Commentary on Ezekiel 1 part 2/19

for having said above that he saw the heavens opened, now above the living creatures he beholds as it were a likeness of a firmament, and the living creatures lying beneath, moving their wings—not without reason, but in response to the voice borne from above;

for obeying that voice, they both moved them, and again kept them motionless.

And at the last, being at a loss, he introduced a comparison: 'like the voice of God Shaddai,' which Aquila and Symmachus rendered 'of the Almighty.'

For 'why,' he says, 'should I toil seeking images worthy of the reality, and nowhere find them? It suffices to point to the One who acts, and through Him to intimate the greatness of the sound;'

for being all-sufficient and almighty, He does all things easily, as He wills.

'And above,' he says, 'the firmament that was over their heads, there was as the appearance of a sapphire stone, the likeness of a throne upon it.'

And this form too hints at the profundity and invisibility of the divine nature.

'For a cloud,' he says, 'and thick darkness are round about Him.' And again the same prophet: 'He made darkness His hiding place.' Now the darkness, the cloud, and the thick gloom are indicative of the divine invisibility;

for that unmingled and unapproachable light is to us darkness, since we cannot gaze upon it because of the weakness of our nature.

For if one who wishes to look closely at the sun's disc fixes his eye upon it more than he ought, he loses even his ordinary sight and reaps darkness from light; what would a man not suffer who dared to look upon the divine and unapproachable light? 'And upon the likeness,' he says, 'of the throne, there was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it above.'

(vv. 27, 28) 'And I saw as it were the appearance of amber, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of the loins and upward;'

'and I saw, from the appearance of the loins and downward;'

'I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and its brightness round about.'

'As on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.'

Everywhere he adds both 'likeness' and 'as,' teaching us not to stop at this point, but to know that each of the visions is fitted to the need at hand.

For the promise made to Isaac also embraces the birth according to the flesh of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;

wherefore also the blessing of the nations was joined to the promise given to Isaac.

'For in thy seed,' He says, 'shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' But when He foretold to him the bondage of his race, He did not appear so kindly, but showed also a smoking furnace and torches of fire passing between the divided pieces.

So too, wishing to console Jacob who feared Esau, He appeared as a man.

But to Moses at first He showed things full of dread—the fire in the bush, and the bush burning yet not consumed;

and after these things He conversed with him gently, showing nothing of the things able to produce terror.

And wishing to strike fear into Israel and to make known His own power, He shows the whole mountain smoking, and thunders crashing, and trumpets sounding, and thick darkness, and simply so terrified them that they brought a supplication to the prophet, that God should not speak with them, but that he himself should convey the divine words.

This same difference of visions He also showed to the great Elijah;

first an earthquake, then fire, then a wind rending the mountains and shattering the rocks, and after these a sound of a gentle breeze, and in it the Lord;

for He Himself delights in goodness, and with longsuffering and gentleness wills to dispense the affairs of men;

but great impiety and lawlessness prepares Him to use those other means as well.

For those means proceed not from His own disposition, but from the need of men;

whereas goodness and love toward mankind are proper to His own nature.

When, therefore, you hear of various visions of God, do not suppose the Divine to be of many forms;

for He is altogether incorporeal and formless, simple and uncompounded, without shape, invisible and unseen, and circumscribed by no boundary;

yet He displays the appearances, shaping them to the need at hand;

and here too, accordingly, He showed those fearful things;

but He also showed the benefaction to come for all men—I mean the incarnate dispensation of our God and Saviour.

the one appearance of amber, the other of fire; the one bearing, the other borne;

for the divine nature clothed itself with the human;

wherefore he says he beheld the upper part as the appearance of amber;

but the part from the loins and downward as the appearance of fire;

the fire hinting at the divine nature ('For the Lord your God,' He says, 'is a consuming fire');

and the amber the human.

For such is amber, having as it were a mixed appearance, and resembling neither gold nor silver, but being like a blend of both.

And such too is the human body;

for it is not earth alone, nor water by itself, nor fire, nor air, but is compounded of the four elements;

or rather, such is the nature of man: neither a rational soul only, nor a mortal body only, but both together according to him.

For indeed the humanity of God the Word became radiant and bright and glorious, immortal and incorruptible, through the nature that dwelt within it;

'And I saw as the appearance of amber, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of the loins and downward, as the appearance of fire.' For the divine nature bore the human.

