Ezekiel Chapter 1 verse 4 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - A whirlwind came out of the north. What, we ask, was the meaning of this symbolism? In Jeremiah 1:13, 14 a like symbol is explained as meaning that the judgments which Judah was to suffer were to come from the north, that is, from Chaldea, upon the prophet's countrymen. Here the prophet is himself in Chaldea, and what he sees is the symbol, not or calamities, but of the Divine glory, and that explanation is, accordingly, inapplicable. Probably the leading thought here is that the Divine presence is no longer in the temple at Jerusalem, It may return for a time to execute judgment (Ezekiel 8:4; Ezekiel 10:1, 19, 20), and may again depart (Ezekiel 11:23), but the abiding glory is elsewhere, and the temple is as Shitoh had been of old (Psalm 78:60). Ezekiel was looking on the visible symbol of what had been declared in unfigurative language by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:12, 14; Jeremiah 26:6, 9). That the north should have been chosen rather than any other quarter of the heavens is perhaps connected (1) with Job 37:22, where it appears as the region of "fair weather," the unclouded brightness of the "terrible majesty" of God; (2) with Isaiah 14:13, where "the sides of the north" are the symbols of the dwelling place of God. For the Jews this was probably associated with the thought of the mountain heights of Lebanon as rising up to heaven (Currey, on Ezekiel 1:4, in 'Speaker's Commentary'), or with the fact that the "north side" of Zion (Psalm 48:2), as the site of the temple, was the "dwelling place of the great King." Parallels present themselves in the Assyrian hymns that speak of the "feasts of the silver mountains, the heavenly courts" (as the Greeks spoke of Olympus), "where the gods dwell eternally" ('Records of the Past,' 3:133), and this ideal mountain was for them, like the Meru of Indian legend, in the farthest north. So, in the legendary geography of Greece, the Hyperborei, or "people beyond the north," were a holy and blessed race, the chosen servants of Apollo (Herod., 4:32-36: Pindar, 'Pyth.,' 10:4; AEsch., 'Choeph.,' 373). Possibly the brilliant coruscations of an Aurora Borealis may have led men to think of it as they thought of the glory of the dawn or the brightness of the lightning, as a momentary revelation of the higher glory of the throne of God. (For the "whirlwind" as the accompaniment of a Divine revelation, see 1 Kings 19:11; Job 38:1; Acts 2:2.) A great cloud, etc. So far the signs of the approaching theophany were like those on Sinai (Exodus 19:16, 18) and Horeb (1 Kings 19:11). With a fire infolding itself; the Revised Version margin gives flashing continually. The Authorized Version suggests the thought of a globe of fire darting its rays through the surrounding darkness. The colour of amber; literally, the eye. The Hebrew word for "amber" (chashmal) occurs only here and in ver. 27 and ch. 8:2. It is almost absolutely certain that it does not mean what we know as "amber." The LXX. and Vulgate give electrum, and this, in later Greek and Latin authors, has "amber" for one of its meanings. Primarily, however, it was used for a metallic substance of some kind, specifically for a compound four parts of gold and one of silver (Pithy, 'Hist. Nat.,' 23:4, s. 23). Some such compound is probably what we have to think of here, and so the description finds a parallel in Daniel 10:6; Revelation 1:15. This, in its ineffable brightness, is seen in the centre of the globe of fire. One may compare Dante's vision of the Divine glory ('Paradise,' 33:55).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) A whirlwind came out of the north.--The north is seen as the quarter from which the vision proceeded, not because the Babylonians conceived that there was the seat of Divine power (Isaiah 14:13-14), but because it was common with the prophets to represent the Divine judgments upon Judaea as coming from the north (see Jeremiah 1:14-15; Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1), and it was from that direction that the Assyrian and the Chaldaean conquerors were accustomed to descend upon the Holy Land. The vision is actually seen in Chaldaea, but it has reference to Jerusalem, and is described as if viewed from that standpoint.A great cloud.--As in the Divine manifestation on Sinai (Exodus 19:9-16). The cloud serves at once as the groundwork for all the other details of the manifestation--a place in, and by means of which, all are located, and also as a hiding-place of the Divine majesty, so that all may be seen which human eye can bear, and that which it cannot bear may yet be known to be there, shrouded in the cloud. The transposition of a single letter from the end of one word in the Hebrew to the beginning of the next will change the reading to "a whirlwind out of the north brought on a great cloud." . . .