Ezekiel 10:1-2 - Exposition

Then I looked, etc. There follows on the work of judgment another theophany, like that of Ezekiel 1:15-28 . In the "expanse," or firmament, like the "terrible crystal," there is seen as before the likeness of a sapphire throne (see Ezekiel 1:26 , note). The form of the man who is the manifestation of Jehovah is implied, though not named. It is he who speaks to the captain of the six ministers of vengeance, himself the seventh, and bids him go in beneath the "whirling wheels" that are beneath the cherub (collective singular, as in Ezekiel 9:9 ), and fill his hands with coals of fire ( Ezekiel 1:13 ), and scatter them over the city, as the symbol of its doom. We are reminded of Isaiah's vision ( Isaiah 6:6 ); but there the work of the fire was to purify, here simply to destroy.