study.

The vision must be compared with other manifestations of the divine glory (Exodus 3; Exodus 24:10; Isaiah 6:1; Daniel 7:9; Revelation 4:2). Each of these visions has some of the outward signs or symbols recorded here.

If we examine these symbols, we will find them to fall readily into two classes:

1. Those that we employ in common with the writers of all ages and countries. "Gold, sapphire, burnished brass," and the "terrible crystal" are familiar images of majestic glory; "thunders, lightnings," and "the rushing storm" are images of awful power.
2. We come to images that, to our minds, are strange and almost grotesque. There can be no doubt that the "Four Living Creatures" had their groundwork in the cherubim. And yet their shapes were very different. Because they were symbols, not likenesses, they could still be the same even though their appearance varied.

Of what are they symbolic? They may, according to the Talmudists, have symbolized orders of Angels and not persons. According to others, they were figures of the Four Gospels, actuated by one spirit, spread over the four quarters of the globe, upon which, as on pillars, the Church is borne up, and over whom the Word of God sits enthroned. The general scope of the vision gives the best interpretation of the meaning.

Ezekiel saw "the likeness of the glory of God." Here His glory is manifested in the works of creation. As light and fire, lightning and cloud, are the usual marks that in inanimate creation signify the presence of God (Psalms 18:6–14), so the four living ones symbolize animate creation. The forms are typical: "the lion" and "the ox" representing the beasts of the field (wild and tame), "the eagle" representing the birds of the air, while "man" is the rational being, supreme upon the earth.

And the human type predominates over all, giving character and unity to the four, who thus form one creation. Furthermore, these four represent the constitutive parts of man’s nature: "the ox" (the animal of sacrifice) represents his faculty of suffering; "the lion" (the king of beasts), his faculty of ruling; "the eagle" (of keen eye and soaring wing), his faculty of imagination; and "the man," his spiritual faculty, which actuates all the rest.

Christ is the Perfect Man, so these four in their perfect harmony typify Him who came to earth to do His Father’s will; and as man is lord in the kingdom of nature, so is Christ Lord in the kingdom of grace.

The "wings" represent the power by which all creation rises and falls at God’s will; the "one spirit," the unity and harmony of His works; and the free motion in all directions, the universality of His Providence.

The number "four" is the symbol of the world with its "four quarters." The "veiled" bodies signify the inability of all creatures to stand in the presence of God. The "noise of the wings" represents the testimony borne by creation to God (Psalms 19:1–3). The "wheels" connect the vision with the earth, and the wings with heaven, while above them is the throne of God in heaven.

Since the eye of the seer is turned upward, the lines of the vision become less distinct. It is as if he were struggling against the impossibility of expressing in words the object of his vision; yet on the summit of the throne is He who can only be described as, in a way, the form of a man. That Yahweh, the eternal God, is spoken of, we cannot doubt; and passages such as Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3, John 1:14, and John 12:41 justify us in maintaining that the revelation of the divine glory made here to Ezekiel has its consummation or fulfillment in the person of Christ, the only-begotten of God .

The vision in the opening chapter of Ezekiel is in its most general form – the manifestation of the glory of the living God. It is repeated more than once in the course of the book (compare Ezekiel 8:2, Ezekiel 8:4; Ezekiel 9:3; Ezekiel 10; Ezekiel 11:22; Ezekiel 40:3). The person manifested is always the same, but the form of the vision is modified according to special circumstances of time and place.

The Jewish date. This verse and Ezekiel 1:3, which seem rather to interrupt the course of the narrative, may have been added by the prophet when he revised and put together the whole book. The word “captivity” refers to the “transportation” of the king and others from their native to foreign soil.

This policy of settling a conquered people in lands distant from their home, begun by the Assyrians, was continued by the Persians and by Alexander the Great. The Jews were specially selected for such settlements, and this was no doubt a Providential preparation for the Gospel, the dispersed Jews carrying with them the knowledge of the true God and the sacred Scriptures, and thus paving the way for the messengers of the kingdom of Christ.

Came expressly - The phrase marks that it was in truth a heaven-sent vision.

The hand of the Lord - A phrase in all prophecy implying a constraining power, because the spirit constrains the prophet independently of his own will.

Out of the north - From this direction, the Assyrian conquerors came upon the holy land. The vision, though seen in Chaldea, referred to Jerusalem, and the seer is to contemplate judgment as it is coming upon the holy land. Others consider these words to express the special seat of Yahweh's power. The high mountain range of Lebanon, which formed the northern border of the holy land, naturally led its inhabitants to associate the northern region with the idea of great height, reaching to heaven. From such a lofty place, a vision like this might be supposed to originate.

Infolding itself - Forming a circle of light—flames moving round and round and following each other in rapid succession, to be, as it were, the framework of the glorious scene.

Amber - The original word occurs only in Ezekiel. The Septuagint and the Vulgate use “electrum,” a substance composed of a mixture of silver and gold, which corresponds very well to the Hebrew word. The brightness, therefore, is that of shining metal, not of a transparent gum. It should be rendered: “out of the midst thereof,” like (Ezekiel 1:7) burnished gold out of the midst of fire.

Living creatures - The Hebrew word corresponds very closely to the English “beings,” and denotes those who live, whether angels, men (in whom is the breath of life), or lower creatures.