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New Living Translation
Ezekiel 1:1
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In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was among the exiles by the Chebar Canal, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
Now it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Kevar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
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 Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
It was the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month of our captivity. I was by the Kebar River among the people who had been carried away as captives. The sky opened, and I saw visions of God.
Now it came about [when I was] in my thirtieth year [of life], on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles beside the River Chebar [in Babylonia], the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
Now it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
It came to passe in the thirtieth yere in the fourth moneth, and in the fift day of the moneth (as I was among the captiues by the riuer Chebar) that the heauens were opened and I sawe visions of GOD.
Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
Now it happened in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.
I am Ezekiel—a priest and the son of Buzi. Five years after King Jehoiachin of Judah had been led away as a prisoner to Babylonia, I was living near the Chebar River among those who had been taken there with him. Then on the fifth day of the fourth month of the thirtieth year, the heavens suddenly opened. The Lord placed his hand upon me and showed me some visions.
In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the K'var River, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], on the fifth of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
I am the priest, Ezekiel son of Buzi. I was in exile by the Kebar Canal in Babylonia when the skies opened up, and I saw visions of God. This was on the fifth day of the fourth month of the thirtieth year. (This was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. The power of the Lord came over him at that place.)
NOW it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
On the fifth day of the fourth month of the thirtieth year, I, Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, was living with the Jewish exiles by the Chebar River in Babylonia. The sky opened, and I saw a vision of God.
And it was in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, and I was in the midst of the exiles by the Kebar River. The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
And it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month , in the fifth of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
It chaused, in the xxx. yeare the fifth daye off the fourth Moneth, that I was amonge the presoners by the ryuer off Cobar: where the heauens opened, & I sawe a vision of God.
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 Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Now it came about in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was by the river Chebar among those who had been made prisoners, that the heavens were made open and I saw visions of God.
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 Chebar that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Now it came to passe in the thirtieth yeere, in the fourth moneth, in the fifth day of the moneth, (as I was among the captiues by the riuer of Chebar) that the heauens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
It came to passe in the thirtith yere in the fourth [moneth] in the fifth day of the moneth, that (I beyng in the middes of the captiuitie, by the riuer Chebar) the heauens were opened, and I sawe visions of God:
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, that I was in the midst of the captivity by the river of Chobar; and the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
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 Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
And it was don, in the thrittithe yeer, in the fourthe monethe, in the fyuethe dai of the moneth, whanne Y was in the myddis of caitifs, bisidis the flood Chobar, heuenes weren openyd, and Y siy the reuelaciouns of God.
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 Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
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 Kebar, [that] the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles at the Kebar River, the heavens opened and I saw a divine vision.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions [fn] of God.
On the fifth day of the fourth month in the thirtieth year, while I was by the Chebar River with the Jews who had been taken away from their land, the heavens were opened and I saw God in a special way.
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth mouth on the fifth day of the month I being in the midst of them of the captivity, by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, when I was in the midst of the captives by the river Chobar, the heavens were opened, and I saw the visions of God.
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
And it cometh to pass, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth of the month, and I [am] in the midst of the Removed by the river Chebar, the heavens have been opened, and I see visions of God.
When I was thirty years of age, I was living with the exiles on the Kebar River. On the fifth day of the fourth month, the sky opened up and I saw visions of God.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
in the thirtieth: Numbers 4:3, Luke 3:23
as I: Ecclesiastes 9:1, Ecclesiastes 9:2, Jeremiah 24:5-7
captives: Heb. captivity
by the river: Ezekiel 1:3, Ezekiel 3:15, Ezekiel 3:23, Ezekiel 10:15, Ezekiel 10:20, Ezekiel 10:22, Ezekiel 43:3
Chebar: Chebar, called now Khabour, is a river of Mesopotamia, which taking its rise in the Mysian mountains, falls into the Euphrates near Carchemish, or Circesioum, now Karkisia, about 35 degrees 20 minutes n lat. and 40 degrees 25 minutes e long.
the heavens: Matthew 3:16, Luke 3:21, John 1:51, Acts 7:56, Acts 10:11, Revelation 4:1, Revelation 19:11
I saw: Ezekiel 8:3, Ezekiel 11:24, Genesis 15:1, Genesis 46:2, Numbers 12:6, Isaiah 1:1, Daniel 8:1, Daniel 8:2, Hosea 12:10, Joel 2:28, Matthew 17:9, Acts 9:10-12, Acts 10:3, 2 Corinthians 12:1
Reciprocal: 2 Kings 24:14 - Jerusalem Ezra 8:15 - the river that runneth Psalms 137:1 - the rivers Isaiah 6:1 - I saw also Jeremiah 29:15 - General Ezekiel 40:2 - the visions Daniel 7:1 - visions
Cross-References
And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened.
