Ezekiel 10 — GNV — Scriptura

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10And as I looked, beholde, in the firmament that was aboue the head of the Cherubims there appeared vpon them like vnto the similitude of a throne, as it were a saphir stone.^{Verse 2}And he spake vnto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in betweene the wheeles, euen vnder the Cherub, and fill thine hands with coales of fire from betweene the Cherubims, and scatter the ouer the citie. And he went in in my sight.^{Verse 3}Now the Cherubims stood vpon the right side of the house, when the man went in, and the cloude filled the inner court.^{Verse 4}Then the glorie of the Lord went vp from the Cherub, and stoode ouer the doore of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightnesse of the Lordes glorie.^{Verse 5}And the sound of the Cherubims wings was heard into the vtter court, as the voyce of the Almightie God, when he speaketh.^{Verse 6}And when he had commanded the man clothed with linnen, saying, Take fire from betweene the wheeles, and from betweene ye Cherubims, then he went in and stood beside ye wheele.^{Verse 7}And one Cherub stretched forth his hand from betweene the Cherubims vnto the fire, that was betweene the Cherubims, and tooke thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linnen: who tooke it and went out.^{Verse 8}And there appeared in the Cherubims, the likenesse of a mans hande vnder their wings.^{Verse 9}And when I looked vp, beholde, foure wheeles were beside the Cherubims, one wheele by one Cherub, and another wheele by another Cherub, and the appearance of the wheeles was as the colour of a Chrysolite stone.^{Verse 10}And their appearance (for they were all foure of one facion) was as if one wheele had bene in another wheele.^{Verse 11}When they went foorth, they went vpon their foure sides, and they returned not as they went: but to the place whither the first went, they went after it, and they turned not as they went.^{Verse 12}And their whole bodie, and their rings, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheeles were full of eyes round about, euen in the same foure wheeles.^{Verse 13}And the Cherub cryed to these wheeles in mine hearing, saying, O wheele.^{Verse 14}And euery beast had foure faces: the first face was the face of a Cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the thirde the face of a lyon, and the fourth the face of an Egle.^{Verse 15}And the Cherubims were lifted vp: this is the beast that I sawe at the riuer Chebar.^{Verse 16}And when ye Cherubims went, the wheeles went by them: and when the Cherubims lift vp their wings to mount vp from the earth, the same wheeles also turned not from beside them.^{Verse 17}When the Cherubims stoode, they stood: and when they were lifted vp, they lifted the selues vp also: for the spirit of the beast was in them.^{Verse 18}Then the glorie of the Lord departed from aboue the doore of the house, and stoode vpon the Cherubims.^{Verse 19}And the Cherubims lift vp their wings, and mounted vp from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheeles also were besides them: and euery one stoode at the entrie of the gate of the Lordes House at the East side, and the glorie of the God of Israel was vpon them on hie.^{Verse 20}This is the beast that I sawe vnder the God of Israel by the riuer Chebar, and I knewe that they were the Cherubims.^{Verse 21}Euery one had foure faces, and euery one foure wings, and the likenesse of mans hands was vnder their wings.^{Verse 22}And the likenesse of their faces was the selfe same faces, which I sawe by the riuer Chebar, and the appearance of the Cherubims was ye selfe same, and they went euery one straight forwarde.

Commentary

The angel scatters coals of fire over Jerusalem. - Eze 10:1. And I saw, and behold upon the firmament, which was above the cherubim, it was like sapphire-stone, to look at as the likeness of a throne; He appeared above them. Eze 10:2. And He spake to the man clothed in white linen, and said: Come between the wheels below the cherubim, and fill thy hollow hands with fire-coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city: and he came before my eyes. Eze 10:3. And the cherubim stood to the right of the house when the man came, and the cloud filled the inner court. Eze 10:4. And the glory of Jehovah had lifted itself up from the cherubim to the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the splendour of the glory of Jehovah. Eze 10:5. And the noise of the wings of the cherubim was heard to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when He speaketh. Eze 10:6. And it came to pass, when He commanded the man clothed in white linen, and said, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim, and he came and stood by the side of the wheel, Eze 10:7. That the cherub stretched out his hand between the cherubim to the fire, which was between the cherubim, and lifted (some) off and gave it into the hands of the man clothed in white linen. And he took it, and went out. Eze 10:8. And there appeared by the cherubim the likeness of a man's hand under their wings. - Eze 10:1 introduces the description of the second act of the judgment. According to Eze 9:3, Jehovah had come down from His throne above the cherubim to the threshold of the temple to issue His orders thence for the judgment upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and according to Eze 10:4 He goes thither once more. Consequently He had resumed His seat above the cherubim in the meantime. This is expressed in Eze 10:1, not indeed in so many words, but indirectly or by implication. Ezekiel sees the theophany; and on the firmament above the cherubim, like sapphire-stone to look at, he beholds the likeness of a throne on which Jehovah appeared. To avoid giving too great prominence in this appearance of Jehovah to the bodily or human form, Ezekiel does not speak even here of the form of Jehovah, but simply of His throne, which he describes in the same manner as in Eze 1:26. אל stands for על according to the later usage of the language. It will never do to take אל in its literal sense, as Kliefoth does, and render the words: "Ezekiel saw it move away to the firmament;" for