Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 1:3

"the word of Jehovah came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Jehovah was there upon him." — Ezekiel 1:3 (ASV)

Came expressly.—Or, came certainly, with the fullest proof of reality. In the original, there is simply the ordinary form of repeating the verb for emphasis. The prophet mentions his own name only here and in Ezekiel 24:24.

The hand of the Lord was there upon him.—This is a form of expression indicating the special power and influence that the Spirit exercised over the prophets when they were called to be the means of Divine communications. (Compare to 1 Kings 18:46, and Ezekiel 3:22; Ezekiel 37:1; Daniel 10:10; Revelation 1:17).

It is noticeable that Ezekiel here speaks of himself in the third person, while in Ezekiel 1:1, and always after this, he uses the first person. It has been suggested that this, together with the mention of his own name, may indicate the insertion of these two verses during a revision of his work by the prophet.

In entering upon the vision of the glory of the Lord, which fills the rest of this chapter, it is to be remembered that Ezekiel is struggling to portray what necessarily exceeds the power of human language. It is therefore not surprising that there is some repetition and obscurity in the detail.

All similar descriptions of Divine manifestations are marked more or less strongly by the same characteristics (Isaiah 6:1–4; Daniel 7:9–10; Revelation 1:12–20; Revelation 4:2–6, etc.).

It should also be kept in mind that what the prophet saw was not the eternal Father in His own absolute essence, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no man hath seen, nor can see (1 Timothy 6:16). And if it had been possible for Ezekiel to have been so transported out of the body as to behold this, it would then have been impossible for him to describe it.

But what he saw in vision was such a manifestation as humans could bear, in which God hides His face and allows only His uttermost parts to be seen (Exodus 33:22–23).

In the description that follows, a mingling of the symbols of the Divine manifestation at Sinai with the "patterns of heavenly things" in the Most Holy Place of the Temple may be recognized. The whole is modified to suit the present occasion and possibly somewhat colored by the now-familiar symbolic art of Babylonia.