and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.^^^

18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. ♥`

19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were Lifted up.

each of the living creatures: it was set by, i.e. immediately beneath the feet of the living creature, and was so constructed as to be fit for direct motion in any of the four lines in which we are told that the creatures themselves moved. Their work or make, i.e. their construction, was a wheel in the middle of a wheel; the wheel was composed of two circumferences set at right angles to each other, like the equator and meridian upon a globe. Such a line would move on one or other of the circles in the four directions indicated. On his four sides, i.e. on the four sides of each of the living creatures-a wheel so placed and constructed did its part alike on each side of the living creature beneath which it stood. Here also Ezekiel has the Temple in his mind. See Introduction, § v. The ten bases, described in 1 K. vii. 27-36, were constructed with lions, oxen, and Cherubim, between the ledges and wheels at the four corners attached beneath so as to move like the wheels of a chariot,

of eyes. The eyes may have been no more than dazzling spots adding to their brilliancy. But it seems more likely that they had a symbolical meaning expressing either the universal fulfilment of God's will through His creation (2 Chro. xvi. 9, and on x. 12), or the constant and unceasing praise which His works are ever rendering to God (Rev. iv. 8). The power of nature is no blind force, it is employed in the service of God's providence, and all over it the stamp of reason is impressed. It is this very thing that makes the power of nature terrible to him who is at enmity with God (Hengstenberg).

20. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went] By comparing this with v. 19 and v. 21 we see that the meaning is: whithersoever the spirit of the four living creatures was to go, the wheels went-thither was the spirit of the wheels to go.

the spirit of the living creature] Marg. of life, following the LXX. and Vulgate, but the Hebrew is the same word as in v. 22

17. upon their four sides] i.e. straight in the direction towards which their faces looked. As the four quarters express all directions, the construction of the living creatures was such that they could move in each direction alike.

18. their rings] The felloes or circumference of the wheels. They were so high that they were dreadful, lit. "there was both height and terribleness." Translate they were both high and terrible. The height was not the cause of their being terrible. In x. 12, it is said that their whole body, and their backs, and their bands, and their avings, and the wheels, were full of eyes. In Rev. iv. 8, the beasts are full

actuated by a living spirit, but that one and the same spirit actuated the living creatures throughout, wheels and all. All four creatures together with their wheels are here called the living creature, because they formed a whole, one in motion, and in will, for one spirit was in them.

22. the firmament] The expanse to which God gave the name of heaven (Gen. i. 7). We need not think of the likeness of a vault. The colour (Heb. "eye") of the terrible crystal refers to its dazzling brightness-and so the firmament was a clear bright expanse between the throne and the living creatures, separating heaven from earth. We are not to suppose that there was any contact between the throne

their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.

24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.

25 And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.

and the wings, or between the living creatures and the wheels; all moved together, because all were actuated by one spirit.

23. every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies] It is not meant that each had four wings wherewith to cover his body; for v. 6 tells us plainly that each had but four wings, and two being outstretched to fly, there remain only two to cover the body. The repetition is a Hebrew idiom to express distribution, as in ch. iv. 6 each day for a year, literally, "a day for a year, a day for a year." So also ch. xlvi. 21. Our translators here have obscured the meaning by being too literal. It would be better, following the plan in iv. 6 and xlvi. 21, to read in the text each one had two wings covering his body on either side, and to add in the margin the literal translation.

24. the voice of the Almighty] Thunder is thus denominated in Scripture, Job xxxvii. 4, 5; Ps. xxix. 3, 4, 5; Rev. x. 3.

the voice of speech] The original word occurs here and in Jer. xi. 16, where it is rendered a great tumult. Some take it to describe the rushing of a storm: it is to be observed that the same Hebrew word is rendered in this verse voice and noise.

25. a voice from the firmament] This may mean the sound compared above to thunder (the voice of God), but it more probably anticipates that which we find below, iii. 12, where, in the midst of the tumult, are heard articulate sounds declaring the glory of God.

