Chapter Ten

Burning of the city before the departure of Jehovah from it

And here only the preparation for the punishment is described (vv. 1-8), while the punishment itself remains undescribed, and instead the prophet directs the attention of the reader to the structure of the chariot on which Jehovah will depart (vv. 9-22).

Ezekiel 10:1. And I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was above the heads of the cherubs, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, like the likeness of a throne, visible above them. “And I looked, and behold”—a remark showing that the third (new) part of the vision begins. Now, when the dark picture of abominations in the temple and judgment on them has passed before the prophet’s eyes, he takes advantage of the opportunity to look more carefully at the wonderful picture of the vision, which he is now able to view without the initial horror, and therefore more attentively. The prophet is attracted above all by the throne on the firmament, described solemnly with Ezek 1:26, though not literally, but without bringing in anything new. Remarkably, nothing is said here about Him who sat on the throne. But hardly can one conclude from this that the throne was empty, because the throne-chariot appeared to take the glory of God from the temple. The description of the throne here aims to show from where the last act of judgment about to be described—the burning of the city—is to proceed—from the throne on the firmament. It is as though until now the prophet had not realized that it was the One He saw on the Chebar who was judging, and that judgment comes from that terrible throne on the firmament. The course of the description may also give the thought that the first act of judgment, the act most important, described in Ezek 9:4-11 and expressed in the condemnation to death of almost the entire population, was carried out not quite as, nor even entirely by the same judge as the second—the condemnation of the city to burning; there directly from Shekinah (Ezek 9:3-4), here from the throne above the firmament, but by whom, is not said—a silence characteristic of the prophet’s reverential caution in transmitting the vision. The appearance of mention of the throne here may be explained also by the fact that God’s glory again passed from the threshold of the sanctuary to its place above the cherubs, in order to return again in the following verse to the threshold; this change of place by it, apparently escaping the notice of the prophet, and therefore not mentioned by him, could have been caused by the defilement of the sanctuary by corpses. In the description of the throne the prophet is even more restrained here than in Ezek 1:26; there “the likeness of a throne,” here “something like a throne” (“kemare demut”—three limitations instead of one); but there “something like the appearance of a sapphire stone,” here “something like a sapphire stone”; perhaps however one limitation fell not in its place; the LXX simply: “the likeness of a throne” and “like a sapphire stone.”

Ezekiel 10:2. And He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said: Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubs, and fill your hollow hand with coals of fire from between the cherubs, and scatter them over the city; and he went in my sight. “And He spoke.” In Hebrew without subject; for the absence of it see Ezek 2:1. “To the man clothed in linen,” who was just now the mediator of mercy, and now becomes the mediator of punishment; however, the punishment entrusted to this angel is far from being as fatal and disastrous as the former; moreover, in the hands of God every punishment is merciful. “Among the wheels.” Wheels here for the first time, as later in vv. 6 and 13, are named by a special name “galgal” (a special kind of whirlwind), on which name the prophet expressly dwells in v. 13, where see the explanation. “Beneath the cherubs.” In Hebrew singular in collective sense corresponding to the collective naming of the wheels in the plural of the preceding verse. According to Ezek 1:15, the wheels are beside the cherubs; the present “beneath” more precisely determines their location: since the cherubs soared in the air rather than walked on the earth, the wheels could not fail to be below them and nearer to the earth. “A hollow hand full of coals of fire.” The angel can take hot coals in his hands, as he is of supersensory nature; if the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision in this case uses tongs, here perhaps one can see a greater development of the concept of the spirituality of angels. “And scatter them over the city.” Jerusalem must perish like Sodom. The instrument of its ruin is coals (cf. Ps 119:4; Isa 10:16 according to Hebrew text), which in Isaiah purify the lips of the prophet, coals taken from the altar of the spiritual burnt offering of those standing (see explanation Ezek 1:13) before God, as in Rev 8:5, as a sign that this burnt offering by its very existence destroys everything sinful. “In my sight” see explanation in Ezek 9:1 “to my ears.”