'And its brightness round about.'

'As the appearance of the bow, when it is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.' And these things too are significant of the divine gifts;

for they benefit the human race, signifying and bringing the rain that comes from thence.

Having thus narrated all these things, the prophet added:

'This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.'

And he did not say, 'This is the nature of the Lord,' nor 'the glory of the Lord,' but 'the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.' For 'as He willed,' he says, 'having fashioned the appearance, He deemed me worthy of the vision.'

'And I saw, and I fall upon my face.' And very fittingly;

'for I heard,' he says, 'one speaking to me, and He said to me:'

'Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee.' And He addresses him as 'son of man,' all but saying: 'Do not forget thy nature, having been deemed worthy of a vision above thy nature, but know thyself;'

'neither remain in immoderate dread, since I pledge thee to take courage, but stand and hear the things spoken by me, not being overturned, but by thy standing signifying steadfastness.'

'For there came upon me,' he says, 'a spirit, and it took me up, and lifted me up, and set me upon my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me.'

For a certain divine energy, laying hold of me, drew me together, dissolved as I was by fear, and prepared me to stand and to hear the words that were being uttered.

'Son of man, I am sending thee to the house of Israel, those who provoke me, who have provoked me—they themselves and their fathers—and have transgressed against me even to this present day.'

Who could measure in words the divine love toward mankind? What mind could reach the ocean of His goodness? After their countless impieties and lawless deeds, He does not renounce their salvation, but while indeed accusing both them and their fathers as having transgressed and broken the covenants that had been established, and as having persisted in their wickedness even to this day;

yet He calls them back, and summons to health those who are incurably sick, and this even though He knows their obstinacy and unwillingness to hear;

'And they are children stiff of face and hard of heart, to whom I send you, even to them.'

That is to say, they are shameless, not knowing how to blush, unwilling to be softened;

neither persuaded by words of counsel, nor changed by the compulsion of punishments.

'Thus saith Adonai the Lord.' Now the word Adonai itself also signifies 'Lord';

yet it carries in addition another slight nuance:

'Thus saith the Lord,' he means, 'my Lord.'

'If then they will hear, or be dismayed—for it is a provoking house—yet shall they know that thou art a prophet in the midst of them.'

The phrase 'if then' is not indicative of ignorance.

For He who knows all things before they come to pass is ignorant of nothing that is to be;

'Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and the first.' Knowing therefore precisely their obduracy, He sets down the 'if then,' teaching through these words the free self-determination of the will, that it is possible for them to be changed if they should so will;

of the same kind is that which is spoken in the Gospel in the person of the Father:

'I will send my son to the husbandmen; perhaps they will reverence him.' For neither there does the 'perhaps' imply doubt;

for He knew that they would not reverence him;

yet He does what befits His own righteousness.

For lest anyone should suppose His foreknowledge to be the cause of the outcome of events, He necessarily sets down the words of uncertainty, showing the self-determining power of the will, and reserving for Himself a defense in the day of judgment.

Being disobedient and unheeding, He sets every device in motion for their turning away from wickedness.

'What more shall I do to this my vineyard that I have not done?' And again through Hosea:

'What shall I do unto thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do unto thee, O Judah?' Yet nevertheless, though He knows them to be incurably sick, He offers the remedies, that in the day of judgment the disobedient may without contradiction receive the sentence pronounced against them, the divine benefactions being brought forward into the midst.

'That thou mightest be justified in thy words, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.' For our transgression, being examined side by side with the divine benefactions, justly subjects us to punishments;

and the righteous Judge Himself receives the victorious verdict even from the very persons being punished, since He has displayed every kind of loving-kindness, and has left no avenue of beneficence unmoved.

The phrase, then, 'If then they will hear or be dismayed,' does not signify ignorance on God's part, but gives them room for repentance;

since God, knowing also the disobedience of Pharaoh—for He says, 'I know that Pharaoh will not let you go, except by a mighty hand and by a high arm'—continued nonetheless in longsuffering.

'Do thou therefore also, O prophet,' He says, 'convey me and what is from me to those of thy own kind, that thou mayest become to them a procurer of benefit, and that they may learn that thou art a prophet in the midst of them, a minister of the divine words.'

'And thou, son of man, fear them not, neither be dismayed at their countenance; for they will be maddened, and will rise up against thee round about, and thou dwellest in the midst of scorpions;

be not afraid of their words, neither be dismayed at their countenance, for it is a provoking house.'