the object to ואראה והנּה is not יהוה or כּבוד , but the form of the throne sparkling in sapphire-stone; and this throne had not separated itself from the firmament above the cherubim, but Jehovah, or the glory of Jehovah, according to Eze 9:3, had risen up from the cherubim, and moved away to the temple threshold. The כּ before מראה is not to be erased, as Hitzig proposes after the lxx, on the ground that it is not found in Eze 1:26; it is quite appropriate here. For the words do not affirm that Ezekiel saw the likeness of a throne like sapphire-stone; but that he saw something like sapphire-stone, like the appearance of the form of a throne. Ezekiel does not see Jehovah, or the glory of Jehovah, move away to the firmament, and then return to the throne. He simply sees once more the resemblance of a throne upon the firmament, and the Lord appearing thereon. The latter is indicated in נראה עליהם. These words are not to be taken in connection with 'כּמראה וגו, so as to form one sentence; but have been very properly separated by the athnach under כּסּא, and treated as an independent assertion. The subject to נראה might, indeed, be דּמוּת כּסּא, "the likeness of a throne appeared above the cherubim;" but in that case the words would form a pure tautology, as the fact of the throne becoming visible has already been mentioned in the preceding clause. The subject must therefore be Jehovah, as in the case of ויּאמר in Eze 10:2, where there can be no doubt on the matter. Jehovah has resumed His throne, not "for the purpose of removing to a distance, because the courts of the temple have been defiled by dead bodies" (Hitzig), but because the object for which He left it has been attained. He now commands the man clothed in white linen to go in between the wheels under the cherubim, and fill his hands with fire-coals from thence, and scatter them over the city (Jerusalem). This he did, so that Ezekiel could see it. According to this, it appears as if Jehovah had issued the command from His throne; but if we compare what follows, it is evident from Eze 10:4 that the glory of Jehovah had risen up again from the throne, and removed to the threshold of the temple, and that it was not till after the man in white linen had scattered the coals over the city that it left the threshold of the temple, and ascended once more up to the throne above the cherubim, so as to forsake the temple (Eze 10:18.). Consequently we can only understand Eze 10:2-7 as implying that Jehovah issued the command in Eze 10:2, not from His throne, but from the threshold of the temple, and that He had therefore returned to the threshold of the temple for this purpose, and for the very same reason as in Eze 9:3. The possibility of interpreting the verses in this way is apparent from the fact that Eze 10:2 contains a summary of the whole of the contents of this section, and that Eze 10:3-7 simply furnish more minute explanations, or contain circumstantial clauses, which throw light upon the whole affair. This is obvious in the case of Eze 10:3, from the form of the clause; and in Eze 10:4 and Eze 10:5, from the fact that in Eze 10:6 and Eze 10:7 the command (Eze 10:2) is resumed, and the execution of it, which was already indicated in ויּבא לעיני (Eze 10:2), more minutely described and carried forward in the closing words of the seventh verse, ויּקּח . הגּלגּל in Eze 10:2 signifies the whirl or rotatory motion, i.e., the wheel-work, or the four ōphannim under the cherubim regarded as moving. The angel was to go in between these, and take coals out of the fire there, and scatter them over the city. "In the fire of God, the fire of His wrath, will kindle the fire for consuming the city" (Kliefoth). To depict the scene more clearly, Ezekiel observes in Eze 10:3, that at this moment the cherubim were standing to the right of the house, i.e., on the south or rather south-east of the temple house, on the south of the altar of burnt-offering. According to the Hebrew usage the right side as the southern side, and the prophet was in the inner court, whither, according to Eze 8:16, the divine glory had taken him; and, according to Eze 9:2, the seven angels had gone to the front of the altar, to receive the commands of the Lord. Consequently we have to picture to ourselves the cherubim as appearing in the neighbourhood of the altar, and then taking up their position to the south thereof, when the Lord returned to the threshold of the temple. The reason for stating this is not to be sought, as Calvin supposes, in the desire to show "that the way was opened fore the angel to go straight to God, and that the cherubim were standing there ready, as it were, to contribute their labour." The position in which the cherubim appeared is more probably given with prospective reference to the account which follows in Eze 10:9-22 of the departure of the glory of the Lord from the temple. As an indication of the significance of this act to Israel, the glory which issued from this manifestation of divine doxa is described in Eze 10:3-5. The cloud, as the earthly vehicle of the divine doxa, filled the inner court; and when the glory of the Lord stood upon the threshold, it filled the temple also, while the court became full of the splendour of the divine glory. That is to say, the brilliancy of the divine nature shone through the cloud, so that the court and the temple were lighted by the shining of the light-cloud. The brilliant splendour is a symbol of the light of the divine grace. The wings of the cherubim rustled, and at the movement of God (Eze 1:24) were audible even in the outer court. After this picture of the glorious manifestation of the divine doxa, the fetching of the fire-coals from the space between the wheels under the cherubim is more closely described in Eze 10:6 and Eze 10:7. One of the cherub's hands took the coals out of the fire, and put them into the hands of the man clothed in white linen. To this a supplementary remark is added in Eze 10:8, to the effect that the figure of a hand was visible by the side of the cherubim under their wings. The word ויּצא, "and he went out," indicates that the man clothed in white linen scattered the coals over the city, to set it on fire and consume it.

