of God. Visions of God are, in the first place, visions which proceed from God, as in the prophecy of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 4) the vision of the Almighty is the vision which goes forth from the Almighty. Divine visions stand opposed to the visions of one's own heart, the vain fancies of false prophets, who say, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed; and it is only the deceit of their own heart" (Jer. xxiii. 25, 26). Visions which proceed from God are, however, as such, at the same time visions which have God for their object; there can only be seen in them that which has been taken into connection with God, which belongs to the sphere of Elohim, which embraces all that is divine (1 Sam. xxviii. 13). In this respect, so far as the language refers to heavenly images, the sight of which is the result of the opening of heaven, we may compare 2 Kings vi. 17: "And the Lord opened the eyes of the of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha;" and Matt. iii. 16: "And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove." The Spirit of God in the form of a dove is in this respect an illustrative example of the visions of God.

Ver. 4. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness 2 was about it, and out of the midst of it was as the colour of shining brass, out of the midst of the fire.

This verse points, in the first place, to that which forms the principal feature in the visions of God-the appearance of God in His angry majesty. This is followed by the description of the cherubim and the wheels, which are also comprehended among the visions of God. Vers. 27, 28 return to the appearance of God, and carry out in reference to it what is here only alluded to.

The storm represents a severe visitation of the people, to whom the mission of all the prophets is directed, and of whom we must therefore also here think, as we have before us the consecration of a prophet to his office. The winds are in

1 , what is seen, paua, is not essentially distinguished from , view-what one views.

2 Luther's translation, "which shone everywhere around," assigns the brightness to the fire, instead of the whole appearance.

Scripture the customary symbols of the judgments, the storms of sufferings and trials decreed by God. Job, the type of the Israelitish people, says of God in ch. ix. 17, “He breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause." In the often falsely interpreted passage, 1 Kings xix. 11, "The great and strong wind rending the mountains, and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord," signifies the storm of trials and calamities which went over the church and her representative the prophet. Jeremiah announces in ch. iv. 11, 12 that a strong wind shall come upon the people of God, and explains it thus: "I will give sentence against them.”

Storm! With this one word the prophet places himself in rugged opposition to the false prophets who proclaimed with one mouth serene tranquillity-yaxývn μeyáλn, Matt. viii. 26— and deals a great blow to the joyous hopes they had excited.

The storm comes out of the north. This is among the prophets the region pregnant with fate, the quarter from which the Asiatic world-powers—namely, the Chaldeans—were wont to break into the holy land. "I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction," God says by Jeremiah (ch. iv. 6). Exactly parallel to the storm out of the north here is the seething-pot coming from the north, which the prophet (ch. i. 13) sees likewise on his first calling. The seething-pot there signifies the war-fire coming from the north. In the exposition of the symbol given by the Lord, it is said (vers. 14, 15), "Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem." According to the intimate relation between Jeremiah and Ezekiel, this interpretation serves likewise for the latter.

Hitzig objects: "It is clear that passages like Jer. i. 14 do not apply here; for it is Jehovah, not Nebuchadnezzar, that appears, and the latter would have come from the south to the scene of action." But Nebuchadnezzar, the servant of the Lord, and Jehovah form no opposition; much rather the word holds here, "They come out of distant lands, the Lord and the instruments of His wrath, to lay waste the whole earth;" and with the Asiatic world-kingdoms, when the inundation of the holy land is in hand, it is not the site of the capital city that

is regarded, but the quarter out of which the invasion took place. This proceeded from the north, from Syria, because the eastern side of the holy land was covered by the vast, trackless wilderness of Arabia Deserta.

The coalition which gave occasion to the appearance of Ezekiel was directed against the north. The storm out of the north drives all the sanguine hopes which were founded on this coalition like withered leaves before it.

Next to the storm comes a "great cloud." The clouds with which, or in the company of which, the Lord comes, are in Scripture the adumbration of judgment; comp. my comm. on Rev. i. 7. Storm and cloud appear conjoined as here in Nah. i. 3: "The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet."

All was in expectation of the sun soon about to break forth. clearly in the political heavens, and of the healing under His wings (Mal. iv. 2). The prophet cannot chime in with this jubilee. He sees the heavens covered with black clouds as with a pall.