The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars.
God set these lights in the sky to light the earth,
And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.
Then God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind."
Then God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life." And that is what happened.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year,.... Either from the last jubilee, as R. Joseph Kimchi r, Jarchi, and Abendana; or from the time that the book of the law was found by Hilkiah the priest s; so the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus,
"and it was in the thirtieth year after Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, in the house of the sanctuary, in the court under the porch, in the middle of the night, after the moon was down, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah;''
or, according to Jerom t, from the time of the prophet's birth, who was now thirty years of age, and was just entered into his priestly office; or rather it was the thirtieth year of Nabopolassar, or the father of Nebuchadnezzar: this was the twelfth year of the captivity, reckoning from the third of Jehoiakim, which was the first captivity, and from whence the seventy years are to be reckoned, and also the twelfth of Nebuchadnezzar's reign; and if two years are taken, as Vitringa u observes, from the twenty one years, which are given to Nabopolassar in Ptolemy's canon, in which Nebuchadnezzar his son reigned with him, there will be found thirty years from the beginning of Nabopolassar's reign to the fifth of Jeconiah's captivity, when Ezekiel began his prophecy, and which, as Bishop Usher w, Mr. Bedford x, Mr. Whiston y, and the authors of the Universal History z, place in the year 593, before the birth of Christ:
in the fourth [month]; the month Tammuz, as the Targum expresses it; which answers to part of June, and part of July:
in the fifth [day] of the month; which some take to be on a sabbath day; because, seven days after, the word of the Lord came to him again Ezekiel 3:16; just as John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, Revelation 1:10; between one of whose visions and this there is a very great likeness, as will be seen hereafter:
as I [was] among the captives by the river of Chebar; which is another agreement in circumstance between Ezekiel and John, when they had their visions: John was an exile in Patrons, and Ezekiel among the captives by the river Chebar in Chaldea. Some think this is the same river which is called by Ptolemy a Chaboras; and is said by him to pass through Mesopotamia: others say it was a river that was drawn off from the river Euphrates, by the order of one Cobaris, or Gobaris, a governor, from whence it had its name; that the river Euphrates might not, by its rapid course, hurt the city of Babylon; and by the Assyrians it was called Armalchar, or Narmalcha b, the king's river; though it seems to be no other than Euphrates itself; and Kimchi observes, that in some copies of the Targum on this place it is interpreted of the river Euphrates; and he says their Rabbins of blessed memory say, that Chebar is Euphrates; and so Abarbinel; see
Psalms 137:1. Monsieur Thevenot c speaks of a river called Chabur, which is less than Alchabour, another mentioned by him; and has its source below Mosul, and on the left hand to those that go down the Tigris, and at Bagdad loses itself in the Tigris which he takes to be the same as here:
that the heavens were opened; as at our Lord's baptism, and at the stoning of Stephen; and so when John had his vision which corresponds with the following, a door was opened in heaven Revelation 4:1;
and I saw the visions of God; which God showed unto him, and which were great and excellent; as excellent things are called things of God, as mountains of God, and cedars of God, Psalms 36:6; and indeed he had a vision of a divine Person, in a human form; to which agrees the Targum,
"and I saw in the vision of prophecy, which abode on me, the vision of the glory of the majesty of the Lord.''
