401 In the twenty-fifth e year of our exile , at the beginning of the year , on the tenth of the month , in the fourteenth e year after the city was taken , on that same day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me there . 2 In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain , and on it to the south there was a structure like a city . 3 So He brought me there ; and behold , there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze , with a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand ; and he was standing in the gateway . 4 The man said to me, " Son of man , see with your eyes , hear with your ears , and give attention to all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here in order to show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 40:1-4
Chapter Contents
The Vision of the Temple.
Here is a vision, beginning at ch. 40, and continued to the end of the book, ch. 48, which is justly looked upon to be one of the most difficult portions in all the book of God. When we despair to be satisfied as to any difficulty we meet with, let us bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough; and let us wait till God shall reveal even this unto us. This chapter describes two outward courts of the temple. Whether the personage here mentioned was the Son of God, or a created angel, is not clear. But Christ is both our Altar and our Sacrifice, to whom we must look with faith in all approaches to God; and he is Salvation in the midst of the earth, Psalm 74:12, to be looked unto from all quarters.