26. sapphire] Clear heavenly blue, Exod. Σχίν. 10.

the appearance of a man] Deeply significant is the form of this manifestation. Here is no angel conveying God's message to man, but the glory of the Lord Himself, and when we remember how in the fulness of time

26 ¶ And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the glory of the only-begotten of the Father (John i. 14), in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we recognize in this vision the prophetic annunciation of the Holy Incarnation. Yet we observe the manifestation was such that the prophet did not see a distinct human form such as an artist might have portrayed to represent his God. We are told little of the extent to which the human form was made evident to the prophet. There was the likeness of a throne, and the likeness as the appearance of a man above it. For the vision of the prophet was rather to the mind, than to the bodily eye, and even inspired language was inadequate to convey to the hearer the glory which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and which only by special revelation it hath entered into the heart of man to conceive. In Revelation the form of one like unto the Son of Man as revealed to John is one minutely described, but the characteristics are not such as admit of visible representation. They are all highly symbolical-and it is upon the substance, not upon the symbol, that the mind is invited to dwell. See Note at end of Chapter.

likeness... appearance... likeness as the appearance] Peculiar to Ezekiel, used in order to set aside "the bald realism, which makes no and which professes to protect the interests of distinction between thought and its clothing, faith against a false spiritualism, but is, in truth, mere weakness in the interpretation of Scripture" (Hengstenberg). Irenæus warns us against supposing that Ezekiel saw God in His proper person, "Manifestius autem adhuc et per. Ezechielem factum est, quoniam ex parte dispositiones Dei, sed non ipsum videbant prophetæ proprie Deum. Hic enim quum vidisset visionem et Cherubim et rotas eorum, et universæ progressionis ejus mysterium quum retulisset, et similitudinem throni quum vidisset super eos, et super thronum similitu

28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the ap

dinem quasi figuræ hominis et illa quidem, quæ erant super lumbos ejus, quasi figuram electri, quæ autem deorsum, quasi visionem ignis, et reliquam universam thronorum visionem manifestans; ne quis putaret forte eum in his proprie vidisse Deum, intulit, hæc visio similitudinis gloriæ Domini." Iren. 'adv. Hær.'

IV. 20. IO.

28. The rainbow is not simply a token of

The exposition of the fundamental principles of the existence and nature of a Supreme God, and of the created angels, was called by the Rabbis "the Matter of the Chariot'" in reference to the form of Ezekiel's vision of the Almighty, and the subject was deemed so mysterious as to call for special cautions as to its study. (Maimonides, Yad Hachazachah,' ch. II.) The vision must be compared with other manifestations of the divine glory vouchsafed to Moses in the bush (Exod. iii.), to Moses and Aaron, and seventy of the elders of Israel (Exod. xxiv. 9), to Isaiah (Isai, vi. 1), to Daniel (Dan. vii. 9), and in subsequent times to St John (Rev. iv. 2). Each of these visions has some of the outward signs here recorded. In the bush we have the burning fire, on the mount a devouring fire, a work of a sapphire stone like the heaven itself for clearNess, while in Isaiah and Daniel are many of the same details, though not without marked variations. One other manifestation, made to Moses in answer to special prayer (Exod. Xxxiv. 5), has this peculiarity, that it contains a proclamation of the character of Jehovah in words denoting the same attributes as are elsewhere displayed in symbols. If we examine these symbols we shall find them to fall readily into two classes, (1) those which we employ in common with the writers of all ages and countries. Gold, sapphire, burnished brass, the terrible crystal are familiar images of majestic glory, thunders, lightnings and the rushing storm of awful power. But (2) we come to images to our minds strange and almost grotesque. And these lead us at once to the different manner in which the Greeks and the Hebrews treated religious symbolism. The former ever aimed at beauty of form and harmony of details in representing the objects of their veneration. To express the attributes of their gods, they delineated as perfectly as

1 The term chariot in this sense is found (1 Chro. xxviii. 18).

pearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

glory and splendour. The cloud and the day of rain point to its original message of forgiveness and mercy, and this is specially suited to Ezekiel's commission, which was first to denounce judgment, and then promise restoration. See Introd. v.

I fell upon my face] Comp. iii. 23. So Daniel (Dan. viii. 17), Saul (Acts ix. 4), and St John (Rev. i. 17).

CHAP. I.

they could some human figure in which these attributes were conspicuous. The artist's eye might be able to see the ideal under such figures, but the common spectator soon began to compare gods and men, and the very perfection of art led him to overlook its highest purpose and aim. But with the Hebrews the symbolic character of their figures was more apparent. Each feature had its meaning easily recognized by all; and the Hebrew cared not whether his combinations followed the ordinary rules of art and beauty, nay perhaps preferred the unnatural because it was more evidently symbolical (see remarks of Abp. Trench, 'Seven Churches,' Rev. ch. i.). The cherubim in the Tabernacle and Temple are notable instances of this kind of symbolism (see note on Gen. iii.). To these cherubim, writers, according to their respective theories, have severally assigned an Egyptian, Phonician, Arabic, or Assyrian origin. But the mode of representation was too general throughout the East to ascribe it to any one nation. Nor are we to wonder that the Almighty was pleased to sanction its employment in the temple itself, and to reveal His glory to the ancient prophets in forms easily recognized and understood. That the Four Living Creatures had their groundwork in the cherubim there can be no doubt. And yet their shapes were very different. The fourfaced and four-sided forms could not have been those which stretched their wings over the mercy-seat, and in the ornaments of Ezekiel's temple itself there is the marked variety, every cherub had two faces (Ezek. xli. 18). This accounts for the circumstance that, when the prophet first saw them on the banks of Chebar, he did not know that they were the cherubim. It was when he saw their connection with the Temple that he discovered it (Ezek. x. 20). Because they were symbols not likenesses, they could yet be the same though their appearance was varied, and this is the account of the further change in the

