Ezekiel 11:23

Eze 11:23 And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which [is] on the east side of the city.

Ver. 23. From the midst of the city.] From the east gate.

And stood upon the mountain.] Mount Olivet. There he made his last stand, to see if they would meet him with entreaties of peace, that he might stop or step back. Here it was that Christ wept over the city, and hence he went up to heaven; after which came the Romans and destroyed it.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze_11:23

The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city.

Departure of God from His temple

I. How averse God is to forsake His people. Look we to His declarations; look we to examples.

II. What are the different steps by which His departure may be discovered? He withholds--

1. The manifestations of His love.

2. The influences of His grace.

3. The warnings of His Spirit.

III. The dreadful state of those who are forsaken by Him.

1. They are delivered up into the hands of their spiritual enemies;

2. They live only to increase their guilt and misery. Apply--

(1) How are we to reconcile this doctrine with other parts of Scripture?

(2) How are we to avert this awful calamity? (C. Simeon, M. A.)

Stood upon the mountain.

Climbing the mountain

When the summer sun is hot, and the mountain snow melts; when days are long and skies are clear; when strong men rejoice to climb exceeding high mountains--and they rejoice in climbing higher and higher every year--Snowdon and Skiddaw, Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond, Mont Blanc and the great Matterhorn, and many other high hills, are surveyed, and then scaled by skilful and fearless men. It is well. We need examples of calm courage and indomitable perseverance. We need to see what effort, training, strength, health, and brave endurance can accomplish. But I would speak of the holy mountains and spiritual heights. I would point to lofty peaks in religious life, and glorious ascents into spheres of thought and joy beyond--far beyond--the common level of Christian experience.

I. The mountain of Scripture. More study of the Bible, and more meditation on God mean more lofty views of His providence and grace--a mental life of crystalline clearness and purer air; of richer joys than are common to men. Climb, then, for the glory of the Lord is upon the mountain, not down in the valley, and blessed is the man who climbs until he sees it, and is encircled with its beauty and its light. Oh that we may see the glory of God, this day, in the face of Jesus Christ!

II. The mountain of prayer. We are satisfied, for a time, with the lispings of a babe, but we expect it to learn a fuller and more comprehensive tongue. So we must not be always as babes in Christ in our prayers. There should be new prayers; there should be holier prayers; there should be prevailing prayers. A few more struggles, a few more upward flights, and your soul shall be in the centre of the bright cloud where God dwells, and you shall sun yourselves in His great glory. Climb, then, the mountain of prayer, and you shall be crowned with grace, mercy, and truth.

III. The mountain of usefulness. Are all the hungry fed, all the children taught, all the drunkards reformed, all the sinners converted? No, no! Our mission is not fulfilled, nor is our work done. Christian usefulness; this is the highest form and sweetest flower of life. Leave the monotony of your work far behind you, and do some new thing for the Lord. Behold His glory is upon the mountain summit, and He is waiting for your fruits and sheaves and noble deeds. Rise; gird up your loins; work for the Lord, as Nelson fought for victory, and as Paul sought to save some, and God, even our God, will bless you with fruitfulness of life.

IV. The mountain of salvation. A sinner--what a name is that! An unsaved sinner--that is worse. An unsaved, unhappy sinner--that is worst of all. Is that your name? Come and climb the mountain of salvation, and get for yourself a new name. Lo! here on a shining throne is Jesus Himself, and as we enter His presence He benignly says, I will give you rest. And here, in the mountain of salvation, He does give us rest. He gives full pardon, perfect peace, joyful hope, holy strength, loving confidence, glorious righteousness, and everlasting life. Come, then, far up into the secure heights of this mountain; come, now, to where Jesus and the glory of God are waiting for you.

