a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · noun, common masculine singular absolute
frame
כְּמִבְנֵהke.miv.neh-
H4011
a building · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
city
עִ֖יר'ir
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
south
מִנֶּֽגֶבmi.Ne.gev
H5045
the south (from its drought) · preposition + 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
Ezekiel 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of C…
Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told t…
Daniel 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth…
1 Chronicles 28:12 And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasu…
1 Chronicles 28:19 All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.
Isaiah 2:2-3 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shal…
Isaiah 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount…
Ezekiel 8:3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 40:1-0
Here is, 1. The date of this vision. It was in the twenty-fifth year of Ezekiel's captivity (Eze 40:1), which some compute to be the thirty-third year of the first captivity, and is here said to be the fourteenth year after the city was smitten. See how seasonably the clearest and fullest prospects of their deliverance were given, when they were in the depth of their distress, and an assurance of the return of the morning when they were in the midnight of their captivity: "Then the hand of the Lord was upon me and brought me thither to Jerusalem, now that it was in ruins, desolate and deserted" - a pitiable sight to the prophet. 2. The scene where it was laid. The prophet was brought, in the…
visions of God--divinely sent visions.
very high mountain--Moriah, very high, as compared with the plains of Babylon, still more so as to its moral elevation (Eze 17:22; Eze 20:40).
by which--Ezekiel coming from the north is set down at (as the Hebrew for "upon" may be translated) Mount Moriah, and sees the city-like frame of the temple stretching southward. In Eze 40:3, "God brings him thither," that is, close up to it, so as to inspect it minutely (compare Rev 21:10). In this closing vision, as in the opening one of the book, the divine hand is laid on the prophet, and he is borne away in the visions of God. But the scene there was by the Chebar, Jehovah having forsaken Jerusalem; now…
Set me upon a very high mountain - Mount Moriah, the mount on which Solomon's temple was built, Ch2 3:1.
John Gill on Ezekiel 40:2
In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel,.... Or by the spirit of prophecy, as the Targum again; that is, being under the impressions of the Spirit of God, it appeared to him, in a visionary way, as if he was really brought out of Chaldea, and set in the land of Israel; see Ezekiel 8:3, as John was carried away in the spirit to see the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:10,
and set me upon a very high mountain; as John also was, that he might have a view of this large city and temple, which were to fill the whole world: thus Christ was taken up to an exceeding high mountain, to be shown the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, Matthew 4:8, it is needless to inquire wha…
The Church Fathers
Ezekiel was caught away supranaturally by the action of revelation, and he came to Jerusalem; and in a divine revelation he was a beholder the renewal that was to come. It is likewise with purity of soul. Some, going by the well-trodden road of the law through keeping the commandments in a life of many labours, enter into purity of soul by sweat and blood; and there are others who are vouchsafed purity of soul by the gift of grace. It is a marvellous thing that we are not permitted to ask in prayer for the purity that is granted us by grace and so to reject the active and laborious manner of life.
And he brought me in there. He enters the building of the heavenly city who considers by imitating the ways of the good in holy Church. For to enter the building upon the mountain is to consider with love how the elect of holy Church, established on the summit of virtues, advance in the Lord. For this one leads a life bound by marriage, is content with his own possessions, does not seize what belongs to others, bestows whatever he is able from his own goods upon the needy, and does not neglect to weep for the sins without which daily life cannot be led by married people. For because that very domestic care disturbs his mind, he stirs himself to tears. But that one has already abandoned all things that are of the world, desires to have nothing of it, is nourished by the exercise of contemplation alone, rejoices with weeping in hope of heavenly rewards, transcends even those things which are permitted to be possessed, seeks to have daily intimacy with the Lord; no care of the passing world disturbs his mind; he always expands his mind in expectation of heavenly joys. But another has already abandoned all things of this world, and his mind is lifted up to the contemplation of heavenly things; yet nevertheless, for the edification of many, holding a position of governance, he who does not succumb to passing things out of desire is sometimes turned back to them out of compassion for his neighbors, so that from care for them he may show mercy to the needy; he preaches the word of life to his hearers, ministers things necessary for souls and bodies alike. And he who on his own account already soars by contemplation to heavenly desire, still toils in temporal affairs for the advancement and benefit of his neighbors. Therefore whoever in holy Church diligently strives to consider, so that he may advance either in the life of the good who are married, or in the citadel of the continent who abandon all things that are of this world, or even in the height of preachers, has already entered the building of the city set on a mountain. For he who neglects to consider the life of better persons in order to advance still stands outside the structure. And if he admires the honor which holy Church now holds in the world, he gazes upon the building as if from outside and is amazed. And because he is intent only on external things, he has not entered within.
Introduction
Eze 40:1. In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, on this same day the hand of Jehovah came upon me, and He brought me thither. Eze 40:2. In visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel, and set me down upon a very high mountain; and upon it there was like a city-edifice toward the south. Eze 40:3. And He brought me thither, and behold there was a man, his appearance like the appearance of brass, and a flaxen cord in his hand, and the measuring-rod; and he stood by the gate. Eze 40:4. And the man spake to me: Son of man, see with thine eyes, and hear with…
a very high mountain: Revelations from God often took place on mountaintops in the Old Testament. Moses received God’s law and the design for the Tabernacle at Mount Sinai (Exod 19–40), and he viewed the Promised Land that he would never enter from Pisgah Peak (Deut 34:1-4). Similarly, on this mountaintop Ezekiel met with God and saw the wonderful future that God had prepared for his people, even though he would not live to experience it.
Rashi on Ezekiel 40:2
In the visions of God He brought me He did not take me there but made it appear to me as if I were there.
on a very lofty mountain For it is indeed destined to be lofty, as it is said (Isa. 2:2): “and it shall be raised above the hills.”
like the building of a city [Heb. כְּמִבְנֵה עִיר.]
from the south at the south of the mountain.
And he set me upon a mountain exceedingly high. What then does the high mountain signify except the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus? Who is indeed from the earth, but beyond the earth, because the flesh of our same Redeemer has its matter from below, but excels in the heights by his power. It would have been insufficient to call him high unless he added exceedingly, because he is not only man, but from that same conception of humanity which was assumed by him, God-man, not only man beyond men, but man made even above the angels. For concerning him it is said through Isaiah: In that day the fruit of the earth shall be sublime. For our Creator, because he was incarnate for us, was made the fruit of the earth for us. But now the fruit of the earth is sublime, because man born on earth reigns above the angels in heaven, because according to the voice of David and Paul, He has subjected all things under his feet. For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing not subject to him. Therefore this mountain is both high and exceedingly so, because even if he is from earth through the substance of humanity, nevertheless he is incomprehensible from the height of divinity. For hence it is that when the prophet Isaiah foresaw that the same Lord was to come in the flesh, raised up by the spirit of prophecy, he said: And it shall be in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the summit of the mountains. For the house of the Lord was the Israelite people. Therefore he was called the mountain of the house of the Lord, who deigned to become incarnate from the Israelite people. Moreover there were in that same people holy men who might rightly be called mountains, because through the merit of their life they drew near to heavenly things. But the incarnate Only-begotten was not equal to these mountains, because by his divinity he transcends the nature, life, and merits of all. Whence also rightly he is called a mountain above the summit of mountains, because he was found to be exalted by his divinity even above the peaks of the saints, so that those who had advanced greatly in God could scarcely touch his footprints from the summit of their thought. He therefore who there is called the mountain above the summit of mountains, here is declared to be the mountain exceedingly high.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
