Ezekiel 1:7

And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. STRAIGHT FEET - i:e., straight legs. Not protruding in any part, as the legs of an ox, but straight like a man's (Grotius). Or, like solid pillars, not bending, as man's, at the knee. They glided along rather than walked. Their movements were all sure, right, and without effort (Kitto's 'Cyclopaedia'). THE SOLE OF THEIR FEET WAS LIKE THE SOLE OF A CALF'S FOOT. Hence, Henderson supposes that "straight feet" implies that they did not project horizontally like men's feet, but vertically as calves' feet. The solid firmness of the round foot of a calf seems to be the point of comparison. LIKE THE COLOUR OF BURNISHED BRASS - literally, 'like the eye of,' etc.; i:e., like the glittering appearance of polished brass, indicating Go...

This seems added by way of explanation. Since Ezekiel has spoken of their human form, he adds that _their feet were straight, _although he calls them round or like those of a calf. I refer the straightness not to the feet only but also to the legs. It is therefore just as if he had said that these animals stood as men do. For we differ from the brutes, who look down towards the ground. As the poet appositely remarks, when he commends the singular favor which God has conferred upon man, Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies. (28) The Prophet now signifies the same thing, when he says that _the animals had straight feet. _He asserts that they had not anything akin to brutes, but rather to the appearance or likeness of man. He says that _their feet were round, _and this seems to indicate their agility or the variety of their movements, as

1-14 It is a mercy to have the word of God brought to us, and a duty to attend to it diligently, when we are in affliction. The voice of God came in the fulness of light and power, by the Holy Spirit. These visions seem to have been sent to possess the prophet's mind with great and high thoughts of God. To strike terror upon sinners. To speak comfort to those that feared God, and humbled themselves. In ver. Ezekiel 1:4, is the first part of the vision, which represents God as attended and served by a vast company of angels, who are all his messengers, his ministers, doing his commandments. This vision would impress the mind with solemn awe and fear of the Divine displeasure, yet raise expectations of blessings. The fire is surrounded with a glory. Though we cannot by searching find out God to perfection, yet we see the brightness round about it. The likeness of the living creatures came...

Verse Ezekiel 1:7. _THEIR FEET_ WERE _STRAIGHT FEET_] There did not seem to be any flexure at the knee, nor were the legs separated in that way as to indicate progression by walking. I have before me several ancient _Egyptian_ images of _Isis, Osiris. Anubis_, c., where the legs are _not separated_, nor is there any bend at the knees so that if there was any motion at all, it must have been by _gliding_, not progressive walking. It is a remark of _AElian_, that the gods are never represented as _walking_, but always _gliding_; and he gives this as a criterion to discern common angelic appearances from those of the _gods_: all other spiritual beings _walked_ _progressively_, rising on one foot, while they stretched out the other; but the deities always _glided_ without _gradual_ progressive motions. And Heliod...

The “foot” seems here to mean the lower part of the leg, including the knee, and this was “straight,” i. e. upright like a man’s. The “sole” is the “foot” as distinguished from the “leg,” the leg terminated in a solid calf’s hoof. This was suitable for a being which was to present a front on each of its four sides. Ezekiel was living in a country on the walls of whose temples and palaces were those strange mixed figures, human heads with the bodies of lions and the feet of calves, and the like, which we see in the Babylonian and Assyrian monuments. These combinations were of course symbolic, and the symbolism must have been familiar to Ezekiel. But the prophet is not constructing his cherubim in imitation of these figures, the Spirit of God is revealing forms corresponding to the general rules of eastern symbolism....

EXPOSITION For the life of the prophet prior to the vision which this chapter relates, and which constituted his call to that office, see Introduction. EZEKIEL 1:1 NOW; literally, _and. _The use of the conjunction indicates here, as in Jonah 1:1, that the narrative that follows links itself on to something that has gone before. In Exodus 1:1 and 1 Samuel 1:1 it may point to a connection with the book that precedes it. Here the sequence is subjective. We may think of Ezekiel as retracing the years of his life till he comes to the thirtieth. Then, as it were, he pulls himself up. That must be t

AND THEIR FEET [WERE] STRAIGHT FEET,.... And they went straight forward, as in Ezekiel 1:12; they made straight paths for their feet, and walked uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel; did not go into crooked paths, or turn to the right hand, or the left; and having put their hand to the plough of the Gospel neither looked back, nor turned back. AND or "for" THE SOLE OF THEIR FEET [WAS] LIKE THE SOLE OF A CALF'S FOOT; round, and the hoof divided, and fit for treading out the corn, in which oxen were employed; denoting the firmness and constancy of ministers in their work, treading out the corn of the word for the nourishment of souls, to whom they minister. The Septuagint render it, "their feet were winged"; or "flying", as the Arabic version; in like manner as Mercury, the Heathen god, is painted: this may denote the readiness and swiftness of

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. PREDICTIONS BEFORE THE FALL OF JERUSALEM A. judgment Predictions Concerning Jerusalem (1-24) Chapter S 1:1-3:14 The Vision of Glory and the Call of the Prophet _ 1. The introduction (Ezekiel 1:1) _ 2. The vision of glory (Ezekiel 1:4) 3. Ezekiel's call and commission (Ezekiel 2:1) 4. The roll eaten and the repeated commission (Ezekiel 2:9; Ezekiel 3:1) Ezekiel 1:1. The introductory words give

EZEKIEL 1-3. EZEKIEL ENTERS UPON HIS MINISTRY. Ezekiel 1:1. Ezekiel's Vision. Ezekiel 1:1. Like the prophets generally, Ezekiel enters upon his ministry only after he has had a vision of God and a call from Him. The book, therefore, appropriately opens with a description of these experiences. They took place in the thirtieth year a difficult phrase: perhaps the thirtieth year of the prophet's life in any case in 592 B.C., the fifth year after Jehoiachin and the leading citizens of Judah had been carried captive into Babylon (2 Kings 24:10 Ezekiel 1:16). Among them was Ezekiel, who whether or not a priest himself, c

STRAIGHT: i.e. unjointed. The living creatures did not move by walking....