I came to them of the captivity at Telabib. — Ezekiel now leaves the place where he had been, and comes to Tel-abib, which is described as still by the same “river of Chebar,” and which signifies the “mound of ears (of grain),” and was probably a place of especial fruitfulness, but which cannot be further identified. It appears to have been the central place of the captivity.
I sat where they sat is an expression of so much difficulty in the Hebrew, that it has given rise to various readings in the manuscripts, and to a marginal correction which has been followed by the English. Probably the vowel-pointing of the first word should be changed, and it will then read, “and I saw where they sat.”
Remained there astonished among them seven days. — Comp. Daniel 4:19; Ezra 9:3-4. The word implies a fixed and determined silence. “To be silent was the characteristic of mourners (Lamentations 3:28); to sit, their proper attitude (Isaiah 3:26; Lamentations 1:1); seven days, the set time of mourning (Job 2:13).” By this act the prophet shows his deep sympathy with his people in their affliction. This week of silent meditation among those to whom he was commissioned to speak corresponds, as already said, to the week of the consecration of his fathers to their priestly office (Leviticus 8). Such a season of retirement and thought has been given to other great religious leaders — to Moses, in his forty years of exile; to Elijah, in his forty days in Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:4-8); to St. Paul, in his journey to Arabia (Galatians 1:17); and to our Lord Himself, when He went into the wilderness after His baptism.