This book is rightly placed after Jeremiah; since Ezekiel was among the captives in Chaldea, when prophesied; whereas Jeremiah began to prophesy long before that captivity, and concerning it. The name of this prophet signifies, as it is commonly interpreted, "the strength of God", or "strengthened by God", as he was, and as he needed to be, having great work to do, and a perverse people to deal with; see Eze 3:8; but the learned Hillerus chooses to render it, "God shall prevail"; with which compare Jer 20:7.
There was a Levite of this name, of whom mention is made in 1Ch 24:16; whose name is there read "Jehezekel"; and this prophet was a priest, Eze 1:3; and both Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius cite a Jewish writer of tragedies, of the same name; which some have very wrongly thought to be the same with our prophet; but whether Ezekiel is not the same with Nazaratus or Zabratus, the master of Pythagoras, mentioned by Clemens as such, according to the opinion of some, is a matter of question; and which the learned Selden seems to think probable.
According to the judgment and opinion of Jerom , his style is neither very eloquent, nor very rustic; but between both, and has a mixture of each. The visions he saw are very abstruse and difficult of interpretation, especially the vision of the living creatures and wheels; wherefore the Jews forbad the reading of it, as well as the end of this prophecy, until persons were thirty years of age.
The divine visions in this book, the whole subject matter of it, its agreement with the prophecy of Jeremiah, and the accomplishment of events predicted in it, prove the authority of it; and its divine authority has always been allowed, both by the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church.
There were indeed some ancient Jewish Rabbins, who were perplexed about some things in it, and consulted about laying it aside, because of some words in it, which seemed to them to be contrary to the law of Moses; but R.
Chananiah ben Goron, a very famous doctor in those times, withdrew to his chamber, and wrote a commentary, in order to remove those difficulties to satisfaction . This book, in general, contains various visions the prophet saw; several threatenings against the people of the Jews; and prophecies against other nations; and an abundance of comfortable promises of the Messiah, and of blessings of grace by him; and of the state and condition of the Gospel church, and the worship of it.
Josephus says Ezekiel left two books written by him; one of which Athanasius : or the author of the Synopsis under his name, thinks is lost; but the learned Huetius is of opinion that the prophecy of Ezekiel, in the times of Josephus, was divided into two parts; the first containing the first thirty nine chapters, and the other the nine last chapters; which is not improbable.
If the authorities of Epiphanius , or the writer of the lives of the prophets that goes by his name, and of Isidorus , are of any weight, Ezekiel was born in the land of Sarera; killed by the governor in Babylon; and buried by the people in the field of Maur or Mahurim, in the sepulchre of Shem and Arphaxad.
The account R. Benjamin Tudelensis gives is, that there is a synagogue of the Prophet Ezekiel by the river Euphrates; and over against the synagogue sixty towers, ; and between every tower a synagogue.
In the court of the synagogue is a library; and behind it the grave of Ezekiel the son of Buzi the priest; and over it a large vault, of a beautiful building, erected by Jeconiah king of Judah, and thirty five thousand Jews, who came with him, when Evilmerodach brought him out of prison; and over the grave a lamp burns night and day.
The Cippi Hebraici say he was buried by, the river Hiddekel; and Menasseh ben Israel affirms that he died in Babylon, and was buried there; and so Kimchi says the tradition is. Onamast. Sacr. p. 224, 320, 845.
Stromat. l. 2. p. 344. Praeper. Evangel. l. 9. c. 23. p. 436. & c. 29. p. 439. De Dis Syris, Syntag. 2. c. 1. p. 210, 211. Praefat. in Ezek. tom. 3. fol. 9. D. Praefat. in ib. ad Eustochium, tom 5. fol.
174. G. T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 13. 2. & Taanith, fol. 17. 1, 2. & Maimon. Bartenora in Misn. Sabbat, c. 1. sect. 4. Antiqu. l. 10. c. 5. sect. 1. Synops. Sacr. Script. p. 134, 136. tom. 2. Demonstr. Evang.
