Ezekiel 40:2 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.

In the visions of God - divinely-sent visions.

And set me upon a very high mountain - Moriah, very high as compared with the plains of Babylon, still more so as to its moral elevation (Ezekiel 17:22, "an high mountain, and eminent;" Ezekiel 20:40, "the mountain of the height of Israel").

By which was as the frame of a city on the south. Ezekiel, coming from the north, is set down at (as the Hebrew for "upon" may be translated) mount Moriah, and sees the city-like frame of the temple stretching southward. In Ezekiel 40:3 'God brings him there' - i:e., close up to it, so as to inspect it minutely (cf. Revelation 21:10). In this closing vision, as in the opening one of the book, the divine hand is laid on the prophet, and he is borne away in the visions of God. But the scene there was by the Chebar, Yahweh having forsaken Jerusalem; now it is the mountain of God, Yahweh having returned there: there the vision was calculated to inspire terror; here, hope and assurance.

Ezekiel 40:2

2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the framea of a city on the south.