Ezekiel 1:1

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year,.... Either from the last jubilee, as R.

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 1 The time of Ezekiel's prophecy by the river Chebar, Ezekiel 1:1-3. His vision of four cherubims, and four wheels, Ezekiel 1:4-25, and of the glory of God above them, Ezekiel 1:26-28. Now: this does not refer to any particular time before mentioned, though sometimes this English particle now connotes particular time, (the Hebrew is and, so the Greek and Latin,) but is a phrase in use on entering upon discourse. It came to pass in the thirtieth year, of the prophet's age, or from the finding the book of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah, when the threats were read which now were executed on the Jews, according to 2 Kings 22:16, from which date to the fifth year of the captivity are thirty years; or in the thirtieth year of the Chaldean monarchy, founded by Nabopollassar. Other accounts omitted, you are left to your own thoughts which of these two latter are more probable; both have very weighty authority for them; and indeed they both concur and meet in the fifth year of the captivity, and so either computation may without mistake be followed. In the fourth month; the original hath only in the fourth, concisely, but it is certainly the month, but whether in account from Marchesvan, October with us, to Shebat, January, or from Nisan, March, unto Tamuz, July, is more questionable; the latter I guess to be the rightest account; so from Nisan, which is part of our March and April, to Tamuz, part of our June and July, will be the fourth month; and this account in church things best suits the prophet's design. In the fifth day of the month; it was the third day of our July, probably it was the sabbath day, when the Jews would be free from labour, and at leisure to hear the prophet; and indeed such declarations of the will of God are an entertainment suitable to the consecration of the seventh day to God. As I was among the captives; Heb. and I, &c. Though a priest and prophet, the first by birth and lineal descent, the other by extraordinary commission, yet I also found as little respect as my countrymen. Among the captives; in the midst of the captivity, so the Hebrew idiom; perhaps the prophet rather useth the abstract itself than the concrete, to express the grievousness of it: they were captive, nay, captivity rather, under extreme bondage; as darkness for dark. By the river; either there commanded to dwell, or thither retiring, that more freely they might lament their own sins, and Jerusalem's desolation: or what if it were to keep, as they might, their sabbath, in which the spiteful Babylonians interrupt them, and with scorn require them to sing a temple song, Psalms 137:3. Chebar; a branch of Euphrates, or that part which Chobar advised should be made to divert the violence of Euphrates, lest it damnify the city Babylon.

Ezekiel 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I [was] among the captives by the river of Chebar, [that] the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.The Book of the prophet Ezekiel.] The book of Ezekiel, so the Hebrews call it, and forbid any to read the beginning and ending of it till he be thirty years of age, because it is so abstruse and mysterious. Nazianzen calleth this prophet, the beholder of great things, and the interpreter of visions and mysteries. Another calleth him the hieroglyphic prophet. A third, Jeremiah veiled, a band shut up, and you know not what is in it, &c. Contemporary he was to Jeremiah, though in another country, and a great confirmer of what he had foretold, but could not be credited. To him, therefore, as to many others, Ezekiel became, according to the import of his name, "The strength of God," who mightily enabled him, as Lavater well notes, with a stout and undaunted spirit, to reprove both people and princes, and to threaten them more terribly and vehemently than Jeremiah had done before him. But, in the substance of their prophecies, there is no small conformity. Ferunt Ezechielem servum Ieremiae prius extitisse, saith Nazianzen. Some have affirmed that Ezekiel had sometimes been Jeremiah’ s servant, as was afterwards Baruch. Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year,] scil., Since the book of the law was found, and that famous passover kept in King Josiah’ s days, since the eighteenth year of his reign. So elsewhere, they began their account from some memorable mercy or remarkable accident; as from the promise made to Abraham, the birth of Isaac, the departure out of Egypt, the division of the kingdom into that of Israel and the other of Judah, &c. In the fifth day of the month.] Which was the Sabbath day say some, Compare Ezekiel 3:16. Then was this holy prophet in the Spirit, as was afterwards also John the divine upon the Christian Sabbath. As I was among the captives.] In Chaldea. That rule of the Rabbis, therefore, holdeth not - viz., that the Holy Ghost never spake to the prophets but only in the Holy Land. By the river of the Chebar.] Which was rivus vel ramentum Euphratis, a part or channel of Euphrates. There sat the poor captives, and there this prophet received this vision here, and his vocation in the next chapter. It is observed, that by the sides of rivers various prophets had visions of God; by a river side it was that Paul and his company met to preach and pray. And of Archbishop Ussher, that most reverend man of God, it is recorded, that to a certain place by a water side he frequently resorted, when as yet he was but very young, sorrowfully to recount his sins, and with floods of tears to pour them out in confession to God.