Prop. 4. p. 272. De Prophet. Vit. c. 9. De Vit. & Mort. Sanct. c. 39. Massaot, p. 78, 79. P. 74. De Resurrect. Mort. l. 1. c. 2. sect. 5. In Ezek. xliii. 19.INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 1This 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, Eze 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, Eze 1:3; next follow the particulars of it; and first, four living creatures appear, described by their general likeness, as human, Eze 1:5; and, in particular, by their faces, feet, hands, and wings, Eze 1:6; by their motion and progress, and the spirit by which they were influenced, Eze 1:12; and by their forms of light, brightness, and heat, in which they appeared and moved, Eze 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, Eze 1:15; by their appearance, which was alike in them all, and as the colour of beryl, and as a wheel within a wheel, Eze 1:16, by their motion, which was on their sides, and not retrograde, Eze 1:17; by their rings or circumferences, which were high, dreadful, and full of eyes, Eze 1:18; by their dependence on the living creatures, moving as they, having the same spirit they had, Eze 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, Eze 1:22; by what were under it, the wings of the living creatures of which a more particular account is given, Eze 1:23; by what was heard from it, a voice, Eze 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, Eze 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, Eze 1:27.
Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year,.... Either from the last jubilee, as R. Joseph Kimchi , Jarchi, and Abendana; or from the time that the book of the law was found by Hilkiah the priest ; so the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus,"and it was in the thirtieth year after Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, in the house of the sanctuary, in the court under the porch, in the middle of the night, after the moon was down, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah;''or, according to Jerom , from the time of the prophet's birth, who was now thirty years of age, and was just entered into his priestly office; or rather it was the thirtieth year of Nabopolassar, or the father of Nebuchadnezzar: this was the twelfth year of the captivity, reckoning from the third of Jehoiakim, which was the first captivity, and from whence the seventy years are to be reckoned, and also the twelfth of Nebuchadnezzar's reign; and if two years are taken, as Vitringa observes, from the twenty one years, which are given to Nabopolassar in Ptolemy's canon, in which Nebuchadnezzar his son reigned with him, there will be found thirty years from the beginning of Nabopolassar's reign to the fifth of Jeconiah's captivity, when Ezekiel began his prophecy, and which, as Bishop Usher , Mr.
Bedford , Mr. Whiston , and the authors of the Universal History , place in the year 593, before the birth of Christ:in the fourth [month]; the month Tammuz, as the Targum expresses it; which answers to part of June, and part of July:in the fifth [day] of the month; which some take to be on a sabbath day; because, seven days after, the word of the Lord came to him again Eze 3:16; just as John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, Re 1:10; between one of whose visions and this there is a very great likeness, as will be seen hereafter:as I [was] among the captives by the river of Chebar; which is another agreement in circumstance between Ezekiel and John, when they had their visions: John was an exile in Patrons, and Ezekiel among the captives by the river Chebar in Chaldea.
Some think this is the same river which is called by Ptolemy Chaboras; and is said by him to pass through Mesopotamia: others say it was a river that was drawn off from the river Euphrates, by the order of one Cobaris, or Gobaris, a governor, from whence it had its name; that the river Euphrates might not, by its rapid course, hurt the city of Babylon; and by the Assyrians it was called Armalchar, or Narmalcha , the king's river; though it seems to be no other than Euphrates itself; and Kimchi observes, that in some copies of the Targum on this place it is interpreted of the river Euphrates; and he says their Rabbins of blessed memory say, that Chebar is Euphrates; and so Abarbinel; see Ps 137:1.
Monsieur Thevenot speaks of a river called Chabur, which is less than Alchabour, another mentioned by him; and has its source below Mosul, and on the left hand to those that go down the Tigris, and at Bagdad loses itself in the Tigris which he takes to be the same as here:that the heavens were opened; as at our Lord's baptism, and at the stoning of Stephen; and so when John had his vision which corresponds with the following, a door was opened in heaven Re 4:1;and I saw the visions of God; which God showed unto him, and which were great and excellent; as excellent things are called things of God, as mountains of God, and cedars of God, Ps 36:6; and indeed he had a vision of a divine Person, in a human form; to which agrees the Targum,"and I saw in the vision of prophecy, which abode on me, the vision of the glory of the majesty of the Lord.'
'The Arabic and Syriac versions read, "the vision of God". Apud R. D. Kimchi in loc. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. Preafat. in Ezek. tom. 3. fol. 9. D. Typus Doctrin. Prophetic. sect. 7. p. 41. Vid. Witsii Miscel.
Sacr. tom. 1. l. 1. c. 19. Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3409. p. 127. Scripture Chronology, p. 681. Chronological Tables, cent. 10. Vol. 21. p. 61. Geograph. l. 5. c. 18. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 26. Travels, par.
2. B. 1. ch. 10. p.