Verse 1
This chapter has the vision of a man with a measuring line, a vision which is number three in a series of eight. Evidently, the purpose of this vision was merely to suggest, rather than to demonstrate, the dimensions of the Jerusalem to be measured, as no measurements appear to have been either made or delivered to the prophet.
In this vision, the meaning of it was given by Zechariah in the last half of the chapter (Zechariah 2:6-13). The Jerusalem which is revealed is not the physical Jerusalem at all, but the unlimited and glorious Jerusalem which is "above, which is our mother" (Galatians 4:26). As in all the other visions, there are the most definite Messianic implications in it.
"And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand."
The purpose here, evidently, is to suggest the dimensions of Jerusalem, not to determine them. No measuring was done.
"A man with a measuring line ..." It is usually agreed among commentators that this person was actually an angel of God, some even declaring him to be the angel of the Covenant. This Biblical method of introducing an angel as a "man" is used rather extensively, as for example, when the angels who visited Lot prior to the destruction of Sodom were called "men" (Genesis 18:2). However, we must reject the identification which would make him the angel of the Covenant, a being who was always more specifically designated.
There are quite a number of these "measuring line" scenes in the Bible. See Ezekiel 40:3; Revelation 11:1; 21:15,16.
Dummelow and other scholars make the "man" here to be the same as "the young man" in Zechariah 2:4;[1] but there is no reason for this. See under Zechariah 2:4.
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