Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 1:4

"And I looked, and, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with a fire infolding itself, and a brightness round about it, and out of the midst thereof as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire." — Ezekiel 1:4 (ASV)

A whirlwind came out of the north. —The north is seen as the direction from which the vision proceeded, not because the Babylonians conceived that the seat of Divine power was there (Isaiah 14:13–14), but because it was common for the prophets to represent the Divine judgments upon Judea as coming from the north (Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1). It was from that direction that the Assyrian and the Chaldean conquerors were accustomed to descend upon the Holy Land. The vision is actually seen in Chaldea, but it refers to Jerusalem and is described as if viewed from that standpoint.

A great cloud. —As in the Divine manifestation on Sinai (Exodus 19:9–16). The cloud serves both as the foundation for all the other details of the manifestation—a place where, and by means of which, everything is situated—and also as a hiding-place of the Divine majesty. This ensures that all that the human eye can bear may be seen, while what it cannot bear may still be known to be there, shrouded in the cloud. The transposition of a single letter from the end of one word in the Hebrew to the beginning of the next will change the reading to “a whirlwind out of the north brought on a great cloud.”

A fire infolding itself. —More literally translated in the margin, catching itself. The idea conveyed is that of flames round and round the cloud, the flashes following one another so rapidly that each seemed to catch the one before it; there were tongues of flame, each one reaching to another. The same word occurs in Exodus 9:24, in connection with “fire,” and is there translated mingled. The vision so far seems modeled on the natural appearance of a terrific thunderstorm seen at a distance, in which the great black cloud appears illuminated by the unceasing and coalescing flashes of lightning. So, with all its impressive darkness, there was a brightness about it.

As the colour of amber. —Color is, literally, eye. The word translated “amber” (chasmal) occurs only in this book (here, and Ezekiel 1:27 and Ezekiel 8:2), and is now generally recognized as meaning some form of bright metal, either glowing in its molten state, or as the fine brass of Ezekiel 1:7 and Revelation 1:15, burnished and glowing in the light of the “infolding flame.” Therefore, there is now added to the first appearance of the natural phenomenon, a glowing eye or center to the cloud, shining out even from the middle of the fire.