Ezekielchapter 10
22 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
Then the glory of the LORD moved away from the threshold of the temple and stood above the cherubim.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel saw this as the temple vision went on, and here he knew for the first time what he had seen beside the canal. His hearers were exiles who assumed that while the building stood, God stood in it. The chapter joins two things, fire poured on the city and the throne of God rising from its place. Listen for each stage of the movement and where the glory stops. Hold this chapter beside the first one, because the two describe the same throne in two places.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who assumed that as long as the building stood, God stood in it
- What
- The man clothed in linen takes fire from among the cherubim to scatter over the city, and the glory of the LORD moves from the temple to its east gate.
- Where
- In the vision, the inner court of the temple in Jerusalem and the door of its east gate.
- When
- The sixth year of Jehoiachin's exile, about September 592 BC, within the vision begun in chapter 8.
- Why
- To show that God Himself was leaving His house in judgment before it fell, of His own will.
Historical context
Cherubim were not soft or childlike figures. In the ancient Near East a winged composite creature, lion or bull body, wings, human face, was a throne-guardian; kings are shown seated on thrones whose sides are formed by them. The ark's cover carried two of them, and the temple's inner room held two enormous ones with wings spanning the width of the chamber. Ezekiel now realises the creatures he saw over the canal were these.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The fire scattered over the city comes from between the cherubim, the same holy fire that burned the offerings on the altar. That reversal is the theology of the chapter in one image. What consumed the sacrifice will consume the city.
There was a familiar story-shape here that every Babylonian knew. Mesopotamian city laments describe a god abandoning his city before its walls come down; the great lament over the destruction of Ur turns on exactly that, and Babylonian poetry told of Marduk leaving Babylon to its disaster. The difference is decisive: this God is not driven out and is not absent by accident. He rises from the threshold, moves to the east gate, and leaves on His own initiative, deliberately, in judgment.
The movements are described step by step, and the slowness is the point: from the inner room, to the threshold, to the door of the east gate. It reads like someone leaving a house and stopping in the doorway.
Significance
For hearers who had staked everything on the building, this is the hinge of the whole book. The temple is not being taken from God; God is walking out of the temple, and after that it is only a building that can burn.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
There is one quiet mercy folded in. The throne that leaves Jerusalem is the same throne that showed up at the Chebar canal in chapter one. It is not going nowhere. It is going where His people are.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table of synagogue readings ties no weekly portion and no Haftarah to this chapter. Probed for this lane, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Ezekiel 10, and no festival reading for the book. The table holds the Haftarah of each weekly portion and the six books read whole on a feast or a fast. Across chapters 1 to 24 of Ezekiel the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 20 and 22.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer.
The living beings of the first vision are now called cherubim. Rashi explains that "the face of the ox was transformed into the face of a cherub" (Rashi on Ezekiel 10:1:1). He reports the Rabbis in Chagigah 13b, that Ezekiel asked for mercy with the words, "Master of the world, an accuser cannot become a defender."
The coals are passed through the hand of the cherub before they reach the man in linen. Rashi reads this as mercy, "so that the coals would cool and the decree would be mitigated" (Rashi on Ezekiel 10:2:1). They were not cast at once, "for the coals were smoldering in his hand for all the six years" (Rashi on Ezekiel 10:2:2). The prophecy came in the sixth year, and the city fell in the eleventh.
The glory at the threshold is "the very [stage of] evacuation mentioned above" in chapter 9 (Rashi on Ezekiel 10:4:1). The account of the wheels is told again "so that you should not say that it is another Chariot" (Rashi on Ezekiel 10:9:1). The prophet closes on the same point: "[It] is the one I saw by the river Chebar" (Rashi on Ezekiel 10:20:1).
The corpus carries 12 notes on this chapter without an English text, marked linked. Radak's notes stand at 10:1:1, 10:6:1, 10:7:1, 10:8:1, 10:10:1, 10:11:1, 10:15:1, 10:17:1, 10:18:1, 10:21:1 and 10:22:1. Metzudat David's note stands at 10:16:1. Each stands cited and unquoted, because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 6 filed under the Talmud and 34 under the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1:2:3 and Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 15:38:5. On verse 2 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:41, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:9, Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:13:1, Midrash Shmuel 24:8 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 5:1. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 12:3, Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 3:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 9:1 and Otzar Midrashim, The Angel Metatron (Chanoch), Seder Ruchot (Spirits) 4. It also holds Vayikra Rabbah 26:8. On verse 4 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 4:2, Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 4:2, Rosh Hashanah 31a:16 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 3:10:1.
