(4) The glory of the God of Israel was there.--Not the glory of the Lord filling the temple as in the days of old, but the glory "according to the vision that I saw in the plain"--i.e., the same vision which had before appeared to the prophet now in his vision--a vision within a vision--appeared to him again in the temple. The identity of the vision is again particularly mentioned in Ezekiel 10:15; Ezekiel 10:22, and even without this would be plain from the description given of it in Ezekiel 10. At the same time, various particulars are mentioned (as in Ezekiel 10:12) which were omitted in Ezekiel 1, and others are mentioned there which are omitted here, as the cloud and the firmament (Ezekiel 1:4; Ezekiel 1:22); and there are also some entirely new features introduced, as the "six men" and "the man clothed in linen" (Ezekiel 9:2), for which there was no occasion in the former vision. "The God of Israel" is emphatic, the God who had loved and chosen Israel, and Whom Israel should have served, in contrast with the idol which they had placed in His temple.
Verses 4, 5. - And, behold, etc. In appalling contrast with that "image of jealousy," Ezekiel saw what he had not seen, as he first became conscious that he was in the court of the temple - the vision of the Divine glory, such as he had seen it on the banks of Chebar (Ezekiel 1:4-28). He was to look first on this picture and then on that, and the guilt of Judah was measured by that contrast.
8:1-6 The glorious personage Ezekiel beheld in vision, seemed to take hold upon him, and he was conveyed in spirit to Jerusalem. There, in the inner court of the temple, was prepared a place for some base idol. The whole was presented in vision to the prophet. If it should please God to give any man a clear view of his glory and majesty, and of all the abominations committing in any one city, he would then admit the justice of the severest punishments God should inflict thereon.
And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there,.... In the temple, between the cherubim, where the Shechinah or the glory of the divine Majesty dwelt; for as yet he had not removed, though provoked to it, and as he afterwards did; or he was here to destroy the idols, and both city and temple, for the idolatry of the people; or this is here mentioned, to show the baseness and wickedness of the people, that they should place an idol where the Lord himself was:
according to the vision that I saw in the plain; it was the same glorious Person he saw in the temple whom he had before seen in the plain, Ezekiel 3:22; and that was the same he had seen in the vision by the river Chebar, Ezekiel 1:3.
according to the vision that I saw in the plain; it was the same glorious Person he saw in the temple whom he had before seen in the plain, Ezekiel 3:22; and that was the same he had seen in the vision by the river Chebar, Ezekiel 1:3.