Ezekiel 10:3. Now the cherubs were standing on the right side of the house when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. This verse, like the two following, constitutes a parenthesis (an insertion of side thoughts among the main ones). “On the right side of the house,” that is, on the south side of the temple, at the building of the sanctuary and the holy of holies. Probably on the south side because the eastern, the main side, before the entrance to the sanctuary, was occupied by the sun worshippers and is now strewn with corpses, and the northern side was defiled by the idol of jealousy; besides, from the southern side of the temple the city lay, and from there one could observe the punishment being carried out in it. “When the man went in,” that is, the higher angel; the remark may suggest that the cherubs did not occupy this place at all times in the vision, but changed it. “And the cloud filled the inner court,” because the cherubs were in it with the glory of the Lord above them, the principal manifestation of which was the cloud; therefore when in the following verse God’s glory passes from the threshold of the sanctuary to the threshold of the temple, the cloud fills the sanctuary itself.

Ezekiel 10:4. And the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. “The glory of the Lord” (in the sense of Ezek 9:3) again (as in 9:3) passes from the cherubs (as also in 9 it is in Hebrew singular in collective sense) to the threshold (Slavonic: “uncovered place” see explanation in Ezek 9:3) of the house, perhaps in anticipation of the second act of God’s judgment on Jerusalem about to take place—the burning of it, corresponding to the fact that the first act of this judgment—the slaughter of the population—was carried out from the threshold of the house; this shows that the city is judged chiefly for the defilement of the house. Theodoret believes that God’s glory departed from the cherubs so as to allow the archangel to approach the dreadful fiery place enclosed by cherubs and wheels. With the glory of the Lord the cloud, its external manifestation (as if a covering for it) also moved, and filled now not the court but the building of the sanctuary and the holy of holies (for the last time!); but the court, though the cloud cleared it, nevertheless gave evidence of the closeness of God’s glory by being filled with the radiance of this glory, that is, with the radiance that according to Ezek 1:4 poured forth around the cloud of the Chebar theophany.

Ezekiel 10:5. And the sound of the wings of the cherubs was heard in the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty, when He speaks. The cherubs, so closely connected with the manifestation of God’s glory that they are called cherubs of glory (Heb 9:5), could not remain indifferent to the transfer of God’s glory from them to the threshold of the house, and answered to this with a sound, that is, a movement (flapping) of their wings, which on the part of the cherubs, who in Ezekiel do not speak, and in the Apocalypse speak very little, could be as it were an applause (Knabenbauer) to God, who is bringing judgment upon the hateful iniquity (cf. Rev 6:1-8 and following, when at the opening of each of the first four seals by the Lamb, four cherubs in turn speak in a sense of satisfaction: “Come and see”). This mighty sound (from the wings of the cherubs) was heard over the entire vast expanse of the temple, of the extent of which one can judge from the description of the mysterious temple of Ezekiel in chapters XL-XLII; being at the moment of the vision in the inner court of the temple (Ezek 8:16), the prophet apparently concluded from the echo that the sound reached the outer wall of the outer temple court. The sound from the cherubs’ wings, so detailed and distinctly described in Ezek 1:24, the prophet here characterizes by one of the four comparisons there given, the most powerful: a comparison with the voice of God Almighty (Hebrew “El-Shaddai,” there simply: “Shaddai”; El-Shaddai appears only in Gen 43:14), when He speaks (also an addition to Ezek 1:24, where see also explanation of the expression; Symmachus and Theodotion “like the voice of thunder”). According to Ezek 1:24 such a sound was produced by the cherubs’ wings when they flew; consequently, in this case they were beating their wings with no less force than they did when flying: such excitement were they in.

Ezekiel 10:6. And it came to pass when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying: “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubs,” and when he went and stood by a wheel— A return to the narrative interrupted by a long insertion, which is why it repeats almost the entire v. 2, but instead of “coals” the general “fire,” as in the following verse.