The Glory of the Lord Forsakes the Temple Eze 10:9. And I saw, and behold four wheels by the side of the cherubim, one wheel by the side of every cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like the look of a chrysolith stone. Eze 10:10. And as for their appearance, they had all four one form, as if one wheel were in the midst of the other. Eze 10:11. When they went, they went to their four sides; they did not turn in going; for to the place to which the head was directed, to that they went; they did not turn in their going. Eze 10:12. And their whole body, and their back, and their hands, and their wings, and wheels, were full of eyes round about: by all four their wheels. Eze 10:13. To the wheels, to them was called, "whirl!" in my hearing. Eze 10:14. And every one had four faces; the face of the first was the face of the cherub, the face of the second a man's face, and the third a lion's face, and the fourth an eagle's face. Eze 10:15. And the cherubim ascended. This was the being which I saw by the river Chebar. Eze 10:16. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went by them; and when the cherubim raised their wings to ascend from the earth, the wheels also did not turn from their side. Eze 10:17. When those stood, they stood; and when those ascended, they ascended with them; for the spirit of the being was in them. Eze 10:18.; And the glory of Jehovah went out from the threshold of the house, and stood above the cherubim. Eze 10:19. And the cherubim raised their wings, and ascended from the earth before my eyes on their going out, and the wheels beside them; and they stopped at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of Jehovah; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. Eze 10:20. This was the being which I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and I perceived that they were cherubim. Eze 10:21. Every one had four faces, each and every one four wings, and something like a man's hands under their wings. Eze 10:22. And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I had seen by the river Chebar, their appearance and they themselves. They went every one according to its face. - With the words "I saw, and behold," a new feature in the vision is introduced. The description of the appearance of the cherubim in these verses coincides for the most part verbatim with the account of the theophany in Ezekiel 1. It differs from this, however, not only in the altered arrangement of the several features, and in the introduction of certain points which serve to complete the former account; but still more in the insertion of a number of narrative sentence, which show that we have not merely a repetition of the first chapter here. On the contrary, Ezekiel is now describing the moving of the appearance of the glory of Jehovah from the inner court or porch of the temple to the outer entrance of the eastern gate of the outer court; in other words, the departure of the gracious presence of the Lord from the temple: and in order to point out more distinctly the importance and meaning of this event, he depicts once more the leading features of the theophany itself. The narrative sentences are found in Eze 10:13, Eze 10:15, Eze 10:18, and Eze 10:19. In Eze 10:13 we have the exclamation addressed to the wheels by the side of the cherubim to set themselves in motion; in Eze 10:15, the statement that the cherubim ascended; and in Eze 10:18 and Eze 10:19, the account of the departure of the glory of the Lord from the inner portion of the temple. To this we may add the repeated remark, that the appearance was the same as that which the prophet had seen by the river Chebar (Eze 10:15, Eze 10:20, Eze 10:22). To bring clearly out to view both the independence of these divine manifestations and their significance to Israel, Ezekiel repeats the leading features of the former description; but while doing this, he either makes them subordinate to the thoughts expressed in the narrative sentences, or places them first as introductory to these, or lets them follow as explanatory. Thus, for example, the description of the wheels, and of the manner in which they moved (Eze 10:9-12), serves both to introduce and explain the call to the wheels to set themselves in motion. The description of the wheels in Eze 10:9-11 harmonizes with Eze 1:16 and Eze 1:17, with this exception, however, that certain points are given with greater exactness here; such, for example, as the statement that the movements of the wheels were so regulated, that in whichever direction the front one turned, the other did the same. הראשׁ, the head, is not the head-wheel, or the wheel which was always the first to move, but the front one, which originated the motion, drawing the others after it and determining their direction. For Eze 10:12 and the fact that the wheels were covered with eyes, see Eze 1:18. In Eze 10:12 we have the important addition, that the whole of the body and back, as well as the hands and wings, of the cherubim were full of eyes. There is all the less reason to question this addition, or remove it (as Hitzig does) by an arbitrary erasure, inasmuch as the statement itself is apparently in perfect harmony with the whole procedure; and the significance possessed by the eyes in relation to the wheels was not only appropriate in the case of the cherubim, but necessarily to be assumed in such a connection. The fact that the suffixes in