Ezekiel 1:5

Also out of the midst thereof,.... The fire; or out of the whole that was seen; the whirlwind, cloud, fire, and the brightness about it: [came] the likeness of four living creatures; not really four

Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. Out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.

Also out of the midst thereof; of the fire, or that amber which appeared, as having four wheels. The likeness of four living creatures; these were not indeed living creatures. but the appearance of them, and signify with some the four monarchies; with others, the four chief leaders in the four quarters of the camp of Israel; with others, the four evangelists; with others, more likely, the holy angels, whose attendance bespeaks the majesty of God, and the terribleness of judgments to be executed on the Jews: and they are four, either to denote the sufficient number of them, or to show God would use the four chief of his angels, or perhaps to let the Jews know he had as many ways to punish, and as many officers of his wrath, as they could find corners of the world to flee unto. Or, since the appearance of a chariot in the midst of this vision is supposed, it was fittest that four living creatures should answer to the wheels thereof. And this was their appearance; the form in which these four each appeared to the first view, or at some distance. They had the likeness of a man; the stature, the greater part of them appeared of human shape, for they had face, hands, and thighs, and the posture was erect in standing or motion, as man’ s is.

Ezekiel 1:5 Also out of the midst thereof [came] the likeness of four living creatures. And this [was] their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.Ver. 5. Also out of the midst thereof,] i.e., From God’ s glorious presence. Came the likeness of four living creatures,] i.e., Angels; Intelligentias animales, Cicero calleth them. See like visions, Daniel 7:9 Revelation 4:6-7. These are said to be four, because God by his angels diffuseth his power through the four quarters of the world. They had the likeness of a man,] sc., For the greater part, they had more of a man than of any other creature, as hands, legs, &c. Quest. Acad., lib. iv.

(5) The likeness of four living creatures next appeared from this centre of the fiery cloud. The word “likeness” is not without significance. The prophet would make it plain that this was a vision, that these were symbolic, not actually existing creatures. Their prominent characteristic is that they were “living.” This word is used over and over again in connection with them (see Ezekiel 1:13-15; Ezekiel 1:19; Ezekiel 1:21, &c.); and in fact, in Ezekiel and Revelation (Ezekiel 4:6, &c., where it is mis-translated beasts) it occurs nearly thirty times. The same characteristic is further emphasized in Ezekiel 1:14 by the speed, “as of a flash of lightning,” with which they “ran and returned,” by the multiplicity of eyes in the wheels connected with them (Ezekiel 1:18), and by their going instantly “whithersoever the spirit was to go” (Ezekiel 1:20); while in Revelation 4:8 it is said that “they rest not day and night.” Their life is represented as most closely connected with the source of all life, the “living God,” whose throne is seen in the vision (Ezekiel 1:26) as above the heads of these “living creatures,” Ezekiel does not here say what these living creatures were, but in a subsequent vision, when he saw them again in connection with the Temple, he recognised them as the cherubim (Ezekiel 10:15; Ezekiel 10:20). Cherubim, whether here, or in the Temple overshadowing the mercy-seat, or in the garden of Eden keeping the way of the tree of life, always indicate the immediate presence of the God of holiness. The prophet again mentions these composite symbolic figures in connection with the vision of the Temple in Ezekiel 41:18-20. The origin of such ideal figures has been variously ascribed to the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Phœnicians, and the Arabs; but this symbolism was, in fact, almost universal throughout the East. Dr. Currey (Speaker’s Com., note on Ezekiel 1) points out the striking difference between this symbolism and that of the Greeks. They tried to delineate the Divine attributes with the utmost beauty of form and harmony of detail under some human figure in which those attributes were conspicuous. In consequence, the mind of the worshipper lost sight of the ideal, and became absorbed in the sensuous imagery by which it was represented; while here, by the very strangeness, and sometimes grotesqueness, of the imagery, its purely symbolic character was kept constantly in view. Cherubim are associated in the Old Testament with that tree of life of which man might not partake save through Him who is “the life,” and with that typical holy of holies which man might not enter until the true Holy of Holies was entered once for all by Christ through His own blood (Hebrews 9:8; Hebrews 9:12). They had the likeness of a man.—With all the strange variety of details to be described immediately, they had yet a general human form, and are to be understood as like man in whatever is not specified.

Verse 5. Also out on the midst thereof came - four living creatures.] As the amber-coloured body was the centre of the fire, and this fire was in the centre of the cloud; so out of this amber-coloured igneous centre came the living creatures just mentioned.

4–28. The theophany, or, vision of God This is described first generally, as a whirlwind and great cloud coming from the North, with a luminous splendour around it, due to a fire sending out continuous flashes within it (Ezekiel 1:4). Secondly, more particularly that is described which appeared within the storm-cloud (Ezekiel 1:5-28). This was the chariot of God, in which he rode, descending to the earth and moving from one place to another (cf. ch. 10). This chariot is represented as foursided. On each of the four sides was a living creature of human shape, with outstretched wings. Also on each of the four sides, beside each of the living creatures there was a wheel. The living creatures are not represented as having any platform or basement under them on which they stand; the wheels are usually said to be “beside” them, in ch. Ezekiel 10:2 “under” them. The wheels are to be conceived as at right angles to each of the four sides of the chariot, presenting their rims to the four points of the compass. Above the heads of the four living creatures, or over their wings when horizontally expanded, was a firmament of crystal. Above the firmament was the appearance of a throne. And upon the throne the appearance of one like fire, encircled with a glory which was like the rainbow in the day of rain.

Living creatures - The Hebrew word answers very nearly to the English “beings,” and denotes those who live, whether angels, men (in whom is the breath of life), or inferior creatures.

5. Likeness of four living creatures — As the prophet gazes upon this strange storm cloud, and it approaches him, he sees four splendid shapes where but a moment before had been only flashes of light.