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Ezek.2:1. Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Seeing this, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of the Speaker, and He said to me: Son of man! stand on your feet, and I will speak to you. "Seeing the Similarity". – With these words, the prophet once again warns the reader about the true meaning of those images with which the vision is filled: they are only likenesses, visible likenesses of the Glory of the Lord; the Glory of the Lord itself, not to mention God Himself, is invisible and unshowable. What is meant by the “Glory of the Lord”—is it only the One sitting on the throne or the whole appearance? Ezekiel 9:3, 10:4, 18–19, 11 favor the first understanding; This is also supported by the similarity of the expressions of this sentence with v. 25: “seeing likeness” is very close to “likeness as it were,” which is used specifically about the One sitting on the throne. But Eze.43.2 calls the whole appearance the Glory of the Lord; and here the reader expects a conclusion to the whole picture of the vision, and not just to the last section of it; The glory of God in the Old Testament refers to any image or way of the appearance of God, for example, a cloud. But the name “Glory of the Lord”, applied to the whole phenomenon, is also applicable to Him who sat on the throne. The Prophet Ezekiel already clearly distinguishes the Glory of God from God Himself: if anything in God can be seen, even imperfectly and insufficiently, in images and likenesses, then only the Glory of God, but not God Himself. How the Glory of God can be conceived as something separate from God and appear to man besides Himself, this became clear after the perfect revelation on earth of the Radiance of the Glory of God and the Image of His hypostasis. “He fell on his face” in horror (Dan 7.15; Isaiah 6.5) and awe (Gen. 17.3), as well as from exhaustion caused by the ecstatic shock (Dan 10.8). - “And I heard the voice of the One who spoke,” that is, without seeing where it was coming from; and although he had to come from the firmament and the throne on it, the prophet is afraid to put a subject to “told me.” (“He” is not expressed in Hebrew). The vision, without stopping completely (Ezek. 2:9, 3:13), may be gradually obscured before the prophet’s gaze and replaced by an equally strong and all-consuming auditory ecstasy: “the voice of the Speaker” shows that further revelation was not, like probably all subsequent ones, internal only. God’s appeal to the prophet: “son of man” is a feature of the book. Ezekiel (70 times) and partly Daniel (Dan 8.17), explained by Aramaic influence; “in the Syriac language this expression is so common that there apparently is no other name for a person like this, since it is even applied to the first person who did not have it; so 1 Cor 15.45 is translated in Syriac: “the first son of man Adam” (Rosenmüller, Scholia Jan Vetus Testamentum, p. VI, S. 1, Lipsiae 1808). To the prophet, such an address could mean that he was a randomly selected individual from his pathetic family; Wed Isa 8.5; Job. 25.6 (Smend). - “And I will speak” - so that I can speak. Ezek.2:2. And as He spoke to me, a spirit came into me and made me stand on my feet, and I heard Him who spoke to me. Since the prophet himself cannot get up from horror and stupor, he is lifted up by a “spirit” that cannot be defined by anything closer (even without a penis: the prophet speaks clearly with some uncertainty); Thus, Ezekiel everywhere refers to some kind of supernatural influence on himself of the power of God, which he had to especially clearly feel (“entered into me, the spirit”) and which visited him only at some moments of the visions, either strengthening his weak human nature, which was exhausted under the greatness of the latter, as here in Eze.3.24, then transferring to the place of visions and back from it: Ezekiel 8:3, 11:1, 24, 3:12, 14, 37 (LXX between “entered into me” and “set” they insert “and took me and raised me up” according to Eze. 3.14, but there is clearly not the same action of the spirit, but close to Eze. 8.3). The understatement refers to Ezek.1.12, where of course the Holy Spirit. Ezek.2:3. And He said to me: Son of man! I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious people who rebelled against Me; They and their fathers have been traitors to Me to this very day. When a high voice kindly encouraged the prophet, and he calmed down from the first fear before the appearance, he is called to be a prophet (“I send” already in Isaiah a technical term; Is. 6:8) of Israel (instead of “sons” of LXX they read the similar in outline “house”: benei-bet), which, unfortunately, is hardly worthy to be called by this high name of “god-fighter”, but rather stubbornly disobedient pagans (“to the people”; Hebrew “goyim”, by the time of Ezekiel should have become a moral and religious term instead of the previous ethnological meaning, which is why the LXX may have been deliberately omitted). However, Israel, from the very beginning of its existence (“fathers” here in the broadest sense) and until this very day has not been distinguished by its loyalty: according to Ezekiel, in contrast, for example, to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 2.2). Israel has been corrupted to its origins (Ezek.16.3). Ezek.2:4. And these sons with hardened faces and hard hearts; I am sending you to them, and you will say to them: “Thus says the Lord God!” The stubbornness of Israel seemed to intensify through a long series of generations, and the