forms seen by St John in the Revelation (Rev. iv. 7) where the faces of the lion, ox, man and eagle occur, but each living creature has only one face. The question arises, If these living creatures are symbols, of what are they symbolical? The Talmudists seem to have considered them to represent angels. Maimonides (Yad,' ch. II.) names ten orders of angels, the highest Chaiioth (the living creatures), the next Ophenim (the wheels), the fourth Seraphim, and the ninth Cherubim. It is not very easy to see how the Chaiioth and Cherubim are separated into distinct orders, especially as Maimonides expressly refers to this chapter of Ezekiel, saying that Chaiioth are first in order because they are said in prophecy to be under the throne of glory (Ezek. i. 26). Perhaps it was simply that the Jewish Rabbis, having devised ten orders of angels for which there is no Scriptural authority, gave to each the name of some Scriptural image, which they naturally sought and found in the Chariot of Ezekiel. We may observe that this view by no means implies that the four living creatures represented four particular angels (or, as some have conceived, the four archangels) attending upon God as the chief ministers of an eastern monarch. They may, according to the Talmudists, have symbolized orders and not persons, and so escaped the transgression of the second commandment, not being likenesses or even figures of creatures in heaven. Kimchi makes them represent the four Empires, Chaldæan, Persian, Grecian and Roman, corresponding to Daniel's four beasts, the ministers of the divine judgments.

Irenæus (III. 11. 8) saw in them figures of the Four Gospels actuated by one spirit spread over the four quarters of the globe, upon which, as on pillars, the Church is borne up, and over whom the Word of God sits enthroned.

But we shall best interpret the meaning of the four living creatures by regarding the general scope of the vision.

Ezekiel himself tells us that he saw the likeness of the glory of God. We must distinguish between the visions of the tenth and of the first Chapter. The two visions are identical in form, but different in circumstances. There the vision is in distinct connection with the Temple, the place in which the Shechinah had a local habitation. Here the vision has the most general relation and application; the glory of God arising to visit the earth. The first idea is that of judgment, hence the whirlwind (Jer. xxiii. 19), the great cloud, and the fire (Exod. xix); but at the same time there is the clear brightness, the symbol of God's purity, truth, and the rainbow the token of His mercy. The glory of God is manifested in the works of creation; and as light and fire, lightning and cloud, are the usual marks which in inanimate creation betoken the presence of God (Ps. xviii. 6-14)-so the four living ones

symbolize animate creation. The forms are typical, the lion and the ox of the beasts of the field (wild and tame), the eagle of the birds of the air-some have thought that the eagle represents the angelic nature (wings being the constant mark of angels), but we are rather concerned with the works of creation upon earth-while man is the rational being supreme upon the earth. And the human type predominates over all, and gives character and unity to the four, who thus form one creation. Further, these four represent the constitutive parts of man's nature:-the ox (the animal of sacrifice), his faculty of suffering; the lion (the king of beasts), his faculty of ruling; the eagle (of keen eye and soaring wing), his faculty of imagination; the man, his spiritual faculty, which actuates all the rest. Christ is the Perfect Man, so these four in their perfect harmony typify Him who came to earth to do His Father's will; and as man is lord in the kingdom of nature, so is Christ Lord in the kingdom of grace; and as the word of His commandments goeth forth into all lands through His Gospel, so the reference which Irenæus discovered in the four living creatures to the four gospels is not without its significance (Lange).

The wings represent the power by which all creation rises and falls at God's will; the one spirit, the unity and harmony of His works; the free motion in all directions the universality of His Providence. The number four is the symbol of the world with its four quarters; the veiled bodies, the inability of all creatures to stand in the presence of God; the noise of the wings, the testimony borne by creation to God (Ps. xix. 1-3); the wheels connect the vision with the earth, the wings with heaven, while above their heads, separated by the bright expanse, is the throne of God in heaven.

