Ezekiel 10:20

were the cherubims Were cherubim. The remark that he knew that the living creatures were cherubim is of very great difficulty. It would scarcely be in the sense of the prophet to suppose that he learned that the living creatures were cherubim from hearing them so called by the divine speaker (Ezekiel 10:2; Ezekiel 10:6) because previous to this he himself has so called them (ch. Ezekiel 9:3). The meaning is rather that this third vision of them (ch. 1 and ch. Ezekiel 3:23) with its details and movements revealed to him that the creatures were cherubim. But admitting that the prophet had visions we can hardly escape the conclusion that the details of the phenomenon of the cherubim repose upon reflection. This reflection may have preceded the visions and been reproduced in them, but where did he find the elements that entered into his combination? Were they not derived from the temple largely, though also from the storm-cloud? Could he be unaware of the source whence he derived them? It is possible that in the excitation of the vision he did not recall the processes of his own reflection. Or may it be that we are straining the word "knew" when we understand it in the sense of learned, came to know? This is the natural sense to put upon it in this Book, and up to this time the prophet has not used the name cherubim.

The derivation of the word cherub is obscure. If Assyrian scholars are right the name is Babylonian, and is found given to the colossal winged bulls (called at other times shidu, Heb. shçd) which guard the portals of palaces and temples in Babylonia. The word (Kirubu) is said to have the sense of "great" (Schrader, KAT. on Genesis 3:24, Del. Paradies, p. 150 seq.). But though the name be common to Babylonian and Hebrew, and though originally the idea expressed by the name may have been the same in both, the usage as known from Babylonian literature marks the end of a long development, and that in Hebrew marks the end of another long and independent development, and any attempt to control or explain the one by the other must be made with caution.

The narrative and essential part of Ch. 10 lies in Ezekiel 10:2; Ezekiel 10:6; Ezekiel 10:18; the rest is annotation suggested by points in the narrative, in which ch. 1 is repeated without anything essential being added to it. A second description of the cherubim after ch. 1 looks unnecessary, and Cornill would excide Ezekiel 10:8 entirely. There may be occasional glosses in these verses, but no reason exists for cutting them out which does not equally apply to Ezekiel 10:20. The whole description of the divine chariot has an appearance of artificiality to us now, but in Ezekiel we have a peculiar mind, and it is safer to content ourselves with saying that we do not altogether understand the importance which he attaches to the phenomenon of the chariot and the living creatures.