The wickedness of those who attempt to plot against one is a sufficient ground for contempt;

for they are transgressors, and destitute of the divine help;

there is no need, then, He says, to dread such as these, though they dart like scorpions, though they bring forward insolent words, though they rush on with much frenzy and madness;

for this He intimated by the phrase 'they will be maddened,' drawing a metaphor from oxen, which the gadfly drives as they graze, and often forces to be carried headlong down precipices;

for it is a kind of fly, sharper than any goad, that drives the oxen.

Thus, then, He designated their madness figuratively.

'And thou, son of man, thou shalt speak my words unto them, if then they will hear or be dismayed, for it is a provoking house.'

Again He has added the uncertainty, contriving their repentance;

for it is likely, He says, that they will be dismayed by the threat of punishment, and will fear the fulfillment of the threat, since they are unwilling to yield to the kinder words.

'And thou, son of man, hear him that speaketh unto thee, and be not thou a rebel, like the rebellious house;

open thy mouth, and eat that which I give thee.'

'Do not gainsay,' He says, 'the things commanded thee by me;

neither emulate those who contradict, but fulfil the things enjoined.'

'And I looked, and behold, a hand stretched out toward me, and in it a roll of a book.'

'And He unrolled it before me, and in it there was written that which was behind and that which was before, and there was written therein lamentation, and song, and woe.'

'Son of man, eat this roll, and go and speak unto the children of Israel.'

With reason He said above, 'If then they will hear or be dismayed'; for the things brought to the prophet are full of horror—lamentation, and song, and woe—written over the whole roll, within and without.

By 'roll' he calls the rolled-up books.

For thus the ancients preserved the record of their writings.

'And He opened my mouth, and fed me with this roll.'

'And He said unto me, Son of man, thy mouth shall eat, and thy belly shall be filled with this roll that is given unto thee;

and I ate it, and it became in my mouth as honey for sweetness,'

'sweeter than honey to my mouth.' Sweet indeed, and exceedingly pleasant, is the lamentation over sins;

for 'Dejection took hold of me,' he says, 'because of the sinners who forsake thy law'; and, 'I beheld the foolish, and I pined away, because they kept not thy oracles.' And his son also exhorts, saying:

'It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of laughter.' Thus it came to pass that to the prophet the eating of the roll was like honey, though it had in it nothing delightful or pleasing, but lamentation, and song, and woe.

Let no one suppose the eating of the roll to have been sensible and bodily.

For just as he beheld that vision spiritually, so also he partakes of this tasting spiritually.

'Son of man, go, enter into the house of Israel, and speak my words unto them.'

'Not unto many peoples of strange speech or of strange tongue, nor to those of a difficult language, whose words thou shouldest not understand.'

Here He plainly shows the difference between the apostolic and the prophetic labors.

For the latter were entrusted with the care of one nation, springing from among them, and having the same language;

but the former were put in charge of the whole inhabited world, and of all the nations, according to the word of the Lord:

'Go ye,' He says, 'make disciples of all the nations'—which had countless and diverse tongues, manifold customs, and contrary laws;

yet nevertheless those who were entrusted with the many nations, and the diverse tongues, and the manifold manners, and the multifarious laws, transformed the inhabited world for the better;

but those who were entrusted with that stubborn people endured indeed much labor, yet reaped fruits not worthy of their labors;

and the cause was not the sloth of the husbandmen, but the perversity of those being cultivated.

'Even if I had sent thee to such as these, they would have hearkened unto thee.'

(7.) 'But the house of Israel will not be willing to hearken unto thee, for they are not willing to hearken unto me;

for all the house of Israel are contentious and hard-hearted.'

He also interpreted the phrase 'If then they will hear,' clearly teaching that He is not ignorant, but knows precisely their disobedience;

and He signifies at the same time that this disobedience is from choice, not from nature;

for 'the house of Israel,' He says, 'will not be willing to hearken unto thee, for they are not willing to hearken unto me'—as if to say, 'Grieve not at being disobeyed;

for in contradicting me they resist the words brought forward by thee;

and the cause of the contradiction is the contentious disposition, and the obstinacy of the heart, and the insolence of the mind;

but fear not, being sent to such as these.'

For behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and I will strengthen your strife against their strife.

And it shall be continually: harder than rock have I made your face; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their face, for it is a provoking house.