The Arabic and Syriac versions read, "the vision of God".
r Apud R. D. Kimchi in loc. s Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. t Preafat. in Ezek. tom. 3. fol. 9. D. u Typus Doctrin. Prophetic. sect. 7. p. 41. Vid. Witsii Miscel. Sacr. tom. 1. l. 1. c. 19. w Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3409. p. 127. x Scripture Chronology, p. 681. y Chronological Tables, cent. 10. z Vol. 21. p. 61. a Geograph. l. 5. c. 18. b Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 26. c Travels, par. 2. B. 1. ch. 10. p. 46.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The thirtieth year - being closely connected with as I, is rather in favor of considering this a personal date. It is not improbable that Ezekiel was called to his office at the age prescribed in the Law for Levites Numbers 4:23, Numbers 4:30, at which age both John the Baptist and our Lord began their ministry. His call is probably to be connected with the letter sent by Jeremiah to the captives Jeremiah 29:0 written a few months previously. Some reckon this date from the accession of Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, 625 b.c., and suppose that Ezekiel here gives a Babylonian, as in Ezekiel 1:2 a Jewish, date; but it is not certain that this accession formed an era in Babylon and Ezekiel does not elsewhere give a double date, or even a Babylonian date. Others date from the 18th year of Josiah, when Hilkiah discovered the Book of the Law (supposed to be a jubilee year): this would give 594 b.c. as the 30th year, but there is no other instance in Ezekiel of reckoning from this year.
The captives - Not in confinement, but restricted to the place of their settlement.
The fourth month - “Month” is not expressed in the original. This is the common method. Before the captivity the months were described not by proper names but by their order, “the first, the second,” etc.; the first month corresponding nearly with our “April.” After the captivity, the Jews brought back with them the proper names of the months, “Nisan” etc. (probably those used in Chaldaea).
Chebar - The modern “Khabour” rises near Nisibis and flows into the Euphrates near “Kerkesiah,” 200 miles north of Babylon.
Visions of God - The exposition of the fundamental principles of the existence and nature of a Supreme God, and of the created angels, was called by the rabbis “the Matter of the Chariot” (compare 1 Chronicles 28:18) in reference to the form of Ezekiel’s vision of the Almighty; and the subject was deemed so mysterious as to call for special caution in its study. The vision must be compared with other manifestations of the divine glory Exodus 3:0; Exodus 24:10; Isaiah 6:1; Daniel 7:9; Revelation 4:2. Each of these visions has some of the outward signs or symbols here recorded. If we examine these symbols we shall find them to fall readily into two classes,
(1) Those which we employ in common with the writers of all ages and countries. “Gold, sapphire, burnished brass,” the “terrible crystal” are familiar images of majestic glory, “thunders, lightnings” and “the rushing storm” of awful power. But
(2) We come to images to our minds strange and almost grotesque. That the “Four Living Creatures” had their groundwork in the cherubim there can be no doubt. And yet their shapes were very different. Because they were symbols not likenesses, they could yet be the same though their appearance was varied.
Of what are they symbolic? They may, according to the Talmudists, have symbolized orders of Angels and not persons; according to others they were figures of the Four Gospels actuated by one spirit spread over the four quarters of the globe, upon which, as on pillars, the Church is borne up, and over whom the Word of God sits enthroned. The general scope of the vision gives the best interpretation of the meaning.
Ezekiel saw “the likeness of the glory of God.” Here His glory is manifested in the works of creation; and as light and fire, lightning and cloud, are the usual marks which in inanimate creation betoken the presence of God Psalms 18:6-14 - so the four living ones symbolize animate creation. The forms are typical, “the lion” and “the ox” of the beasts of the field (wild and tame), “the eagle” of the birds of the air, while “man” is the rational being supreme upon the earth. And the human type predominates over all, and gives character and unity to the four, who thus form one creation. Further, these four represent the constitutive parts of man’s nature: “the ox” (the animal of sacrifice), his faculty of suffering; “the lion” (the king of beasts), his faculty of ruling; “the eagle” (of keen eye and soaring wing), his faculty of imagination; “the man,” his spiritual faculty, which actuates all the rest.
Christ is the Perfect Man, so these four in their perfect harmony typify Him who came to earth to do His Father’s will; and as man is lord in the kingdom of nature, so is Christ Lord in the kingdom of grace. The “wings” represent the power by which all creation rises and falls at God’s will; the “one spirit,” the unity and harmony of His works; the free motion in all directions, the universality of His Providence. The number “four” is the symbol of the world with its “four quarters;” the “veiled” bodies, the inability of all creatures to stand in the presence of God; the “noise of the wings,” the testimony borne by creation to God Psalms 19:1-3; the “wheels” connect the vision with the earth, the wings with heaven, while above them is the throne of God in heaven. Since the eye of the seer is turned upward, the lines of the vision become less distinct. It is as if he were struggling against the impossibility of expressing in words the object of his vision: yet on the summit of the throne is He who can only be described as, in some sort, the form of a man. That Yahweh, the eternal God, is spoken of, we cannot doubt; and such passages as Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3; John 1:14; John 12:41, justify us in maintaining that the revelation of the divine glory here made to Ezekiel has its consummation or fulfillment in the person of Christ, the only-begotten of God (compare Revelation 1:17-18).