Ezekiel 10:7. Then one of the cherubs stretched out his hand to the fire that was between the cherubs, and took some and put it into the hollow hand of the man clothed in linen; and he took it and went out. By giving fire for the burning of the city, the cherub, though apparently doing so in order to be feared to approach the dread fiery place enclosed by cherubs and wheels (cf. Ezek 1:13), by which means the archangel perhaps did not fully carry out the direct command of God to enter there, the cherub becomes a participant also in the execution of the punishment of God, similar to the apocalyptic cherub who gave to seven angels seven bowls filled with the wrath of God (Rev 15:7). On this basis was founded the opinion of the ancient church about cherubs as instruments of God’s wrath, in opposition to seraphs (Isaiah’s purification). “And went out,” that is, from the inner court, beyond which the prophet could no longer follow the angel with his eyes. The burning coals were cast upon the city for its burning. What the angel accomplished in the prophet’s vision, in the external world was accomplished on Jerusalem by the army of Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet was shown the heavenly (noumenal) essence of the earthly appearance, which seemed to the world so ordinary and frequent.

Ezekiel 10:8. And it became visible to the cherubs that there was a likeness of human hands under their wings. The fact that the cherub took fire and gave it to the archangel with its hand might, in the prophet’s opinion, cause the reader to wonder whether cherubs have hands, creatures so exalted not only above mankind but above the angelic world and so not human-like. As if not trusting the memory of the reader, who should have known about the hands of the cherubs from Ezek 1:6, the prophet repeats the remark of that passage about the hands of the cherubs with a slight difference in expression: instead of “hand”—“the likeness,” more precisely “the outline of the hands.” This, and not so very necessary, repetition of what was said in Chapter I leads the prophet to a repetitive description of almost the entire vision of Chapter I. The description of the wheels (vv. 9-17) is chiefly repeated from Chapter I, to which, after a brief return of the prophet to the interrupted narrative (vv. 18-20), is added an already more brief description of the living creatures (vv. 21-22). This second description adds almost nothing (however, v. 12) and changes nothing (however, v. 14) in the former description, and therefore seems so strange that its authenticity is strongly disputed, or it is explained by the fact that the prophet, having two drafts on one and the same theme and having placed them in the book, did not succeed in eliminating one of them during final editing (something similar, it is said, took place in Chapter VII with vv. 2-5 and 6-9. Cornill. Kraetzschmar). But aside from the fact that return to what was said before with the purpose of its further development and supplementation, or simply to draw the reader’s special attention, constitutes an authorial peculiarity of Ezekiel (Ezek 3:17-21; Ezek 18:1 in Ezek 33:1-20 or Ezek 5:10-16 and Ezek 12:17-20), for the present repetition one can find grounds and justification. “Jehovah intends to abandon His sanctuary; does it not constitute a fine touch that the prophet takes advantage of the short time before the departure of the Lord to immerse himself as deeply as possible in His glorious manifestation; he as it were cannot gaze enough at the One Who is parting: and it is very successfully and very opportunely that the prophet fills the time occupied by the execution on the part of the angel of the terrible commission given to him, with the contemplation of the manifestation of the Lord” (Bertholet.). They also point out (Smend) that to the readers of Ezekiel it might have seemed that with Jerusalem the Jehovah also must perish, and the prophet wants to make them understand that Jehovah, Himself destroying His sanctuary, is not bound to His land. Besides, as will be seen upon closer examination of the repetitive description, the prophet evidently wants to finish some of the unfinished touches of the first description, to clarify its obscurities, and to change in the repeated appearance what was not in harmony with the first appearance (v. 12 and 14). The repetitive description of the vision serves to prepare for the description of the departure of the Lord from the temple and Jerusalem (vv. 18 and 19), which is why in the description the chief place is given to the wheels (7 verses, and the cherubs 3). The repetitive description begins with the wheels.

