‏ Ezekiel 1:1

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, Jer 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 Jer 1:14; 4:6; 6:1.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse 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, 2Ki 22:3, from which Usher, Prideaux, and Calmet compute the forty years of Judah's transgression, mentioned Eze 4:6.

Abp. Newcome thinks there is an error in the text, and that instead of bisheloshim, in the thirtieth, we should read 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.

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