present one ("these sons") had a face that lost the ability to blush and shamefully lower his gaze, and his heart became inaccessible to conviction. “You will say to them: Thus says,” that is, you will be a prophet who is the mouth of God - “Lord God” - Adonai Jehovah. The double name of God in the Hebrew text of the book. Ezekiel is used 228 times versus 218 times the simple “Lord” (Jehovah), and in most cases it is difficult to indicate a reason for this rather than another name: the double name should have been used on more solemn occasions, but apparently the scribes allowed themselves freedom here. Ezek.2:5. Will they listen or will they not, for they are a rebellious house; but let them know that there was a prophet among them. A prophet must not remain silent, whether he is listened to or not. Although the latter, in view of the well-known tenacity of Israel, is undoubtedly, the point is not the instant success of the sermon: the results of Ezekiel’s activities lie in the future, when the fulfillment of his prophecies and mainly threats will reveal a prophet in him; if they recognize him as a true prophet, then they together recognize the one who spoke through him as the True God, and this constitutes the first precondition for the future conversion of Israel. The difference in LXX at the beginning of the verse: “if they hear and fear” (favorable for the Jews, like the omission of “goyim” in v. 3) comes from the fact that the particle “them”, in addition to “whether”, also means “if” (Joshua 24.15; Eccl. 2.13), and the second verb instead of “yehdalu” (will cease) is read “yedhalu” (will fear). “Rebel House” is such a favorite name for Israel among the prophet Ezekiel that it is almost a proper name for him, and this was all the more possible since initially all Jewish proper names had a common meaning. Ezek.2:6. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them and do not be afraid of their words, if they become thistles and thorns for you, and you will live among the scorpions; Do not be afraid of their speech and do not be afraid of their face, for they are a rebellious house; The Prophet would encounter more than one disbelief on the part of Israel. The latter will cause him a lot of direct trouble. “But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them.” God repeats this reassurance to the prophet three times, noting in particular that he does not need to be afraid of “their speeches,” which were the only ones they could use. to harm Ezekiel's compatriots under the constraining conditions of captivity, moreover, it may already have softened the people; so next. you need to understand the images used further - thistles and thorns (LXX, reading the words not as nouns, but as participles: “they will become furious and become common”); The image of scorpions with their harmful sting clearly indicates the danger from “speeches.” The prophet should not be embarrassed by these hostile speeches: that is why Israel is the house of rebellion. Ezek.2:7. and speak My words to them, whether they will listen or not, for they are stubborn. Ezek.2:8. But you, son of man, listen to what I will tell you; do not be stubborn like this rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you. Ezek.2:9. And I saw, and behold, a hand was stretched out towards me, and behold, in it was a scroll of books. Confident of his future triumph, the prophet can calmly endure all this and continue his work. The stubbornness of the people with whom Ezekiel will have to deal is constantly exposed, in the hope that this stubbornness will arouse all the more zeal on the part of the prophet, that he will be all the more willing to accept the revelations communicated to him and will not allow anything similar to this stubbornness of the crowd to be discovered on his part, examples of which were among the prophets (Balaam, Jonah, the Jewish accuser of Jeroboam). Ezekiel must immediately prove his deeds obedience: let him eat what God gives him. The Prophet looked at what was in the hand extended to him, and saw that, indeed, the almost impossible was required of him. Whose hand it was, the prophet does not dare to say: Jeremiah said directly: “And the Lord stretched out His hand” (Jeremiah 1.9). Ezekiel 2:10. And He unfolded it before me, and behold, the scroll was written inside and outside, and it was written on it: “weeping, and groaning, and grief.” The scroll is unrolled before the eyes of the prophet so that he can see its contents in advance. It was written, contrary to custom, on both sides, like the tablets of the covenant (Exodus 32.15), as a sign of completeness and richness of content (there may also be an indication of the duration of Ezekiel’s prophetic activity - more than 20 years) and contained exclusively lamentation (like the future book of Ezekiel, in which there are many speeches directly inscribed “lamentations”: Ezekiel 19:1, 26 etc.), at times even turning into a groan of pain and cries of despair (“grief”, in Hebrew “gi”. d.b. interjection). Ezekiel can view the contents of the scroll at a glance because he is in a state of supersensible reality. From a glance at the scroll, the prophet could conclude what his sermon would be like in terms of content, about which he had not yet been told anything (hence this review is assigned to Chapter II, and the eating to Chapter III, which speaks of the prophet’s entry into his ministry). Thus, the ministry of the prophet, difficult on the part of the people, will be difficult on the part of the very content of the sermon. You might be interested in: