visions of God._

_2. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king
Jehoiachin's captivity._

_3. The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the
son of Buzi, in the Land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the
hand of the Lord was there upon him._

This fixes the location of this incident on the outskirts of Bagdad.
The Chebar is sometimes called "The Grand Canal of Bagdad." Although
the entire book was supposed to have been written by Ezekiel, the
second and third verses sound like an editor's note, inserted by a
later writer.

_4. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a
great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about
it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the
midst of the fire._

Here is a man who had lived most of his life in arid desert country.
He had probably seen whirlwinds of all kinds, from dust-devils to
full-scale tornadoes. He was an accurate and honest observer, as we
shall see later. If he said it was a whirlwind, it must have really
been one, or at least it looked enough like one to fool him for a
while. Notice that he does not say that it was high in the air, or
that it came out of the sky, but, "... out of the north," or toward
him from the north.

The first thing that he noticed was that it had fire associated with
it, a strange companion for a whirlwind. There is something strange
about the fire itself. He says that it "infolds itself," which
suggests a fire of more active nature than Ezekiel would be accustomed
to. The association of fire and whirlwind must have struck him as
peculiar.

Also something amber colored was associated with the cloud and fire.
He said that this color came "out of the midst," which might mean that
it was above the cloud and flame, or appeared as the fire and cloud
subsided, or blew to one side. Considering the detail he gives in
later verses, this is quite vague, as it might be if he saw it from a
distance.

_5. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living
creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a
man._

Why didn't he say that out came four men? Remember that he is telling
this to very primitive, superstitious people. He was himself bred in a
time when the supernatural was taken for granted. Under these
conditions he has gone about as far as he could by saying that they
certainly looked like four m