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The Time and Place of the Vision
v. 1. And it came to pass in the sixth year, the year after the captivity of King Jehoiachin, in the sixth month, In the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, where Ezekiel had shut himself up in agreement with the Lord's command, 3:24, and the elders of Judah sat before me, those of the captivity having come to consult with him on some question, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me, transmitting an unusual measure of power to him for the purpose of a special manifestation.
v. 2. Then I beheld, while in the state of peculiar ecstasy brought on by the Lord's influence upon him, and, lo! a likeness as the appearance of fire, the form of a person shining with fire or emitting a fiery glow; from the appearance of His loins even downward, fire, as though kindled or burning; and from His loins even upward as the appearance of brightness, of a wonderful splendor, as the color of amber, the glitter of polished brass. This shining person has been identified, and probably correctly, with the Angel of Jehovah, with the Son of God, as he revealed Himself in the Old Testament.
v. 3. And He put forth the form of an hand, which may have represented the Spirit of the Lord, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, in ecstasy, not in an actual physical removal, and brought me in the visions of God, in the state brought about by the Lord's direct influence, to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate, that leading from the court of the priests, that looketh toward the north, the prophet thus occupying a position as one summoning the avenging hosts from the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, some sort of idol-image, which provoketh to jealousy, challenging the jealous wrath of Jehovah. The image may have been one of Baal or of Astarte, such as Mannaseh had erected in the Sanctuary; Cf 2Ki_21:7.
v. 4. And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel, so called on account of the contrast inferred over against the idols of the heathen, was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain, 3:22-23. where He appeared on his throne accompanied by cherubs and wheels, an awe-inspiring spectacle. The Lord purposely revealed Himself in all his glory, in order to make the idolatrous practices of the apostate Jews appear all the more repulsive by way of contrast.