Ezekiel 10:9. And I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubs, one wheel beside each cherub; and as for the appearance of the wheels, they were like the appearance of a beryl stone. Ezek 10 Ezek 1:15-16. The obscurity in Chapter I concerning the number of wheels, about which it is said so that it is possible to suppose, as some interpreters did, that there was one wheel, is here cleared up. The comparison of the wheels with beryl (“tarshish”) is supplemented by the definition “stone” to the latter; but omitted is, as the wheels were arranged in relation to their cherub (that it was simultaneously at all four faces of it,—a remark omitted perhaps because of the difficulty of understanding it and the supposed incongruity), and that the wheels were topaz not only in appearance but also in construction (a remark also omitted, as the preceding one, by the LXX in Chapter I).

Ezekiel 10:10. And as for their appearance, all four looked alike, as if one wheel were inside another wheel. Ezekiel 10:11. When they moved, they moved in any of their four directions; they did not turn when they moved, but went in the direction which the head was facing; they did not turn when they moved. Ezek 10 Ezek 1:16 vv. Omitted is the concept of construction. Ezek 10:11а Ezek 1:17. But the second half of the verse contains an addition to the data of Chapter I: the wheels rolled to “wherever the head was facing,” whose head? of course the living creature, beside which each wheel stood; but by head may also be meant the front (cf. Job 29:25; 1 Sam 13:17 according to Hebrew text), chief (at that moment) wheel, or the front of the whole appearance; thus it seems the LXX understood it: “wherever one front looked, they went there.” At the end of the verse the remark about the wheels not turning is repeated; this so literally repeated expression gives in the present context a different thought than in its first place: it was strange that although the wheels with their sides could move both to the right and to the left and backward, they all moved forward, as if drawn by the front wheel.

Ezekiel 10:12. And all their flesh, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels round about them, were full of eyes all around, all four of the wheels. It is parallel to Ezek 1:18, but if the text here is not damaged, makes a considerable addition to it: the cherubs were covered with eyes not only in their wheels, which is so striking and terrible in its appearance and horror, the prophet details where the eyes were on the cherubs: they were scattered over all of their body: even such parts as the back, hands, and wings. It throws doubt on the authenticity of this verse the fact that the present section of the chapter is devoted to the description of the wheels, and the speech of the prophet could hardly have turned so suddenly and sharply to the cherubs, with but one pronoun. Therefore Jerome, as the rabbis and other interpreters, proposes to understand the parts enumerated here as metaphorical names for the parts of the wheel: body—the hub of the wheel, back—the rims, hands—the spokes, wings—the hoops. It should be noted, besides, that the Hebrew names of all these parts of the wheel are close in form to the names enumerated in the present verse for the parts of the body, and there are exactly as many parts as the principal constituent parts in a wheel, at least as they were considered at that time, as is evident from Rev 4:6; this latter passage, speaking of the wheels of the bronze basins in Solomon’s temple, could have come to the mind of the prophet, especially if one admits that the very idea of the wheel in his vision was suggested by the wheels of the basins. Since the names of the parts of the wheel represent very little used words, it is allowed that they easily could have been damaged in the text and replaced by more familiar names of parts of the body. For the symbolic meaning of the many-eyedness, see the cherubs of the Apocalypse (1 Sam 7:33), explanation Ezek 1:18.

