Ezekiel 1:1-3

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezekiel 1:1-3

The circumstances of the vision which Ezekiel saw, and in which he received his commission and instructions, are here very particularly set down, that the narrative may appear to be authentic and not romantic. It may be of use to keep an account when and where God has been pleased to manifest himself to our souls in a peculiar manner, that the return of the day, and our return to the place of the altar (Gen. 13:4), may revive the pleasing grateful remembrance of God's favour to us. ?Remember,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 1:1

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year ,.... Either from the last jubilee, as R. Joseph Kimchi F18 Apud R. D. Kimchi in loc. , Jarchi, and Abendana; or from the time that the book of the law was found by Hilkiah the priest F19 Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. ; so the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus, "and it was in the thirtieth year after Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, in the house of the sanctuary, in the court under the porch, in the middle of the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 1:2

In the fifth day of the month ,.... The month Tammuz, as before: (which was the fifth year of Jehoiachin's captivity ); the same with Jeconiah and Coniah, as he is sometimes called; he was taken by the king of Babylon, when he had reigned but three months, and his captivity held seven and thirty years, 2 Kings 24:8 . read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 1:3

The word of the Lord came expressly ,.... Or, "in being was" F4 היה היה "essendo fuit", Pagninus, Montanus. Heb.; "existendo exstitit", Polanus. ; which phrase denotes the reality, certainty, substantiality and evidence of the word of the Lord to him: unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi ; which Buzi, some say, was Jeremiah. Kimchi observes, that, in the Jerusalem Targum, the Prophet Ezekiel is called the son of Jeremiah the prophet: and Jeremiah was called Buzi because... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 1:1

In the thirtieth year - We know not what this date refers to. Some think it was the age of the prophet; others think the date is taken from the time that Josiah renewed the covenant with the people, 2 Kings 22:3 , from which Usher, Prideaux, and Calmet compute the forty years of Judah's transgression, mentioned 2 Kings 4:6 . Abp. Newcome thinks there is an error in the text, and that instead of בשלשים bisheloshim , in the thirtieth, we should read בחמישית bachamishith , in the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 1:2

Jehoiachin's captivity - Called also Jeconiah and Coniah; see 2 Kings 24:12 . He was carried away by Nebuchadnezzar; see 2 Kings 24:14 . read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 1:3

The hand of the Lord - I was filled with his power, and with the influence of the prophetic spirit. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 1:1

Verse 1 We see that the Prophet was called to the office of a Teacher in the fifth year after Jehoiachin had voluntarily surrendered himself to the king of Babylon, (2 Kings 24:15); and had been dragged into exile, together with his mother: for it was, says he, “in the thirtieth year.” The greater part of the Commentators follow the Chaldee Paraphrast, and understand him to date from the finding of the Book of the Law. It is quite clear, flint this year was the eighteenth of king Josiah; but in... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 1:3

Verse 3 He does not repeat the copula which was placed at the beginning of the first verse, and we may perhaps wonder why the book should begin with a copula: for when he says, “and it came to pass,” it seems to denote something going before it, and it seems out of place when nothing precedes it. But probably an oblique antithesis or comparison is intended between those prophecies which had flourished for a long period at Jerusalem, which was their peculiar and genuine scat, and that which was... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Ezekiel 1:1

Now ; literally, and. The use of the conjunction indicates here, as in Jonah 1:1 , that the narrative that follows links itself on to something that has gone before. In Exodus 1:1 and 1 Samuel 1:1 it may point to a connection with the book that precedes it. Here the sequence is subjective. We may think of Ezekiel as retracing the years of his life till he comes to the thirtieth. Then, as it were, he pulls himself up. That must be the starting point of what he has to say. Our English... read more

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