Ezechiel 40:3
And he brought me in thither, and behold a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed in his hand, and he stood in the gate.
Open Ezechiel 40:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et introduxit me illuc : et ecce vir cujus erat species quasi species æris, et funiculus lineus in manu ejus, et calamus mensuræ in manu ejus : stabat autem in porta.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἰσήγαγέν με ἐκεῖ, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνήρ, καὶ ἡ ὅρασις αὐτοῦ ἦν ὡσεὶ ὅρασις χαλκοῦ στίλβοντος, καὶ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ ἦν σπαρτίον οἰκοδόμων καὶ κάλαμος μέτρον· καὶ αὐτὸς ἱστήκει ἐπὶ τῆς πύλης.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיָּבֵ֨יא אוֹתִ֜י שָׁ֗מָּה וְהִנֵּה אִישׁ֙ מַרְאֵ֨הוּ֙ כְּמַרְאֵ֣ה נְחֹ֔שֶׁת וּפְתִיל פִּשְׁתִּ֥ים בְּיָד֖וֹ וּקְנֵ֣ה הַמִּדָּ֑ה וְה֥וּא עֹמֵ֖ד בַּשָּֽׁעַר
Haydock's commentary
Brass: shining. (Haydock)
This angel waited for the prophet at the northern gate, but introduced him by that looking towards the east, ver. 16.
Line. It seems never to have been used. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter XIX. The Saint having turned to God the Father, explains why he does not deride that the Son is inferior to the Father, then he declares it is not for him to measure the Son of God, since it was given to an angel--nay, perhaps even to Christ as man--to measure merely Jerusalem. Arius, he says, has shown himself to be an imitator of Satan. It is a rash thing to hold discussions on the divine Generation. Since so great a sign of human generation has been given by Isaiah, we ought not to make comparisons in divine things. Lastly he shows how carefully we ought to avoid the pride of Arius, by putting before us various examples of Scriptures
228. But be it so, that I desired with a daring and rash spirit to measure Thee? From whence, I ask, shall I measure Thee? The prophet saw a line of flax with which the angel measured Jerusalem. An angel was measuring, not Arius. And he was measuring Jerusalem, not God. And perchance even an angel could not measure Jerusalem, for it was a man. Thus it is written: “I raised mine eyes and saw and beheld a man, and in his hand there was a line of flax.” He was a man, for a type of the body that was to be assumed was thus shown. He was a man, of whom it was said: “There cometh a man after me, Whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” Therefore Christ in a type measures Jerusalem. Arius measures God.