The vision in the opening chapter of Ezekiel is in the most general form - the manifestation of the glory of the living God. It is repeated more than once in the course of the book (compare Ezekiel 8:2, Ezekiel 8:4; Ezekiel 9:3; Ezekiel 10:0; Ezekiel 11:22; Ezekiel 40:3). The person manifested is always the same, but the form of the vision is modified according to special circumstances of time and place.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL
Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Ezekiel's prophesying
-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3409.
-Year of the Jewish era of the world, 3166.
-Year from the Deluge, 1753. -Second year of the forty-sixth Olympiad.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian or generally received account, 159.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 158.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius the historian, 157.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 153.
-Year of the Julian Period, 4119.
-Year of the era of Nabonassar, 153.
-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 409.
-Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 126.
-Second year after the third Sabbatic year after the seventeenth Jewish jubilee, according to Helvicus.
-Year before the birth of Christ, 591. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 595.
-Cycle of the Sun, 3.
-Cycle of the Moon, 15.
-Twenty-second year of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of the Romans: this was the eighty-sixth year before the consulship of Lucius Junius Brutus, and Publius Valerius Poplicola.
-Thirty-first year of Cyaxares, or Cyaraxes, the fourth king of Media.
-Eleventh year of Agasicles, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae.
-Thirteenth year of Leon, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae.
-Twenty-fifth year of Alyattes II., king of Lydia, and father of the celebrated Croesus.
-Eighth year of AEropas, the seventh king of Macedon.
-Sixth and last year of Psammis, king of Egypt, according to Helvicus, an accurate chronologer. This Egyptian king was the immediate predecessor of the celebrated Apries, called Vaphres by Eusebius, and Pharaoh-hophra by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 44:30.
-First year of Baal, king of the Tyrians.
-Twelfth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
-Fourth year of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah.
CHAPTER I
This chapter contains that extraordinary vision of the Divine
glory with which the prophet was favoured when he received the
commission and instructions respecting the discharge of his
office, which are contained in the two following chapters. The
time of this Divine manifestation to the prophet, 1-3.
The vision of the four living creatures, and of the four
wheels, 4-25.
Description of the firmament that was spread over them, and of
the throne upon which one sat in appearance as a man, 26-28.
This vision, proceeding in a whirlwind from the NORTH, seems to
indicate the dreadful judgments that were coming upon the whole
land of Judah through the instrumentality of the cruel
Chaldeans, who lay to the north of it.
See Ezekiel 1:14; Ezekiel 4:6; Ezekiel 6:1.
NOTES ON CHAP. I
Verse Ezekiel 1:1. In the thirtieth year — We know not what this date refers to. Some think it was the age of the prophet; others think the date is taken from the time that Josiah renewed the covenant with the people, 2 Kings 22:3, from which Usher, Prideaux, and Calmet compute the forty years of Judah's transgression, mentioned Ezekiel 4:6.
Abp. Newcome thinks there is an error in the text, and that instead of בשלשים bisheloshim, in the thirtieth, we should read בחמישית bachamishith, in the fifth, as in the second verse. "Now it came to pass in the fifth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month," &c. But this is supported by none of the ancient Versions, nor by any MS. The Chaldee paraphrases the verse, "And it came to pass thirty years after the high priest Hilkiah had found the book of the law, in the house of the sanctuary," &c. This was in the twelfth year of Josiah's reign. The thirtieth year, computed as above, comes to A.M. 3409, the fourth year from the captivity of Jeconiah, and the fifth of the reign of Zedekiah. Ezekiel was then among the captives who had been carried way with Jeconiah, and had his dwelling near the river Chebar, Chaborus, or Aboras, a river of Mesopotamia, which falls into the Euphrates a little above Thapsacus, after having run through Mesopotamia from east to west. - Calmet.
Fourth month] Thammuz, answering nearly to our July.
I saw visions of God. — Emblems and symbols of the Divine Majesty. He particularly refers to those in this chapter.
