Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me. It held a scroll,
Parallel translations
- WEB When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein;
- KJV And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;
- BSB Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll,
- NKJV Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.
- NASB Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and behold, a scroll was in it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A hand stretches out holding a written scroll. The scroll represents the divine message Ezekiel must take in and deliver.
Overview
The outstretched hand and scroll dramatize the giving of God's word to the prophet. Written content underscores that the message is fixed and authoritative, not invented by Ezekiel. This visual sets up the symbolic act of eating the scroll. It pictures the prophet receiving a message wholly originating from God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ezek 8:3He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north; where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
- Rev 10:8–11The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me, said, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.”
- Ezek 3:1He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
- Dan 10:10Behold, a hand touched me, which set me on my knees and on the palms of my hands.
- Rev 5:1–5I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.
- Jer 36:2“Take a scroll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.
- Dan 10:16–18Behold, one in the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spoke and said to him who stood before me, my lord, by reason of the vision my sorrows are turned on me, and I retain no strength.
- Heb 10:7Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’”
- Dan 5:5In the same hour, the fingers of a man’s hand came out and wrote near the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
- Jer 1:9Then Yahweh stretched out his hand, and touched my mouth. Then Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 2:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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