On verse 5 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:21, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:1, Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 5:4:1 and Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura DeNedavah, Chapter 2 11. On verse 14 it holds Chagigah 13b:6, Chagigah 13b:7, Ein Yaakov, Khagigah 2:8, Ein Yaakov, Sukkah 1:3, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 23:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 16:1. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 20:1, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 4:3, Sukkah 5b:6 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 31:2. On verse 15 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 21:9 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayakhel 10:4. On verse 18 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:7, Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 25 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:11.
On verse 19 it holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Prayer of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai 5 and Seder Olam Rabbah 26:1. On verse 20 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 71, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 3:24:3 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 34:8.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 10:1:1 to 10:20:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 10:1:1 to 10:22:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ezekiel 10:16:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/10.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Ezekiel 10: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Coals of fire scattered over the city
Ezekiel 10:1-2
the likeness of a throne of sapphire: The prophet sees “above the heads of the cherubim, the likeness of a throne of sapphire,” the throne of Ezekiel 1:26 taken up again. Judgment comes out of the sanctuary itself. The fire comes from under the throne, and the ruin is carried out beneath its eye.
Ezekiel 10:1
“Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 10:1
“The throne of Jehovah appearing in the midst of the judgments implies that whatever intermediate agencies be employed, He controls them, and that the whole flows as a necessary consequence from His essential holiness (Eze 1:22, 26). cherubim--in Eze 1:5, called "living creatures." The repetition of the vision implies that the judgments are approaching nearer and nearer.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 10:1
“He manifests his glory in the upper world, where purity and brightness are both in perfection; and the vast expanse of the firmament aims to speak the God that dwells there infinite. It is the firmament of his power and of his prospect too; for thence he beholds all the children of men.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 10:1
“As it were a sapphire stone - See the note on Eze 1:22-26 (note). The chariot, here mentioned by the prophet, was precisely the same as that which he saw at the river Chebar, as himself tells us, Eze 1:15, of which see the description in Ezekiel 1.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Fill your hands with burning coals: The man in linen now gets a second task. In chapter 9 he marked the faithful, and now he takes burning coals from among the cherubim to scatter over the city. Adam Clarke reads the coals as a sign of the Chaldeans burning Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 10:2
“Coals of fire - These were to signify the burning of the city by the Chaldeans. It seems that the space between the four wheels, which was all on fire, was that from which those coals were taken.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 10:3-5
the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple: The cherubim stand “on the south side of the temple,” and “a cloud filled the inner court,” as the cloud filled Solomon’s temple. Then “the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherubim and stood over the threshold of the temple,” now moving toward the door.
Ezekiel 10:3
“On the right side - On the south Eze 47:2. The idolatries had been seen on the north side. On the south stood the “cherubim” ready to receive and bear away the glory of the Lord.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 10:3
“The right side - The north-side, the side towards Babylon, from whence the fire came which consumed the city. The man - Christ, the Lord of angels, who now attend his coming and commands.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
stood over the threshold of the temple: The glory of the LORD rises from the cherubim and stands at the threshold of the temple. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the contrast: cloud fills the temple, where the idols stood, while brightness fills the court. The glory is on its way out.
Ezekiel 10:4
“The court outside was full of the Lord's brightness, while it was only the cloud that filled the house inside, the scene of idolatries, and therefore of God's displeasure. God's throne was on the threshold.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 10:4
“The glory - The visible token of the presence of the God of glory. Went up - In token of his departure from the temple. And stood - Shewing his unwillingness to leave, and giving them time to return to him, he stands where he might he seen, both by priests and people, that both might be moved to repentance.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 10:4
“The glory of the Lord went up - This is repeated from Eze 9:3. The house was filled with the cloud - This is a fact similar to what occurred frequently at the tabernacle in the wilderness, and in the dedication of the temple by Solomon. What is mentioned here was the Divine shechinah, the symbolical representation of the majesty of God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
like the voice of God Almighty: The noise of the wings reaches as far as the outer court. Ezekiel likens it to the voice of God Almighty speaking. Albert Barnes notes that the title is El Shaddai, the name God gave Himself to Abraham in Genesis 17:1.
