Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Hebrews 9:5
A historical reference excerpt for this verse.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 over it the cherubim of glory, etc..] Or “glorious cherubim”, where the Shechinah, or divine glory, dwelt, (<198001>Psalm 80:1). These were over the ark, and were in number two, as were the cherubim which God placed at the garden of Eden, (<010324>Genesis 3:24) according to the opinion of the ancient Jews f164; and very likely these were made after the form of them. Some have thought them to be birds of a very terrible aspect, which were set there to deter Adam and Eve from coming to the tree of life; and both Philo f165 and Josephus f166 say, they were winged fowls; but the generality of the Jewish writers take them for angels f167; and some of them say they were destroying angels, or noxious spirits f168, which is not probable; but why angels should be so called, and what was their appearance, there are different opinions. Jerom says f169 the word signifies a multitude of knowledge; and indeed Philo the Jew f170 observes, that the Greeks would interpret the Hebrew word, much knowledge and understanding; and another Jewish writer f171 affirms, that the word “cherubim” is a name for separate intelligences, as if angels were so called from their great knowledge, and that the word is the same as “cerabbim”, as “Rabbins”, doctors, or teachers; but for the most part they interpret it, “as young men” f172, because that angels have appeared in the form of young men. So in the Talmud f173 it is asked, “what does cherub signify?” says R. Abhu, aybrk, “as a young man”, for so in Babylon they call a young man aybr.” Some think that the word “cherub” is the same with bwkr, “Recub”, the letters transposed, which signifies “a chariot”, because God is said to ride upon a “cherub” and the angels are called the chariots of the Lord, (<191810>Psalm 18:10 68:17 <380601>Zechariah 6:1,5) to which may be added, that Ezekiel's vision of the “cherubim” is frequently, by the Jews f174, called hbkrm, “Mercabah”, or “the chariot”; and mention is made of the chariot of the cherubim, in (<132818>1 Chronicles 28:18) to which reference may be had in (<350308>Habakkuk 3:8) though I rather think, with others, that the word is derived from brk, “Carab”, which in the Syriac and Arabic languages signifies “to plough”, and so in the Talmud f175; and a cherub took its name from hence, because of the ox, whose face it had, that being a creature made use of in ploughing; and that the face of an ox, and the face of a cherub, is the same, may easily be concluded from (<260110>Ezekiel 1:10 10:14). And now because that Ezekiel's cherubim had four faces, the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle; and the “cherubim” in the temple were in the same form, as may be gathered from (<264118>Ezekiel 41:18,19) those that were placed at the garden of Eden may be thought to be in the same form also: and some of late have fancied, that they were an hieroglyphic of the trinity of persons in the Godhead, signified by the ox, the lion, and eagle; and of the incarnation of the Son of God, the face of a man being added to them; to support which notion it is further observed, that the word µybwrk should be pronounced “ce-rubbim”, and interpreted, “as the mighty ones”. But it should be known, that the word is also used in the singular number, (<191810>Psalm 18:10 <261004>Ezekiel 10:4) and every single cherub had these four faces, so that each of them must be a representative of the Trinity, and of the incarnate Saviour, of which only the word in the s…
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