(2) Unto the man clothed with linen.--Hitherto, in Ezekiel 9, he has been employed only in a work of mercy and protection. It is not without significance that now the same person is made the agent of judgment. As God's love is turned to wrath by man's impenitence, and as His blessings given to man become curses by their abuse, so those employed by Him as the instruments of His loving-kindness become the very executioners of his "fury." The "coals of fire," the symbols of Divine wrath, are represented as "between the cherubim." In every possible way it is signified that the impending doom is not from man's will, however men may be used as its instruments, or from any accident, but from God Himself.

Scatter them over the city.--For its destruction. Perhaps the imagery does not signify anything more than destruction, without especial reference to the means employed; but 2Kings 25:9 and 2Chronicles 36:19 show that the Temple and city were actually burned by the Chaldaeans, as was often done with conquered cities that had resisted obstinately.

10:1-7 The fire being taken from between the wheels, under the cherubim, ch. 1:13, seems to have signified the wrath of God to be executed upon Jerusalem. It intimated that the fire of Divine wrath, which kindles judgment upon a people, is just and holy; and in the great day, the earth, and all the works that are therein, will be burnt up.And he spake unto the man clothed with linen,.... That is, the God of Israel, or the glory of the Lord, that sat upon the throne before described; he gave orders to the man clothed in linen, who appears in another character, and represents the Chaldean or Roman army:

and said, go in between the wheels, even under the cherub; the singular for the plural, the "cherubim"; the wheels were under these; the churches are under their ministers, their pastors, guides, and governors; or rather, since the wheels were by the cherubim, it should be rendered, as by some, "unto the cherub", or "cherubim" (a):

and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city; these "coals of fire" were an emblem of the wrath of God against Jerusalem, and of the destruction of it by fire; and these being fetched from between the cherubim, show that the cause of this wrath and ruin was the ill treatment of the prophets of the Lord; see 2 Chronicles 36:15; as the destruction of the same city afterwards by the Romans was owing, as to the rejection and killing of the Messiah, so to the prosecution of his apostles, 1 Thessalonians 2:15;

and he went in my sight; in the sight of the prophet, as it appeared to him in vision he saw him go in, as he was ordered, between the wheels, and under the cherubim; but as yet he did not see him take the coals of fire, and much less scatter them; these were afterwards done, as related in the other part of the vision.

(a) "in locum cerubinorum, vel cheruborum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ad cherubim", Tigurine version; which is approved by Noldius, p. 84. No. 398.