Knowing, He says, the wickedness of their disposition, banish all fear from your mind;

for I will give you strength proportioned to their gainsaying, and I will supply power commensurate with the toil, and I will make your brow harder than every rock, so that neither when reviled, nor when struck, nor when enduring any other of the terrible things, you may flee from the ministry of the word and abandon your care for these people.

And He said to me: Son of man, take into your heart all the words that I have spoken with you, and hear with your ears.

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

If perchance they will hear, if perchance they will yield.

Utter nothing, He says, of your own when conversing with them, but minister with My words, and convey to them the things commanded you by Me;

for it is likely that they will reverence your labours, and fear My threats.

But the conditional expression again, as I have said, does not signify ignorance, but rouses the impulse of free will.

And the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great earthquake, saying: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place.

For having received these commands, He says, I was hastening to fulfil the ministry, and I was not even permitted to use my feet, but by divine cooperation I was carried to those to whom I was sent.

And necessarily he receives also the sensation of the earthquake, so that being pricked by fear he might fulfil the ministry.

And he tells also of the hymn which he sent up when he perceived the earthquake:

Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place. And having been taught this by God Himself, he said it;

for to the blessed Moses, when he asked God to see Him with clear knowledge, He said: No one shall see My face and live. Then He adds:

Behold, there is a place beside Me, and I will set you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand, and you shall see My back parts, but My face you shall not see. Not because the Deity is divided into face and back parts;

but by the face is understood the divine essence, and by the back parts, the dispensations and benefactions which are wrought concerning us, many and of every kind.

He therefore calls His goodness a place, through which, being by nature uncontainable, He becomes containable, as far as is possible, by those who are worthy.

And I saw the sound of the wings of the living creatures beating one against the other, and the sound of the wheels following them, and the sound of the great earthquake.

For when these things were spoken to me, the living creatures moved, using their wings, and the wheels followed;

and a very great earthquake was produced by their movement;

for great was the din borne from every side.

And the Spirit lifted me up and took me, and I went aloft in the impulse of my Spirit.

For the grace of the divine Spirit, coming to be in me, prepared me, like some winged being, to cut through the air midway between heaven and earth.

And the hand of the Lord came upon me mightily. Again he signifies the very grace of the Spirit.

And I entered into the captivity aloft;

that is, not walking, but being carried through the air.

And I went round to those dwelling by the river Chobar, those who were there, and I sat there seven days, going about in their midst. For having reached, he says, those to whom I was appointed, I passed seven days keeping silence, awaiting the divine working.

And it came to pass after the seven days that the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from My mouth, and you shall warn them from Me.

Hold the type, He says, of a scout, whom men station upon some hill, commanding him to give forewarning of the coming incursions of the barbarians.

So you too, standing as it were upon some watchtower and lookout of prophecy, proclaim beforehand to the people what you foresee, and convey to them My words.

When I say to the lawless man, You shall surely die, and you have not warned him, nor spoken to warn the lawless man to turn him from his ways, that he may live, that lawless man shall die in his iniquity, and his blood will I require at your hand.

Fearful and full of shuddering is the threat, and sufficient to terrify even those who are exceedingly stony;

and ineffable also is the goodness shining forth through the threat;

But since it is likely that one should offer every kind of treatment, while some are incurably sick and do not receive the healing offered, He necessarily adds:

And you, if you warn the lawless man, and he does not turn from his way and from his lawlessness, that lawless man shall die in his iniquity, but you shall deliver your soul.

Guiltless, He says, you shall be, doing what is fitting and contributing what is from yourself;

for even if his disease remain incurable, he alone shall pay the penalty of his disobedience.

It is fitting to observe that He said both above and here that the lawless man who persists in his transgression shall be punished;

whether he has one to warn him, that is, to teach him, or whether he has not;

for nature suffices for the discernment of what ought to be done;

and teaching is offered out of abundance, since the divine goodness devises every means for the salvation of men.

And when the righteous man turns from his righteousness, and commits a trespass, and I set the torment before his face;

he shall die, because you did not warn him;

in his sins he shall die, because his righteous deeds which he did shall not be remembered for him, and his blood will I require at your hand.

He did not say simply, If the righteous man sins, but, If he turns from his righteousness, and commits a trespass, that is, if he abandons the straight road which he had travelled, and turns aside to the other.

