Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Ezekiel 1:6
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
And or but everyone had four faces, &c.] Which are described, (see Gill on “<260110>Ezekiel 1:10”). The Targum multiplies the faces in a strange monstrous manner, paraphrasing the words thus, “each had four faces, and there were four faces to everyone “of them”, and every creature had sixteen faces; the number of the faces of the four creatures was sixty and four;” and everyone had four wings; the seraphim in (<230602>Isaiah 6:2); and the four beasts or living creatures in (<660408>Revelation 4:8); had six wings; and so it seems that these had also, from (<260111>Ezekiel 1:11,23); as will be seen there; nor is this any contradiction to the account here given, since it is not said they had only four wings. The Targum gives the same monstrous account of their wings as of their faces, saying, “each had four wings, and there were four wings for everyone of them, sixteen wings to every face, and sixty four to every creature; and the number of the wings of the four living creatures were two hundred and fifty six.” Jarchi is of the same opinion, and confirms it in his note on the text, which is this, ““four faces to one”; that is, to the face of a man only were four faces, and so, to the lion, to the eagle, and to the ox, lo, sixteen to a living creature, and so to every living creature; and four wings to everyone of the faces, lo, sixty and four wings to a living creatures and which, according to the Targum of Jonathan, amounts to two hundred and fifty six wings;” what these wings signified, (see Gill on “<260111>Ezekiel 1:11”);
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