Ezekiel 10:5
“This noise is said to be as the voice of the almighty God when he speaks, as the thunder, which is called the voice of the Lord ( Ps. xxix. 3 ), or as the voice of the Lord when he spoke to Israel on Mount Sinai; and therefore he then gave the law with abundance of terror, to signify with what terror he would reckon for the violation of it, which he was now about to do.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 10:6-8
A cherub “reached out his hand” and put the fire into his hands. The cherubim have “the form of human hands under their wings,” the hands of Ezekiel 1:8. The man marked out in chapter 9 with his writing kit now carries the fire that will burn the city.
Ezekiel 10:6
“And stood - Either as one that deferred execution, to try whether the city would repent, or as one who was to give some farther order to the angels, that were to be the ministers of his just displeasure.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
took some of the fire: A cherub reaches out his hand, takes fire from among them, and gives it to the man clothed in linen. Albert Barnes sees here a sign that God is turning from Jerusalem. The fire of the holy place becomes the fire of judgment.
Ezekiel 10:7
“One cherub - The “cherub” who stood next the wheel by the side of which the man stood. The representative of the priestly office now gives up his post of reconciliation, and becomes simply a minister of wrath; another sign that God will turn from Jerusalem.”
the form of human hands under their wings.): The Berean text sets this verse in parentheses. Albert Barnes notes that the chapter often pauses its story to explain the vision, and here it explains the hand of verse 7. The cherubim had what looked like human hands under their wings.
Ezekiel 10:8
“The form of a man’s hand under their wings - I am still of opinion that the hands and wings were not distinct. The arms were feathered like wings, and the hand terminated the arm; but as the long front feathers of the wings would extend much beyond the fingers, hence the hands would appear to be under the wings. See on Eze 1:8 (note). The human hand might be intended to show that God helps and punishes man by man; and that, in the general operations of his providence, he makes use of human agency.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The wheels, the cherubim, and the spirit in them
Ezekiel 10:9-13
four wheels: The prophet sees “four wheels beside the cherubim,” going “in any of the four directions, without turning as they moved.” Their bodies and wheels are “full of eyes all around,” as in Ezekiel 1:18. The prophet hears the wheels called “the whirling wheels,” named as part of the throne.
Ezekiel 10:9
“The color of a beryl stone - אבן תרשיש eben Tarshish, “the stone of Tarshish.” The Vulgate translates it chrysolith; Symmachus, the jacinct; the Septuagint, the carbuncle. In the parallel place, Eze 1:16, it is כעין תרשיש keeyn Tarshish, “like the eye of Tarshish;” i.e., the color of tarshish, or the stone so called, which the Vulgate translates visio maris, “like the sea,” i.e., azure. The beryl is a gem of a green color, passing from one side into blue, on the other side into yellow.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
like a wheel within a wheel: All four wheels look alike, each like a wheel within a wheel. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown picture two wheels crossing at right angles. Such a wheel can roll in any of the four directions without turning, as verse 11 says.
Ezekiel 10:10
“A wheel had been in the midst of a wheel - It is difficult to comprehend this description. It is generally supposed to mean one wheel within another, cutting each other at right angles. This, in my opinion, will not account for the motions attributed to these wheels; nor can I see how, on this supposition, they could have any motion; for if one was moved on its axis, the other must be dragged contrary to its axis.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
without turning as they moved: The wheels and cherubim can head in all four directions and never need to turn. The whole vision moves where the head faces. Albert Barnes weighs two readings of the head: the leading wheel that the others follow, or more likely the head of a cherub.