But he did not abandon the road he was travelling; rather, having stumbled and fallen, he rose again, and continued holding to the same journey.

If therefore, He says, the righteous man, abandoning his own road, embraces the contrary one, and you, knowing this, do not reprove the perversity, nor exert yourself to lead him back to the former road, that man indeed shall find an end worthy of the second road, having lost all his former toil;

for he came to another road, and the ends are opposite, and suited to the roads;

for the end of the one is life, but of the other death;

therefore he shall necessarily lose the gain of his former toils, having fallen into the end of the evil road;

but his lost life I will require from your hand, and I will exact from you the penalty for your negligence.

But if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, the righteous man shall surely live, because you warned him, and you shall deliver your own soul.

For he, through your exhortations, escapes the pit of destruction, and finds an end worthy of the righteous road;

and you shall be released from the reckoning, and shall escape the greatest danger, caring for the salvation of your neighbour.

And these things suffice to rouse us also to earnestness, and to prepare us to exercise all care for the brethren, and not to cease from doing and saying everything for their benefit, so that we may both flee the threatened punishment, and attain the promised salvation, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages.

And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and He said to me:

Arise, and go out into the plain, and there it shall be spoken to you.

For quietude is suited to the contemplation of divine things;

for the mind, being freed from the distractions without, and no longer divided this way and that, but turning in upon itself, is able more accurately to apprehend divine things.

And I arose, and went out into the plain;

and behold, there the glory of the Lord stood, like the vision, and like the glory which I saw at the river Chobar;

and I fall upon my face.

And the Spirit came upon me, and set me upon my feet.

He enjoys the vision more frequently, so that he may become more diligent about the ministry of the word.

But it is fitting to observe that not even those who are exceedingly pure in mind were able to behold the revelations commensurate with human nature;

just as indeed this prophet also, though he had already gained experience of the vision, falls down at once when he beholds it, and needs the grace that raises him up.

And He spoke to me, and said to me:

Enter, and shut yourself up in the midst of your house.

And thou, son of man, behold, bonds are laid upon thee, and they shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go forth from the midst of them.

And I will bind thy tongue to thy throat, and thou shalt be struck dumb, and shalt not be to them as a man reproving them, for it is a provoking house.

Everywhere he adds, 'for it is a provoking house,' teaching us not to fear those who without dread provoke God;

for the lawless are worthy only of contempt.

And when I speak to thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say to them:

Thus saith Adonai the Lord: He that heareth, let him hear; and he that is disobedient, let him be disobedient; for it is a provoking house.

And these words plainly show the free self-determination of the will.

For do thou, he says, offer the teaching in common to all;

for each shall receive the recompense according to the choice of his own will.

And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and thou shalt set it before thy face, and shalt portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem;

and thou shalt lay siege against it, and shalt build siege-works against it, and shalt cast up a mound against it, and shalt set camps against it, and shalt place batteries round about.

He is commanded to portray the siege of Jerusalem;

and the drawing is made upon a brick, because of the rottenness of its inhabitants;

for they did not build their house like that prudent man, upon the rock, but upon the sand;

wherefore the rivers came, and the rain descended, and the winds blew, and beat upon their house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.

And thou, take thee an iron pan, and thou shalt set it as an iron wall between thee and the city, and shalt set thy face against it, and it shall be in a state of siege, and thou shalt besiege it;

this is a sign to the children of Israel.

The prophet is commanded to bear the figure of God;

wherefore he is ordered to place an iron pan between himself and the city portrayed upon the brick, being thereby taught that even though God is present and beholds what is done against Jerusalem, He will not deem them worthy of any providential care;

but as though separated by an iron wall, He will seem neither to see what is being done, nor to hear those who supplicate.

But do these things, he says, giving as a sign the prophecy conveyed through deeds to those who now disobey and gainsay.

And thou shalt lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the days, a hundred and fifty, which thou shalt lie upon it, and thou shalt bear their iniquities.

And I have appointed to thee their two iniquities for a number of days, a hundred and ninety days;

and thou shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Israel, and shalt accomplish them.

After Solomon, in the reign of Rehoboam, the twelve tribes were divided; and the ten were called sometimes Ephraim, sometimes Israel, while Judah and Benjamin were called Judah;

yet nevertheless they were one people, deriving their descent from Israel and from Abraham;

wherefore, as concerning one people, the things which he had spoken according to the division he again joined together;