Ezekiel 1:3

The word of the Lord came expressly,.... Or, "in being was" (d); which phrase denotes the reality, certainty, substantiality and evidence of the word of the Lord to him: unto Ezekiel the priest, the

The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him. No JFB commentary on this verse.

What was visions, , is here the word, both as signifying and declaring the mind of God, what he would do, and as containing his commands to Ezekiel and to the people, to whom these visions spake by signs. The word of the Lord: lest the prophet should want his warrant, or the Jews except to his advice, it is plainly told them that Jehovah the sovereign Lord and eternal God, by Ezekiel, counsels, warns, commands, and threatens. Came expressly unto; emphatically translated as it is emphatically expressed in the Hebrew, being with him, it was with him; so long he might discern, so clear he might understand, so near he could not be deceived, or easily forget what he was to tell them. Ezekiel signifies either, the strength of God, or, strengthened by God, and in a few syllables contains what is more largely set forth, ,9. He speaks of himself in the third person. The priest; who therefore should be regarded as one whose interest among the priests at Jerusalem would be best promoted if better things might be hoped and shortly expected than he must now tell them; it was likely he dealt truly with them, when he must share so much in the sad things foretold. He was of the priests originally, he was a prophet by extraordinary call. The son of Buzi; of a contemned man, so the etymology of the Hebrew, which gave the rabbins occasion to apply it to Jeremiah, and to account the prophet either son or servant to Jeremiah; but it is a proper name. In the land of the Chaldeans, enemies to, and now masters of, poor captive Jews, the church of God: there God makes him a prophet, who was an ordinary priest in the land of Israel. The river Chebar, though a river of Mesopotamia, yet here seems placed in Chaldea, because Mesopotamia was part of the kingdom of the Chaldeans; so Chebar or Chobar was in the land, i.e. within the kingdom, of Chaldea, but particularly in Mesopotamia, a province of that kingdom. The hand of the Lord; the Divine impulse moving with power and efficacy on Ezekiel for the work, and clearly confirming and demonstrating to the captive Jews that he was the prophet of the Lord, and spake to them in his name; the Spirit of prophecy, as the Chaldee Paraphrase. Was upon him there: God is not confined; though most prophets were in the land of Israel, yet here in Chaldea also appears a great prophet, and should be hearkened unto.

Ezekiel 1:3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.Ver. 3. The word of the Lord came expressly.] Heb., By being hath been, or hath altogether been - Existendo extitit. Accurate factum est it really wrought upon me and made me a prophet. Unto Ezekiel the priest.] Whom, therefore, some have called Urim and Thummim in Babylon. The son of Buzi.] That this Buzi was Jeremiah, so called because despised for his plain dealing, as some Rabbis have affirmed, is as true as that Ezekiel himself was the same with Pythagoras the philosopher; which yet some ancients have fondly fancied. In the land of the Chaldeans] Though a polluted land, and the dwelling place of wickedness, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. By the river Chebar.] The Rabbis call it the Sabbath river; and, further, tell us that it runneth not, but resteth on the Sabbath day. “ Credat Iudaeus Apella: Non ego. ” - Hor. And the hand of the Lord was there upon him.] Not only came God’ s Word expressly to him, but the power and Spirit of God came mightily upon him; so that he felt the intrinsic virtue of this hand, as one phraseth it, the Spirit of God in his own heart; it was a quick and lively word unto him, and to as many as believed. Sabbatian.

(3) Came expressly.—Or, came certainly, with the fullest proof of reality. In the original there is simply the ordinary form of the repetition of the verb for the sake of emphasis. The prophet mentions his own name only here and in Ezekiel 24:24. The hand of the Lord was there upon him.—A form of expression to indicate that special power and influence which the Spirit exercised over the prophets at times when they were called to become the means of the Divine communications. (Comp. 1 Kings 18:46, and Ezekiel 3:22; Ezekiel 37:1; see also Daniel 8:18; Daniel 10:10; Revelation 1:17.) It is noticeable that Ezekiel here speaks of himself in the third person, while in Ezekiel 1:1, and always after this, he uses the first person. It had been suggested that this, together with the mention of his own name, may indicate the insertion of these two verses on a revision of his work by the prophet. In entering upon the vision of the glory of the Lord, which fills the rest of this chapter, it is to be remembered that Ezekiel is struggling to portray that which necessarily exceeds the power of human language; it is not therefore surprising that there should be something of repetition and of obscurity in the detail. All similar descriptions of Divine manifestations are marked more or less strongly by the same characteristics. (See Exodus 24:9-10; Isaiah 6:1-4; Daniel 7:9-10; Revelation 1:12-20; Revelation 4:2-6, &c.) It is also to be borne in mind that what the prophet saw was not the eternal Father in His own absolute essence, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom “no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Timothy 6:16); and had it been possible that Ezekiel should have been so transported out of the body as to behold this, it would then have been impossible for him to describe it. But what he saw in vision was such manifestation as man could bear, in which God hides His face, and allows to be seen only His uttermost parts (Exodus 33:22-23). In the description that follows may be recognised a mingling of the symbols of the Divine manifestation at Sinai with the “patterns of heavenly things” in the most holy place of the Temple, the whole modified to suit the present occasion, and possibly somewhat coloured by the now familiar symbolic art of Babylonia.

Verse 3. The hand of the Lord] I was filled with his power, and with the influence of the prophetic spirit.

3. came expressly] Omit expressly. The name Ezekiel probably means “God is strong.” Nothing further is known of Ezekiel or of his father Buzi. The designation “priest” appears to apply to Ezekiel, not to his father. As the prophet excludes all Levites from priestly office except the “sons of Zadok” (Ezekiel 40:46, Ezekiel 43:19, Ezekiel 44:15-16), it may be inferred that he belonged himself to this family. It appears from Jeremiah 29:1 seq. that among the captives carried away with Jehoiachin were both priests and prophets. hand of the Lord] the prophetic ecstasy.

Came expressly - The phrase marks that it was in truth a heaven-sent vision.

3. Ezekiel — God is strong (Kuenen). Because of this all too brief biographical sketch, and because of Ezekiel’s reticence regarding himself, many have supposed that nothing can be known of this