As the eye of the seer is turned upward, the lines of the vision become less distinct. He describes what he sees as the likeness of a throne, the appearance of a sapphire stone, the likeness as the appearance of a man, the appearance of fire, the appearance of his loins, as if he were struggling against the impossibility of expressing in words the object of his vision: yet on the summit of the throne is He who can only be described as, in some sort, the form of a man. That Jehovah, the eternal God, is spoken of, we cannot doubt, and herein we recognize the necessity under which we lie of ascribing to the Deity the attributes of man, just as we speak of His anger, jealousy, love, mercy, and the like, and even of His hand, His eye, and His ear, figures all, but the only ones which we can employ, being borrowed from the attributes of the being who was created in the image of God. But in thus contemplating God under the form of man there is something more: St Paul in the Colossians describes Christ as the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature (Col. i. 15).

In the Hebrews we read that Christ is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person (Heb. i. 3); and St John tells us that the Word was made flesh and deelt among us, and we bebeld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John i. 14); while a similar vision in Isaiah (vi.) is explained by St John to refer to Christ: These things said Esaias when he saw His glory and spake of Him (John xii. 41). We are therefore justified in maintaining that the revelation of the divine glory here made to Ezekiel has its consummation or fulfilment in the person of Christ, the only-begotten of God, a conclusion which is borne out and indeed established beyond dispute by the identification of Him, of whom Ezekiel saw the appearance upon a throne, with the Ancient of days, whom Daniel saw enthroned, and described in terms employed afterward by St John to describe Him who announced Himself thus:I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore (Rev. i. 17, 18).

The vision in the opening chapter of Ezekiel is in the most general form—the manifestation of the glory of the living God. It is repeated more than once in the course of the book. The Person manifested is always the same, but the form of the vision is modified according to special circumstances of time and place.

1. viii. 2. As Ezekiel sits among the elders who had come to consult him-the same Person who had been seen above the throne appears to him in visions of God, but no mention is made of the chariot, of the living creatures, of the firmament, or of the throne itself. He is caught up by the same spirit as had been manifested in the living creatures and in the wheels. Here the inspiration of the prophet himself is the predominating idea. The Person who is to speak to him stands forth prominently, and for a moment the general purpose of such communication, judgment, and the revelation of the divine glory, is kept, as it were, in the background. The prophet is lifted in spirit between earth and heaven.

2. viii. 4. When the prophet appears in spirit before the Temple all the previous features of the original vision come into notice the glory of God was there according to the vision which he saw on the plain. For now is to be the application of the general revelation of the divine justice and wrath.

3. ix. 3. There is now a more special reference to the manifestation of the divine glory among the children of Israel. That special manifestation was in the Shechinah residing in the Holy of Holies, between the cherubim over the mercy-seat of the ark.

This special manifestation had indeed given form to the original vision, but the vision had by no means exclusive reference to the temple or to the ark. It was the revelation of God as the Governor and Judge of the whole earth. But now as Jerusalem itself is approached, the Templemanifestation is brought forward to notice, and the name of cherub appears in connection with the manifestation of the glory of God. But it is remarkable that on the introduction of the name, the glory of God is separated from it.

The cherub is but the throne from which the dweller has departed to execute judgment upon His people.

4. X. The identification of the living creatures with the cherubim is now made clear to the prophet: and by this it is seen that the God, whose glory is manifested in all the works of creation, is the same Jehovah, who rules over the people of Israel. This bears specially on the symbolical character of the cherubic forms.

The cherub (x. 2) is distinct from the cherubim (x. 3)—each being as they are called (1 Chro. xxviii. 18) the chariot of the glory of God: the former when that glory was localized in the Holy of Holies, the latter when if goes forth to the utmost ends of the earth.

5. xi. 22. Just as the identification of Jehovah the God of Israel is clearly manifested as the God of the whole earth, the vision is seen quitting the temple, quitting the city; and though the temple and the city be left destitute of the presence of the Lord, He is still present in His universe; He has not ceased to be the Governor or Sovereign of the earth.

6. xl. In the vision of the Temple the prophet is again rapt by the spirit, the hand of God is upon him-he is in the vision of God. As the temple in all its proportions opens upon him, these particulars are displayed by a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass (xl. 3), apparently the same Person who had been seen sitting on the throne, and who had revealed Himself to execute judgment (ix. 3), and when the temple is again erected and prepared as a habitation for its true Owner, the glory of the Lord is seen returning to take possession of His dwelling-place (xliii. 3). And here the key to the whole vision is directly furnished. This vision is declared to be according to the vision when He came to destroy the city, and also take the vision that he saw by the river Chebar. The general manifestation of God as King or Judge of the earth is applied to and illustrated by the destruction and restoration of the city or the temple of Jerusalem.