Ezekiel 10:13. To these wheels, as I heard, was called out: “Galgal. “As I heard,” literally “to my ears,” as in Ezek 9:1, where see explanation. “Was called out.” When commanding the archangel to take coals between the wheels, God names them in the Hebrew text of v. 2 as “galgal”; since the prophet heard this command, he may be referring to it here; but the entire expression produces the impression that the wheels were intentionally and solemnly named so, and this significant name was pronounced with a loud voice, “cried out,” Hebrew “vayikra,” Slavonic “was proclaimed,”—“Galgal.” A Hebrew word left untranslated, as also in Greco-Slavonic: “Gelgel.” Of this name of the wheels of the vision it can be said, first of all, that it is divine, because the prophet never names them so of himself, but with the usual Hebrew word for designating wheels—ophan; in this respect it is especially significant that in one and the same verse 6, when God speaks of the wheels, they are named “galgal,” and when the prophet speaks,—“ophan.” As a divine name, it must be full of deep meaning and mystery, which is why the ancient translators feared to translate it. “Galga” is used more than once in the Old Testament as a name for wheel, primarily in poetic language: Eccl 12:6; Isa 5:28; Ezek 23:24. But this is not the only or primary meaning of this word; its proper meaning seems to be “whirlwind.” In the psalms and in Isaiah it is used to denote a natural phenomenon: Isa 17:13: “they were driven like dust before the wind and like galga (Russian translation “dust,” Church Slavonic: “dust wheel”) by a whirlwind”; Ps 82:14: “let them be like a wheel (galga), like dust before the wind.” In both passages something is indicated like straw, which is easily driven by the wind; and it is known that even now in lands adjacent to Palestine during harvest or shortly after, along roads and fields there roll about things driven by the wind, quite large spheres; these are nothing but dried plants which are caught up by the storm and in the form of a sphere carried with great speed across the fields (Hebrans, cited work, 598). Therefore galga can mean a spherical form in general: in Ps 76:19 this word denotes the vault of heaven (“the sound of your thunder in a wheel”). Used by God Himself concerning wheels, previously called by the prophet simply “ophanim,” the word “galga” clearly has the purpose of more closely characterizing these wheels: in their motion they resembled “galga,” a whirlwind of a special sort, taking on a spherical form. From this not without reason it is concluded that the wheel in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel had a spherical form and that it represented a heavenly sphere. Besides the use of “galga” concerning straw pieces in the psalms and in Isaiah, the basis for the latter is the meaning of the words “galga” and “ophan” in the Talmud. By the first word once (Chag. III, 79) is meant the solar disk (the Sadducees mock the Pharisees for subjecting to ablution the “galga” of the sun), and another time the heavenly vault (Petach 94 b); by ophanim in the Talmud are meant mental circles on the heavenly vault: the equator, the meridian, the zodiac, the horizon. The character imparted to the wheels by the name “galga” sheds light on the general significance of them in the system of Ezekiel’s visions and their relation to the main actors of these visions – the cherubim. Having wings, the cherubim could fly by means of them; but on the ground they could not fly, but only walk or run; if they performed movement on the ground with feet it ought to have turned out that the earth by its gross materiality placed an obstacle to the passage of the Lord going upon it; this could not be, and so the cherubim are provided for movement on the ground with an instrument giving them the possibility of accomplishing this movement with a speed not less than flight; such an instrument were the wheels beside them. Ordinary wheels could not, of course, serve such a purpose: one cannot imagine such wheels which would move with the speed of a flying bird or the wind (by which the Chebar vision was borne Ezek 1:4-6). And if even such wheels were possible, one could only ride in them with the desired speed. The wheels of the vision only found themselves beside the animals and by this alone mediated their movement and imparted to it the needed speed. How they could do this is explained by their name “galga.” Since “galga” is nothing other than a special kind of whirlwind, the wheels of the vision must have had much in common with a whirlwind, if they are directly and deliberately called a whirlwind. It is clear how they, finding themselves only beside the animals, could influence their movement: a strong whirlwind lifts and carries large objects across the earth. Flying with the speed of the wind on their mighty wings, the animals of the vision precisely with such the same speed were borne in a whirlwind across the earth.