V. The mountain of heavenly vision. Faith, prayer, zeal, work, and love are so many steps leading us to the lofty peaks of the mountain of Celestial vision, whence, even on stormy days, we may see afar the Promised Land. With heaven in sight, toil and tears will be easier to bear, and death be welcome whenever and wherever it may come. Fear not death, nor Jordans rolling waves. Let the mountain of salvation lead to the mountain of vision, and it will be then only one step into heaven itself. (G. W. MCree.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 11:23. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city — The symbol of God’s presence, which had before departed from the temple, (Eze 10:18,) now quite left the city, to signify that he would acknowledge no longer his relation to either, but deliver them up to be profaned by the heathen. It deserves to be observed here, that God did not quit the temple and city all at once, but by little and little. The cloud of his presence was first withdrawn from the mercy-seat in the holy of holies, the usual place of its residence, and removed to the threshold of the house, (Eze 9:1,) where it remained some time waiting for their repentance. Its second remove was from this threshold, leaving the house altogether, to settle upon the cherubim, which were hovering over the court, and upon the wing to depart, Eze 10:18. It then, with these angelic ministers of the divine will, and the accompanying wheels of providence, withdrew to the east gate of the inner court, Eze 10:19. And now at last it quits Jerusalem altogether, and fixes itself upon the mountain on the east side of the city. By withdrawing himself from his people by slow degrees, God gave them time for consideration and repentance, to which each remove of the Shechinah was a fresh and solemn call, and he thus also manifested with what reluctance he entirely abandoned the seed of Abraham his friend. And even his causing the symbol of his presence, before his final departure, to take its station on the mount of Olives, where it was, as it were, within call, and ready to return, if now at length in this their day they would have understood the things that made for their peace, was a further manifestation of grace as well as of justice; for while the cloud of glory lingered there, it gave fresh encouragement to them to repent, and a final warning so to do, at the same time that it was emblematical of the judgment which, if their repentance did not prevent, should begin to be executed upon them from that mount, from whence the city would be annoyed by the darts of the Chaldeans. Nor was this only a figure of the calamities which were to be brought on the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar, but it was also an emblem of the evils which were to befall them in consequence of their rejecting and crucifying their own Messiah, the Lord of glory. This Divine Saviour, after exhausting his patience in instructing, correcting, and threatening Jerusalem, at length forsook it, and ascended to heaven from this same mount of Olives, in the presence of his apostles and disciples, that he might exercise his kingly office, and inflict a just and exemplary vengeance on this obstinately wicked and irreclaimable people.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Shekinah glory now moves from the east gate (Eze 10:4, Eze 10:19) to the Mount of Olives, altogether abandoning the temple. The mount was chosen as being the height whence the missiles of the foe were about to descend on the city. So it was from it that Jesus ascended to heaven when about to send His judgments on the Jews; and from it He predicted its overthrow before His crucifixion (Mat 24:3). It is also to be the scene of His return in person to deliver His people (Zac 14:4), when He shall come by the same way as He went, "the way of the east" (Eze 43:2).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city] This vision is no mean proof of the long-suffering of God. He did not abandon this people all at once; he departed by little and little. FIRST, he left the temple. SECONDLY, he stopped a little at the gate of the city. THIRDLY, he departed entirely from the city and went to the Mount of Olives, which lay on the east side of the city. Having tarried there for some time to see i! they would repent and turn to him - FOURTHLY, he departed to heaven. The vision being now concluded, the prophet is taken away by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, and there announces to the captive Israelites what God had showed him in the preceding visions, and the good that he had spoken concerning them; who at first did not seem to profit much by them, which the prophet severely reproves.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(23) Stood upon the mountain.—This mountain, on the east of the city, is that which was afterwards known as the Mount of Olives. It is considerably higher than the city, and commands a view over its entire extent. Here the Divine glory rested after taking its departure from the Temple and the city in the vision of the prophet. Here, in the vision of a later prophet (Zec_14:4), the Lord is represented as standing in the day of final judgment. Here, not in vision, the incarnate Son of God proclaimed the second destruction of the obdurate city (Matthew 24; Luk_21:20); and from the same mountain He made His visible ascension into heaven (Luk_24:50-51; Act_1:11-12). The vision is now closed, and the prophet is transported in spirit back into Chaldæa, to declare what he had seen to his fellow-captives, and show them the vanity of their trust in the preservation of the guilty city.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city,.... Of Jerusalem, whither it was removed from the door of the east gate of the temple, Eze 10:19; though no mention is made of such removal; and now, having left the temple, it leaves the city:

and stood upon the mountain, which is on the east side of the city; either waiting for the repentance of the inhabitants of it, leaving them with reluctance; or in order to bring down his judgments upon it, and behold its destruction and ruin: this mountain was the mountain of Olives, as the Targum interprets it: and so Jarchi and Kimchi; see Zac 14:5. Christ stood on this mountain and wept over Jerusalem, and from hence he ascended to heaven. This Jarchi calls the third remove of the Shechinah or glory of the God of Israel. The Rabbins say (q) it removed ten times, and reckon them thus,

"from the mercy seat to the cherub; from the cherub to the cherub; from the cherub to the threshold; from the threshold to the court; from the court to the altar; from the altar to the roof; from the roof to the wall; from the wall to the city; from the city to the mountain; from the mountain to the wilderness; and from the wilderness it ascended and sat in its own place, according to Hos 5:15.''

(q) T. Bab. Roshhashana, fol. 31. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The mountain which is on the east side of the city - The Mount of Olives. The rabbis commenting on this passage said the Shechinah retired to this Mount, and there for three years called in vain to the people with human voice that they should repent. On that mountain, Christ stood, when He wept over the fair city so soon to be utterly destroyed. From that mountain he descended, amid loud Hosannas, to enter the city and temple as a Judge.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Mount Olivet, whence he might behold the conflagration of the city, before his ascent into heaven. (Menochius) --- He leaves his habitation by degrees, to shew how Jerusalem would be treated, and the Jews suffer after the ascension of our Saviour. Theodoret well observes, that the person on the throne represented Him, the upper part of the body being different from the lower, (chap. i. 26.) to denote the two natures. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

See Eze 3:23; 8:4; 9:3; 10:18,19. The glory of the Lord removes now out of the city, over which it had stood some space of time waiting for their repentance; but no fruits of this, and God now departed from them.

Upon the mountain; above it. It was Mount Olivet, as the description of it in this place and elsewhere doth clearly show.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. Went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain — The glory of the Lord, which had been at the eastern gate of the temple (x, 19), now abandoned the temple entirely, passed through the city, and paused on Mount Olivet, as if to take one last sorrowful farewell of the doomed temple. This scene reminds one irresistibly of the fact that it was from this same spot that Jesus near the end of his ministry wept over this same city, crying, “O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luk_19:41-42). It was also from this spot that he ascended to take his place as judge at the right hand of the Father (Luk_24:50-51).

COMING OUT OF HIS TRANCE, EZEKIEL DESCRIBES HIS VISION TO HIS FELLOW-CAPTIVES, 24, 25.

It would seem that Ezekiel also accompanied the Shekinah to the Mount of Olives, for in the same way as before (Eze_8:3) he is conducted “in the Spirit of God” back to Tel-abib. The vision of glory departs, and awakening from his spiritual ecstasy he tells what he has seen.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Went up - The glory of the Lord removes now out of the city, over which it had stood some time, waiting for their repentance. The mountain - Mount Olivet. He removed thither, to be as it were within call, and ready to return, if now at length in this their day, they would have understood the things that made for their peace.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

on the mountain that was on the east of the city That is the Mount of Olives, which is east of the city, and this is the third stage [of the Shechinah’s departure].

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.