Ezekiel 10:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 10:1
Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
firmament
הָרָקִ֙יעַ֙ha.ra.Ki.a'
H7549
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
head
רֹ֣אשׁrosh
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct
cherubims
הַכְּרֻבִ֔יםha.ke.ru.Vim
H3742
a cherub or imaginary figure · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
appeared
נִרְאָ֖הnir.'Ah
H7200
to see · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sapphire
סַפִּ֔ירsa.Pir
H5601
a gem (perhaps used for scratching other substances) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
stone
כְּאֶ֣בֶןke.'E.ven
H68
a stone · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
appearance
כְּמַרְאֵ֖הke.mar.'Eh
H4758
a view (the act of seeing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
likeness
דְּמ֣וּתde.Mut
H1823
resemblance · noun, common feminine singular construct
throne
כִּסֵּ֑אki.Se'
H3678
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 24:10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven…
Ezekiel 1:22-26 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over thei…
Revelation 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps wi…
Revelation 4:2-3 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
Genesis 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed…
Genesis 18:17 And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
Genesis 18:22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
Genesis 18:31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will no…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 10:1-7
To inspire us with a holy awe and dread of God, and to fill us with his fear, we may observe, in this part of the vision which the prophet had,
I. The glorious appearance of his majesty. Something of the invisible world is here in the visible, some faint representations of its brightness and beauty, some shadows, but such as are no more to be compared with the truth and substance than a picture with the life; yet here is enough to oblige us all to the utmost reverence in our thoughts of God and approaches to him, if we will but admit the impressions this discovery of him will make. 1. He is here in the firmament above the head of the cherubim, Eze 10:1. He manifests his glory in the upper wo…
As it were a sapphire stone - See the note on Eze 1:22-26 (note). The chariot, here mentioned by the prophet, was precisely the same as that which he saw at the river Chebar, as himself tells us, Eze 1:15, of which see the description in Ezekiel 1.
John Gill on Ezekiel 10:1
Then I looked, and, behold,.... After the vision of the destruction of the greater part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by the six men with slaughter weapons, and of the preservation of a few by the man clothed with linen; another vision is seen by the prophet, in some things like to that he saw, of which there is an account in the first chapter; though in some circumstances different, and exhibited with a different view; partly to represent the destruction of Jerusalem by fire, and partly the Lord's removal from it, before or at that time:
in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubim; the same with the living creatures, Ezekiel 1:22; where the firmament or expanse of heaven is…
Ezekiel 10:1
1. Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
1. Et aspexi, et ecce super expansionem quae erat super caput cherubim tanquam lapis sapphiri, sicut aspectus similitudinis solii quod videbatur super cos.
Here the Prophet relates another vision which has a great likeness to the first which he related to us in the first chapter, but it has another object, as we shall soon see. Since we discussed the chief members of the vision in the first chapter, I shall now therefore be shorter. I shall only glance at what I formerly said, and at the…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 10, Verses 1, 2) And I saw, and behold, in the firmament that was above the heads of the cherubim was as a sapphire stone: and the likeness of a throne appeared upon it. And he spoke to the man clothed with linen, and said: Enter between the wheels that are under the cherubim, and fill your hands with burning coals, which are between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. Let it suffice to have said of the firmament that was above the cherubim, and of the sapphire stone that had the likeness of a throne, and of the wheels that accompanied the living creatures. Now concerning what is commanded to the man clothed with linen, for whom the Septuagint in this place have interpreted as a robe, to take the burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter or sprinkle them over the city, it seems to me that it signifies, after the slaughter and killing of many, and the corpses of the dead on the streets, the taking up of burning coals to punish or cleanse Jerusalem, according to what is written in Isaiah: He has made him holy in a burning fire, and it will consume like dry grass (Isa. 10:17). These are the coals which the Prophet, desiring to remedy the burning of his tongue, asks: What shall be given to you, and what shall be added for your deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows with desolating coals (Psalm 120:3, 4). And many similar passages we can find in the Holy Scriptures, of which we have often spoken. It is important to note only that in Isaiah, who had sinned so much in speech and claimed to have unclean lips, a coal is taken up with tongs for cleansing. But here, because the city was full of wickedness, and after punishments with the corpses of the dead, many coals of fire are taken up, and not with one hand, but with both, so that all of Jerusalem may be cleansed. Although it should also be understood that the taking up of burning coals is not for cleansing, but for punishment and torment, which are poured out over Jerusalem.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
The angel scatters coals of fire over Jerusalem. - Eze 10:1. And I saw, and behold upon the firmament, which was above the cherubim, it was like sapphire-stone, to look at as the likeness of a throne; He appeared above them. Eze 10:2. And He spake to the man clothed in white linen, and said: Come between the wheels below the cherubim, and fill thy hollow hands with fire-coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city: and he came before my eyes. Eze 10:3. And the cherubim stood to the right of the house when the man came, and the cloud filled the inner court. Eze 10:4. And the glory of Jehovah had lifted itself up from the cherubim to the threshold of the house; and the house…
The Temple provided an earthly residence where the Lord’s glory could dwell among his people. This central blessing of the covenant could only be maintained if the people were holy. In the face of their defilement, the Lord abandoned his house, leaving it and the surrounding city vulnerable to the impending assault of the Babylonians.
10:1-2 Almost the same vision of fearsome glory that Ezekiel had seen earlier in Babylonia (ch 1) now appeared to him in the Jerusalem Temple. In a building filled with heavenly symbols, Ezekiel clearly perceived that the living creatures he had seen earlier were cherubim, the enforcers of divine judgment (Gen 3:24). • The burning coals that the priestly figur…
over the heads of the cherubim Over the heads of the four living beings of the Chariot. In this chapter, he switches over to calling them [all] cherubim because the face of the ox was transformed into the face of a cherub, as it is written in this chapter. Our Rabbis said (Chag. 13b): Ezekiel begged for mercy and transformed it to a cherub. He said before Him, “Master of the world, an accuser cannot become a defender.”