Ezekiel 10:14. And each of the animals had four faces: the first face was a cherub’s face, the second face a human face, the third face a lion’s face, and the fourth face an eagle’s face. Ezek 10 Ezek 1:6. “The first face – a cherub’s face...” The Russian translation of this passage is imprecise; Church Slavonic is more precise: “one face a cherub’s face, another face a human face, a third face a lion’s face, and a fourth face an eagle’s face.” Thus here it speaks of the faces not of one cherub, but of different ones. About the likeness of the first cherub’s face nothing is said for some reason, but only that it was with the ordinary face of a cherub; another was with a human face, the third face noticed by the prophet (of which cherub is not said) was a lion’s face, a fourth – an eagle’s face. This expression, both in the form it has in the Hebrew text and in the Church Slavonic translation, does not contain the necessary thought that each cherub had one face and a face not such as the others, which is the case in Rev 4:7. The prophet knew that when reading this remark, the reader would keep in mind what was said about the cherubim’s faces in Ezek 1:10, where each cherub is ascribed 4 faces. If here one speaks of one face in each cherub, this is for the same reason why these faces are enumerated in a different order – because the prophet observes the phenomenon under different conditions. The prophet in this case, perhaps by reason of some distance and obscured by the temple building, did not see more than one face in each of the cherubim. Closest of all to the prophet and most visible to him was the cherub which gave the coal to the archangel (hence the article with this word here); this cherub the prophet could see with all its faces, as he saw all the cherubim on the Chebar; therefore the prophet does not say with what face this cherub was turned toward him. The most close and visible after this was the cherub turned toward the prophet with a human face and so forth; thus the first cherub was turned toward the prophet with an ox’s face. All this was possible if the cherubim’s faces were arranged, as shown on the presented diagram, which shows also their position in relation to the prophet and the temple. Thus the prophet clearly saw only the face of the first cherub and the second; concerning the third and fourth, hidden by the temple building and perhaps hardly rising above its roof (if the phenomenon hovered in the air), the prophet could more presume than see what faces they had turned toward him; hence the difference in his expressions about the 3rd and 4th faces in comparison with the 1st and 2nd, and the order of the latter two faces: by rank or by description in chapter I, not by their present position. – This verse is lacking in many Greek manuscripts, which, given its obscurity and apparent contradiction with Ezek 1:10, which has not been explained until now (the omission of the ox’s face was explained for example by the fact that the introduction of such a face in the Divine theophany of chapter I gave rise to scandal, which the prophet himself feared and hastened to remove) caused suspicion of its authenticity and led to various emendations: for example, it was proposed (Kraetzschmar) to read instead of “kerub” “cherub” – written similar to “par,” “bull,” a folk name for ox.

Ezekiel 10:15. The cherubim rose up. These were the same animals which I saw by the river Chebar. “The cherubim rose up.” The rising of the cherubim from the ground is described much more fully later, in verse 19; therefore this expression, standing in the Hebrew text in a grammatically difficult form, may mean: “began to rise,” “stirred,” preparing to receive upon themselves the Glory of God, which is about to (verse 18) pass upon them from the temple threshold. Now, when the awesome spectacle of God’s judgment upon the temple and city had ended, and the prophet obtained the possibility (already from verse 8) to observe the theophany of God’s Glory with relative calm, a vision of which he had not been satisfied with on the Chebar, only now does he begin to give himself a fully clear account of the fact that the mysterious animals seen by him on the Chebar (which on account of their close connection and inseparability he calls here, both in the Hebrew and in the Greek and Church Slavonic, in the singular) are none other than cherubim, because the Glory resting upon them, as has now become fully clear to the prophet, is one with the Glory of the Lord dwelling above the ark of the covenant in the temple.

Ezekiel 10:16. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not separate from them, but were beside them. Ezekiel 10:17. When those stood still, these stood still; when those rose up, these rose up; for in them was the spirit of the animals. The beginning of the rising from the ground by the cherubim gave the prophet occasion to notice something that had impressed him also on the Chebar (Ezek 1:19-20) – the agreement in the movements of the wheels and cherubim, joined by nothing material to each other: since the wheels proceeded in strict accord with the cherubim (verse 16a), as soon as the latter stirred their wings, some motion occurred in the wheels (verse 16b); such was the bond between these and those: as long as those stand quietly, these stand; as soon as those move, these too come into motion. “For in them was the spirit of the animals,” see the explanation of Ezek 1:20.