בּשׂרם, גּבּהם, etc., refer to the cherubim, is obvious enough, if we consider that the wheels to which immediate reference is made were by the side of the cherubim (Eze 10:9), and that the cherubim formed the principal feature in the whole of the vision. Eze 10:13 does not point back to Eze 10:2, and bring the description of the wheel-work to a close, as Hitzig supposes. This assumption, by which the meaning of the whole description has been obscured, is based upon the untenable rendering, "and the wheels they named before my ears whirl" (J. D. Mich., Ros., etc.). Hvernick has already pointed out the objection to this, namely, that with such a rendering בּאזני forms an unmeaning addition; whereas it is precisely this addition which shows that קרא is used here in the sense of addressing, calling, and not of naming. One called to the wheels הגּלגּל, whirl; i.e., they were to verify their name galgal, viz., to revolve or whirl, to set themselves in motion by revolving. This is the explanation given by Theodoret: ἀνακυκλεῖσθαι καὶ ἀνακινεῖσθαι προσετάχθησαν. These words therefore gave the signal for their departure, and accordingly the rising up of the cherubim is related in Eze 10:15. Eze 10:14 prepares the way for their ascent by mentioning the four faces of each cherub; and this is still further expanded in Eze 10:16 and Eze 10:17, by the statement that the wheels moved according to the movements of the cherubim. לאחד without an article is used distributively (every one), as in Eze 1:6 and Eze 1:10. The fact that in the description which follows only one face of each of the four cherubs is given, is not at variance with Eze 1:10, according to which every one of the cherubs had the four faces named. It was not Ezekiel's intention to mention all the faces of each cherub here, as he had done before; but he regarded it as sufficient in the case of each cherub to mention simply the one face, which was turned toward him. The only striking feature which still remains is the statement that the face of the one, i.e., of the first, was the face of the cherub instead of the face of an ox (cf. Eze 1:10), since the faces of the man, the lion, and the eagle were also cherubs' faces. We may, no doubt, get rid of the difficulty by altering the text, but this will not solve it; for it would still remain inexplicable how הכּרוּב could have grown out of שׁור by a copyist's error; and still more, how such an error, which might have been so easily seen and corrected, could have been not only perpetuated, but generally adopted. Moreover, we have the article in הכּרוּב, which would also be inexplicable if the word had originated in an oversight, and which gives us precisely the index required to the correct solution of the difficulty, showing as it does that it was not merely a cherub's face, but the face of the cherub, so that the allusion is to one particular cherub, who was either well known from what had gone before, or occupied a more prominent position than the rest. Such a cherub is the one mentioned in Eze 10:7, who had taken the coals from the fire between the wheels, and stood nearest to Ezekiel. There did not appear to be any necessity to describe his face more exactly, as it could be easily seen from a comparison with Eze 1:10. - In Eze 10:15, the fact that the cherubim arose to depart from their place is followed by the remark that the cherubic figure was the being (החיּה, singular, as in Eze 1:22) which Ezekiel saw by the Chaboras, because it was a matter of importance that the identity of the two theophanies should be established as a help to the correct understanding of their real signification. But before the departure of the theophany from the temple is related, there follows in Eze 10:16 and Eze 10:17 a repetition of the circumstantial description of the harmonious movements of the wheels and the cherubim (cf. Eze 1:19-21); and then, in Eze 10:18, the statement which had such practical significance, that the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple, and resumed the throne above the cherubim; and lastly, the account in Eze 10:19, that the glory of the God of Israel, seated upon this throne, took up its position at the entrance of the eastern gate of the temple. The entrance of this gate is not the gate of the temple, but the outer side of the eastern gate of the outer court, which formed the principal entrance to the whole of the temple-space. The expression "God of Israel" instead of "Jehovah" is significant, and is used to intimate that God, as the covenant God, withdrew His gracious presence from the people of Israel by this departure from the temple; not, indeed, from the whole of the covenant nation, but from the rebellious Israel which dwelt in Jerusalem and Judah; for the same glory of God which left the temple in the vision before the eyes of Ezekiel had appeared to the prophet by the river Chebar, and by calling him to be the prophet for Israel, had shown Himself to be the God who kept His covenant, and proved that, by the judgment upon the corrupt generation, He simply desired to exterminate its ungodly nature, and create for Himself a new and holy people. This is the meaning of the remark which is repeated in Eze 10:20-22, that the apparition which left the temple was the same being as Ezekiel had seen by the Chaboras, and that he recognised the beings under the throne as cherubim.

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