Ezekiel 3:12

Then the spirit took me up,.... Not the wind, nor an angel, but the Spirit of God; who took up the prophet from the ground, from the place where he was, among the captives by the river Chebar, and

Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place. The spirit took me up. So in Acts 8:39.

The spirit; the Spirit of God, which governed the wheels and the living creatures, . Took me up; either raised him up to nearer approaches, to see and discern, to hear and learn; or carried him to his countrymen, to whom he was to speak. Behind me; his face toward the north while he saw the vision, now that he is carried south to his people the voice is behind him. A voice of a great rushing; an articulate sound, and intelligible, but with great commotion, for it was the voice of angels, attended with the rushing noise of the wheels added to the noise of their wings, and a mighty wind which might likely accompany all this. Blessed be the glory of the Lord; praised and magnified be the gloriously holy and just God, riding on the glorious chariot of his sovereignty in prescribing laws, appointing ordinances, threatening sin, and punishing sinners. From his place; either coming down from heaven, or departing from his temple. In brief, the glorious angels, and all the saints of God, bless, i.e. praise, admire, and justify God in all the ways of his judgments among the sons of men.

Ezekiel 3:12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, [saying], Blessed [be] the glory of the LORD from his place.Ver. 12. Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me, &c.] This was for the prophet’ s encouragement, and to put mettle into him, as it were, that he might the better bear up amidst all, since he should shortly bear a part in that angelic concert, whose λειτουργιαεστιψαλμωδια, as Theodoret hath it, their daily service is singing of psalms. Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place,] i.e., From heaven, where saints and angels glorify his name without ceasing or satiety. Monica, after a discourse with her son Augustine about the happiness of heaven, concluded thus: Quantum ad me attinet, fili, nulla re amplius delector in hac vita. Quid hic facio? As for me, what make I here, since I take no more pleasure in anything that is here to be had? A picture of a globe of the whole earth, saith one, set out with all the brave things that sea and land can afford, with this sentence encircling it round, "To be with Christ is far better," is a Christian’ s emblem, and should be his ambition.

(12) Then the spirit took me up.—This also is to be understood as done in vision, as in Ezekiel 8:3; Ezekiel 11:1; Ezekiel 11:24. (Comp. Acts 8:39.) In the last case the “taking up” is expressly said to have been in vision. This closes one act, so to speak, of the prophet’s consecration, and now the vision which he has been seeing all along leaves him for a time. He hears the great voice of ascription of praise, without definite mention of its source, but doubtless, as in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, from all that surround the throne; and he hears the noise of the moving wings of the cherubim, and of the wheels. He has seen the representation of the glory of Him who sends him, and has heard the character of his message. He must now, in the light of this knowledge, see those to whom he is sent. The Hebrew for “wings that touched one another” is beautifully figurative: “wings that kissed each one its sister.”

Verse 12. Then the Spirit took me up] This, as Calmet remarks, has been variously understood. 1. An impetuous wind carried him to the place where his brethren sojourned. 2. The Holy Spirit, which filled his heart, transported him in a moment to the place where the captives were. 3. Or, he was so transported with heavenly ardour in his mind, that he ran immediately off, and seemed to fly to the place where God commanded him to go. The promptitude and impetuosity of his spirit seemed to furnish him with wings on the occasion. However this may be understood, the going to the captives was real. A voice of a great rushing] This was the noise made by the wings of the living creatures that formed the chariot of Jehovah. See the notes on Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10. Blessed be the glory of the Lord] Probably the acclamation of the living creatures: "Let God be blessed from the throne of his glory! He deserves the praises of his creatures in all the dispensations of his mercy and justice, of his providence and grace."

12. the spirit took me up] See on Ezekiel 2:2. This “lifting up” by the spirit must be interpreted according to ch. Ezekiel 8:1-3, it was part of the trance. The great theophany or vision of God in ch. 1 was not an external phenomenon which the prophet beheld with his actual eyes, it was a vision which he saw, being in a trance. The same is true of all the words heard by him, and all the actions done in ch. 2, 3, they took place in the spirit, not outwardly. See after Ezekiel 3:21. I heard behind me] The prophet had been in the presence of the theophany (ch. 1) during all that has hitherto been narrated (ch. Ezekiel 2:1 to Ezekiel 3:12), and thus when he was lifted up and carried away it seemed to him that he left the theophany behind him. a great rushing] The word is used of an earthquake, and of the roar of battle (Isaiah 9:5, confused noise); also of the rattling of chariots (Jeremiah 47:3; Nahum 3:2). In ch. Ezekiel 37:7 it is said of the sound of the coming together of the dry bones, but it appears nowhere employed of the noise caused by voices speaking. Blessed be the glory of the Lord] According to the present text these words were uttered with a sound like “a great rushing,” though no intimation is given who they were who uttered the words. But (1) the phrase “blessed be the glory of the Lord” has no parallel; and it is hardly admissible to take the “glory of the Lord” as equivalent to “the Lord” or “the name of the Lord” or even his “glorious name” (Psalms 72:19). Even the fact that the “glory” is distinct from the divine chariot, which it may leave (ch. Ezekiel 9:3), and that a voice may come from where it is (Ezekiel 43:6) is hardly sufficient to justify such an expression. (2) It is natural to take the “great rushing” of this verse to be the same as that in Ezekiel 3:13, where it is the roar of the wings of the living creatures and the wheels when the chariot is in motion. (3) With the present text the exclamation “Blessed,” &c., might come from the cherubim. There is no other passage in the prophet where the cherubim are represented as praising God, although the seraphim do so in Isaiah 6, and the living creatures in Revelation 4, and this might possibly be the meaning, particularly as the reading “Blessed,” &c., is the only one known to the versions. Luzzatto, and independently of him Hitzig, proposed to read: when the glory of the Lord rose up from its place; cf. ch. Ezekiel 10:5; Ezekiel 10:19, Ezekiel 11:22-23. The reading implies a change of only one letter.

I heard behind me - The commission having been given, and the prophet transported to the place of his ministry, the chariot of the vision passes away with the proper tokens Ezekiel 1:24-25.

12. The spirit took me up — Literally, a spirit, or wind. (Compare Ezekiel 1:4.) Perhaps the meaning is that the whirlwind lifted him when the glory departed, and notwithstanding his rebellion of