Ezekiel 10:18. And the glory of the Lord went from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim. “The glory of the Lord” (in the sense in which this name is used in Ezek 9:3 and Ezek 10:4, that is in the sense of the cloud of theophany), having perhaps waited at the temple threshold for the completion of the last plague upon Jerusalem (burning) from the archangel, which does not return here, as in 9:3, with a report on the fulfillment of the commission, returns to its place above the cherubim for withdrawal from the temple and city. This withdrawal can be regarded as the third and last act of God’s judgment upon Jerusalem and as the heaviest punishment for it, if one takes into account the heavy consequences which withdrawal of God entails according to Deut 31:17 and Hos 9:2.

Ezekiel 10:19. And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and rose in my sight from the ground; when they went out, the wheels also went beside them; and they stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. “In my sight,” see the explanation of Ezek 9:1 “in my ears.” – “And the wheels beside them.” The wheels were so much an independent part of the vision and it was so strange that they hovered in the air that the prophet always when mentioning the rising of the cherubim mentions the wheels: Ezek 3:13. – “And they stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of the Lord.” – These were the main gates of the temple, through which it was natural for the Lord to go forth from His temple, as later the glory of the Lord returned to the temple through such gates (Ezek 43:2); moreover these gates lay directly opposite the doors of the temple proper – the building of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies – and through them one entered the city. At the gates of the temple, consequently at the furthest periphery of the temple space, the glory of the Lord stops with the same purpose with which it stops at the temple threshold: to bid farewell to its ancient dwelling, perhaps “as a sign of some reluctance and regret with which it departs from the temple” (Knabenbauer); the reason for stopping here could also be the impious council of 25 elders at these gates (Ezek 11:1 and ff.). – “The God of Israel,” cf. Ezek 8:4. The definition means to say that God is no longer to be the God of the covenant and is preparing to abandon His people.

Ezekiel 10:20. These were the same animals which I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar. And I knew that they were cherubim. In chapter I, where the cherubim who appeared to the prophet in the form of four-faced animals are described so fully, he did not let slip a word that these were cherubim; undoubtedly because then he did not even suspect it: the appearance of the creatures who appeared to him there differed so much from the depictions of cherubim in the temple (where they presumably were depicted in human form). This entire vision seems directed toward revealing to the prophet the true nature of the animals that appeared to him on the Chebar. And the prophet in this vision does not call them animals, but all cherubim (Ezek 9:3; Ezek 10:1 and ff.). The conviction that these were cherubim could arise in the prophet from the very beginning of this vision from the mere fact that the glory of the Lord resting on the mysterious animals turned out to be in the temple, where the Shekinah dwelt; this conviction could be supported by the voice of God in Ezek 10:2 (where God Himself called the enigmatic bearers of His glory cherubim, although one must remember that words in visions are “unutterable” according to 2 Cor 12:4); it grew in verse 15, see its explanation; and finally became firmly established and is now solemnly proclaimed, at the withdrawal of the glory of the Lord from the temple, from its cherubim, which is significant.

Ezekiel 10:21. Each had four faces, and each had four wings, and under their wings was the likeness of human hands. Ezekiel 10:22. And the likeness of their faces was the same which I had seen by the river Chebar – both their form and they themselves. Each one went straight in the direction in which the face was turned. The conviction that the present animals were identical with those seen on the Chebar (cf. verse 15), a conviction important especially in view of the fact that the present animals turned out to be cherubim, was confirmed for the prophet finally when they rose into the air and he could, as also on the Chebar, examine all the particulars of their figure – all 4 faces, wings, and so forth. In all particulars of the figure of those and these animals there was the fullest correspondence. Of these particulars only the most important are enumerated: the quantity of faces and wings, hands (the appearance of feet, understandably, is omitted), the likeness of faces, and the other particulars are united in the concept “their form and they themselves” (by the latter word may be understood the properties manifested in the vision by the mysterious animals); but for the remainder not enumerated, the most important is pointed out and at the present moment, the moment of withdrawal of the cherubim from the temple, observed by the prophet: that each cherub went straight before its face, although they looked in different directions.