Ezekiel 10:11
“The head - Either “the leading wheel which the others followed,” or more probably, the head of a cherub (one for all), the description passing from the wheels to the cherubim Eze 10:12.”
full of eyes all around: In chapter 1 Ezekiel saw eyes on the wheels. Here he sees that the bodies, backs, hands and wings of the cherubim are full of eyes all around as well. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take this as the fruit of a closer look at the same vision.
Ezekiel 10:12
“Wherefore those who are over others are to be admonished, that through earnestness of circumspection they have eyes watchful within and round about, and strive to become living creatures of heaven. For the living creatures of heaven are described as full of eyes round about and within. And so it is meet that those who are over others should have eyes within and round about, so as both in themselves to study to please the inward judge, and also, affording outwardly examples of life, to detect the things that should be corrected in others.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 4patristic
Ezekiel heard a name given to the wheels: the whirling wheels. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew word is galgal, the whole wheelwork whirling. The wheels moved as one.
Ezekiel 10:13
“O wheel--rather, "they were called, whirling," that is, they were most rapid in their revolutions [MAURER]; or, better, "It was cried unto them, The whirling" [FAIRBAIRN]. Galgal here used for "wheel," is different from ophan, the simple word for "wheel." Galgal is the whole wheelwork machinery with its whirlwind-like rotation.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 10:14-17
four faces: Each cherub has four faces, “that of a cherub,” the set of Ezekiel 1:10 except that the ox is here named the cherub. The wheels rise and stand with the cherubim, “for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.” Wheel and creature obey one spirit.
Ezekiel 10:14
“The first - was the face of a cherub - In Eze 1:10, this is called the “face of an ox;” here, the “face of a cherub:” hence, a cherub was in the likeness of an ox, at least, as to its head. כרוב kerub never occurs as a verb; and its meaning cannot be precisely ascertained. Parkhurst thinks the כ caph to be here the note of similitude; and then translates כ ke, “like,” רב rab or רוב rob, “the mighty one;” and, in consequence, makes the cherubim an emblem of the Holy Trinity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the living creatures I had seen: The cherubim rise upward. Ezekiel now names them as the same living creatures he had seen at the River Kebar in chapter 1. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that he repeats the point in verse 22 to hold the reader's attention.
the wheels moved beside them: The wheels move with the cherubim and stay at their side as the cherubim spread their wings and lift off. Albert Barnes reads every part as moved by one will, so that the whole acts as one living thing. They rise from the ground together.
Ezekiel 10:16
“And when the cherubim went, the wheels went by them,.... Ministers being guides to the churches in doctrine, worship, devotion, and conversation; See Gill on Eze 1:19; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them; ministers and churches go together; if the one remove, the other do also; they cannot long subsist without each other; and, generally speaking, as are the light, knowledge, zeal, affection, and devotion of the one, such are those of the other; See Gill on Eze 1:19.”
the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels: The wheels stand still and rise with the cherubim, for the spirit of the living creatures is in them. Matthew Henry drew a lesson from their eyes. He wrote that events are ruled by the wheels of providence, which are full of eyes, where the wheel of fortune is blind.
Ezekiel 10:17
“Events are not determined by the wheel of fortune, which is blind, but by the wheels of Providence, which are full of eyes. Ezekiel sees the glory of God removing out of the sanctuary, the place where God's honour had long dwelt, and this sight is as sad as the other was grateful.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The glory moves to the threshold and out the east gate
Ezekiel 10:18-19
the glory of the LORD moved away from the threshold of the temple: The cherubim rise with the wheels and stop “at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD.” Barnes notes the glory returns by the same east gate in chapter 43, so departure and return are marked by one gate.
Ezekiel 10:18
“The departure of the symbol of God's presence from the temple preparatory to the destruction of the city. Woe be to those from whom God departs (Ho 9:12)! 4:21: "I-chabod, Thy glory is departed." Successive steps are marked in His departure; so slowly and reluctantly does the merciful God leave His house.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsEzekiel 11:23
the entrance of the east gate: The cherubim rise from the ground and stop at the entrance of the east gate, under the glory of the God of Israel. The glory leaves in stages. Matthew Henry saw in each pause a God who departs by degrees and would return to a people who repent.