The third symbol of wrath, the close infolding fire, is from Ex. ix. 24. There it falls upon the Egyptians; here it is directed against the degenerate people of God. As they have become conformed to the Egyptians in their practices, they need not wonder if also the fate of the Egyptians befalls them. They have not, in fact, desired otherwise. Or should their God, like the false gods of the heathen, have a blind love for His people? In that case He could not be righteous (Deut. xxxii. 4) (Luther, pious), i.e. so constituted as He should be, as corresponds with the nature of the true God, who as such recompenses to every one according to his works, without regarding such wretched things as circumcision and ceremonies. Deut. iv. 24 gives the interpretation of the symbol. There "God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." The fire signifies the energy of His punitive justice. Of this, in its relation to the degenerate covenant people, it is already said in Deut. xxxii. 22: "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."

The future appeared to the people to be full of light; the prophet bears down without remorse on these foolish hopes,

and sets before the view scorching flames which leave nothing but a heap of ashes behind.

The prophet views first the storm, the cloud, the fire, then the symbol of the glory of God. In existing circumstances, it was not of so much import that God appeared in general, as in what character He appeared; and this character is represented by storm, cloud, and fire. This was a powerful stroke against the illusions, the dreams of a gracious God, and of an immediately impending future of prosperity.

These illusions, however, are only the perversions of a deep truth; and to this truth the prophet assigns rightful place in the words, "and a brightness was about it." These words occur again in ver. 27. After this is the clear brightness which surrounds the at first threatening appearance of God, the emblem of that grace of God which stands in the background of judgment, pointing to the times of refreshing that shall come to the people of God, when judgment has first done its work upon them. The contrast of the false prophets and of the true is not that of deliverance and judgment, but that of deliverance without punishment and without repentance, and of the deliverance which after judgment falls to the lot of the penitent people-of a bare gospel, crying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace, and of the law and the gospel, each in its own time. A prophet who proclaimed only punishment, would be no less false than one who presents to view nothing but peace. Law and gospel, each in its entire fulness-this is, even to this very day, the token of the true servant of God.

The it refers to the whole of the appearance-storm, cloud,

fire. The brightness has first of all only a subordinate import. To this points the pronoun in the phrase, "out of the midst of it," going back at once to the more remote fire, which, as it were, ignores the preceding clause, " and brightness was about it." To remove every uncertainty and ambiguity, it is further added at the close, "out of the midst of the fire." At first

1 The masc. suff. is intentionally put (the masc. pron. in ver. 28 also refers to the whole of the appearance); for if the femin. suff. had been put, we should have held by the reference to the next preceding noun. It would have been natural also to think of the brightness issuing from the fire itself (comp. v. 13), whereas in fact the brightness is different from the fire, and presents a contrast to it.

nothing stands in view but storm, cloud, fire. The brightness gleams only out of the far distance. But here already reference must be made to it. For it is necessary that it should be known, if storm, cloud, fire, are to exercise their proper effect. "Merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Ex. xxxiv. 6): this must stand before our eyes, if the sorrow called forth by sin is to bring with it the healthful fruit of righteousness.

Out of the midst of the fire an appearance went forth, "to look upon like chasmal," shining brass. "To look upon:" this indicates that it is not realities that are here spoken of, but only the imperfect forms of realities. That he indicates this so pointedly and continually, that he opposes so resolutely the bare realism which refuses to know anything of the distinction between thought and its dress, is one of the peculiarities of Ezekiel. Expressions like these-the appearance, the likeness, even the appearance of the likeness (ver. 28)-continually recur, for the purpose of guarding against that bare realism. which, while it assumes the air of vindicating the interests of faith against a "false spiritualism," is at the same time nothing else than weakness in the exposition of Scripture. Chasmal, with which in ch. viii. 2, brightness, is joined by way of explanation, which is used in Dan. xii. 3 of the brightness of heaven, the LXX. render by electrum, a metal distinguished for its brightness, consisting of gold mixed with a fifth part of silver. It here portrays the kernel of the personality of God-His holiness, that is, His absoluteness, His unconditioned seclusion from all earthly, and in general creaturely natureHis incomparable glory.1

After, therefore, the leading point in the appearance has been brought forward first in outline, the prophet proceeds to the description of that which still remained to be seen, to return afterwards to the main subject. The impression which ver. 4 is fitted to make is indicated in the words of James, "Behold, the Judge standeth before the door." From this the exhortation naturally flows, "Repent, that the Judge may be gracious you, and that the sun may appear after the cloud.”

to

Vers. 5-14. The Cherubim.-God in His wrath-this was the real import of ver. 4. To increase the feeling of terror, it 1 Compare my comm. on Ps. xxii. 4, Rev. iv. 8.