(1) The thirtieth year.—On this date see Introduction, § 4. It may be added here that the concurrence of the “fifth day of the month” in connection with this epoch, and with that of Jehoiachin’s captivity in Ezekiel 1:2, shows that the years of the two epochs began at the same time. Among the captives.—i.e., in the midst of the region where they were settled. The vision which follows was seen by Ezekiel only, and was probably vouchsafed to him in solitudes” The captives,” or rather, the captivity, as it is in the original, is the same word as is used of Jehoiachin in the next verse, and yet must be somewhat differently understood in the two cases. Jehoiachin was actually in prison for many years; his people, within certain limits, were free. They were more than exiles, but less than prisoners. (On “the heavens were opened,” comp. Matthew 3:16; Acts 7:56.) Visions of God.—Not merely great visions, as the Divine name is often added in Scripture to express greatness or intensity (see Genesis 10:9; Psalms 36:6, marg., Psalms 80:10, marg.; Jonah 3:3, marg.; Acts 7:20, marg.), but Divine visions, visions sent from God, as in Ezekiel 8:3; Ezekiel 40:2.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Ezekiel's prophesying -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3409. -Year of the Jewish era of the world, 3166. -Year from the Deluge, 1753. -Second year of the forty-sixth Olympiad. -Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian or generally received account, 159. -Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 158. -Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius the historian, 157. -Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 153. -Year of the Julian Period, 4119. -Year of the era of Nabonassar, 153. -Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 409. -Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 126. -Second year after the third Sabbatic year after the seventeenth Jewish jubilee, according to Helvicus. -Year before the birth of Christ, 591. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 595. -Cycle of the Sun, 3. -Cycle of the Moon, 15. -Twenty-second year of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of the Romans: this was the eighty-sixth year before the consulship of Lucius Junius Brutus, and Publius Valerius Poplicola. -Thirty-first year of Cyaxares, or Cyaraxes, the fourth king of Media. -Eleventh year of Agasicles, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae. -Thirteenth year of Leon, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae. -Twenty-fifth year of Alyattes II., king of Lydia, and father of the celebrated Croesus. -Eighth year of AEropas, the seventh king of Macedon. -Sixth and last year of Psammis, king of Egypt, according to Helvicus, an accurate chronologer. This Egyptian king was the immediate predecessor of the celebrated Apries, called Vaphres by Eusebius, and Pharaoh-hophra by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 44:30. -First year of Baal, king of the Tyrians. -Twelfth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. -Fourth year of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. CHAPTER I This chapter contains that extraordinary vision of the Divine glory with which the prophet was favoured when he received the commission and instructions respecting the discharge of his office, which are contained in the two following chapters. The time of this Divine manifestation to the prophet, 1-3. The vision of the four living creatures, and of the four wheels, 4-25. Description of the firmament that was spread over them, and of the throne upon which one sat in appearance as a man, 26-28. This vision, proceeding in a whirlwind from the NORTH, seems to indicate the dreadful judgments that were coming upon the whole land of Judah through the instrumentality of the cruel Chaldeans, who lay to the north of it. See Ezekiel 1:14; Ezekiel 4:6; Ezekiel 6:1. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. In the thirtieth year] We know not what this date refers to.

FIRST , CH. 1–24, OF THE OF THE KINGDOMFirst Section. Ch. 1–3:21 The section consists of two divisions: First, Ch. 1 inaugural vision of Jehovah; second, Ch. 2–3:21, the various steps by which Jehovah, thus seen, initiated the prophet into his work. The inaugural vision Ch. 1. has two parts; (1) Ezekiel 1:1-3, definition of the time and place of the appearance of the vision of God; and (2) Ezekiel 1:4-28, description of the vision itself, with its influence upon the prophet. 1–3. The manifestation of Jehovah was made to the prophet in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, and in the midst of the captives by the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1:1); or, it was on the fifth of the month, in the fifth year of the captivity of king Jehoiachin, and in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1:2-3). Ezekiel 1:1-3 appear to contain two superscriptions, one in Ezekiel 1:1, in which the prophet speaks in the first person, and which is syntactically connected with Ezekiel 1:4 seq.; and one in Ezekiel 1:2-3, in which the prophet is spoken of, his name and descent and priestly rank stated, and the thirtieth year of Eze 1:1 identified with the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin. The language in Ezekiel 1:1 is precisely similar to almost all the other specifications of time in the Book, e.g. Ezekiel 8:1, Ezekiel 20:1, Ezekiel 24:1, Ezekiel 26:1 Ezekiel 29:1; Ezekiel 29:17, Ezekiel 30:20, Ezekiel 31:1, Ezekiel 32:1; Ezekiel 32:17, Ezekiel 33:21, Ezekiel 40:1. In two cases the phrase “and it came to pass” is not used (Ezekiel 29:1, Ezekiel 40:1). If the verse stood alone the natural inference from the other dates would be that the year was the thirtieth of Jehoiachin’s captivity, as in other cases, or as it is put in two instances “our captivity” (Ezekiel 33:21, Ezekiel 40:1). The latest date mentioned in the Book is the 27th year of the captivity (Ezekiel 29:17), and it has been conjectured that Ezekiel 1:1 refers to another prophecy or vision three years later, and that Ezekiel 1:2-3 form the real heading. Against this, however, is (1) that the specification of circumstances and place in Ezekiel 1:1 is natural in an introductory statement, but not to be expected in any other. In point of fact it nowhere occurs after the introductory visions by which the prophet received his commission, except in references to these visions (Ezekiel 10:15; Ezekiel 10:20; Ezekiel 10:22, Ezekiel 43:3). And (2) the words “which was the fifth year” Ezekiel 1:2 evidently refer to some year already mentioned, which is now said to coincide with the fifth of Jehoiachin’s captivity. The two parts of the superscription are awkwardly connected, but neither of them can be wanted, though it is quite possible that they do not appear in their original form. The thirtieth year might refer to some event or era from which Ezekiel reckoned.

The thirtieth year - being closely connected with as I, is rather in favor of considering this a personal date.

. — 1-3.Ezekiel’s Account of His Call to the Prophetic Office.1. I — This is personal narration. All critics agree that we have here a genuine account of the spiritual experiences of this ancient prophet written by himself.