Ezekiel 10:19
The cherubim (or chariot) had stood first on the threshold of the temple-door, and there received the glory of the Lord. They then lifted their wings, rose, and left the temple by “the east gate” of the outer court at “the entrance” of which they now for a time stood. It was by the east gate of the outer court that the glory of the Lord returned to the new temple Eze 43:4. And every one stood - Or, “and” they “stood.” The Cheruibim and wheels are viewed as “one living creature.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 10:19
“And every one - The glory, the cherubim, the wheels, all stood, respiting execution, and giving opportunity of preventing the approaching misery. The east gate - The last court, the court of the people.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 10:20-22
I knew that they were cherubim: “These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the River Kebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.” Chapter 1 described them only by likeness and appearance, and chapter 10 names them as the cherubim who guarded Eden and stood over the ark.
Ezekiel 10:20
“And I knew that they were the cherubims - This formation of the plural is quite improper. In general, Hebrew nouns of the masculine gender end in ים im, in the plural; the s, therefore, should never be added to such. Cherub is singular; cherubim is plural. The s should be uniformly expunged. I have already referred to the end of this chapter for farther information relative to this glorious chariot of Jehovah; but I must say that I have met with nothing on the subject that entirely satisfies myself.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 10:20
“And this first appearing in the proper figure of a cherub, and yet it being proper to retain the number of four, that of the ox is left out and dropped, because the face of the cherub had been most abused by the worship of an ox.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Each had four faces and four wings: Each cherub has four faces and four wings, and hands like human hands under the wings. John Gill lists the faces from 1:10 as those of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. Verse 14 names the first face as that of a cherub.
Ezekiel 10:21
“Every one had four faces apiece,.... Every one of the four living creatures, or cherubim, had four faces; which were the face of a man, of a lion, of an ox, and of an eagle, Eze 1:10; and everyone four wings: the Septuagint version reads eight wings; and the Syriac version "six"; so many in all indeed they had; see Gill on Eze 1:23; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings; See Gill on Eze 10:8.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 10:21
“The repetition is in order that the people about to live without the temple might have, instead, the knowledge of the temple mysteries, thus preparing them for a future restoration of the covenant. So perverse were they that they would say, "Ezekiel fancies he saw what has no existence." He, therefore, repeats it over and over again.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Each creature went straight ahead: Their faces look like the faces Ezekiel had seen by the River Kebar. John Gill takes this as proof that the living creatures of chapter 1 and the cherubim of chapter 10 are the same beings. Each creature goes straight ahead, as in 1:12.
Ezekiel 10:22
“And the likeness of their faces was the same faces,.... Or their faces were like the same, which I saw by the river of Chebar; which prove that the living creatures and the cherubim must be the same: their appearance and themselves; were exactly the same there was no difference in their faces or in their bodies: they went everyone straight forward; their motion as well as their form were alike; they kept one even course, looking right on, and their eyes right before them.”
How this psalm is built
The form: The departure of the glory marked in successive stages, from the cherubim to the threshold, to the east gate, and in chapter 11 to the mountain east of the city, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The stages of the departure | The glory moves in steps the text marks one by one. It rises from the cherubim to the threshold at 9:3 and 10:4, leaves the threshold for the cherubim at 10:18, stops at the entrance of the east gate at 10:19, and stands over the mountain east of the city at 11:23. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the successive steps as the slowness of a merciful God leaving His house, and Wesley reads the standing at the threshold as time given for repentance.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Ezekiel 10:18. | Ezekiel 9:3, Ezekiel 10:4, Ezekiel 10:18, Ezekiel 10:19, Ezekiel 11:23 |
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
The chapter sets two movements side by side. The man clothed in linen takes burning coals from among the cherubim in verses 1 to 8, and the glory of the LORD moves out of the house by stages in verses 4, 18 and 19. Between them, verses 9 to 17 describe the wheels and the faces again, and verse 20 names the living creatures of the Kebar vision as cherubim. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the stages as the reluctance of a merciful God to leave His house, and Wesley reads the standing at the threshold as time given for repentance. Barnes notes that the glory leaves by the east gate and that by the east gate it returns to the new temple at 43:4.
Keep studying
Studies6
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
C. F. Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Ezekiel 10:18.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Twenty Chapters of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.