Bible Strands
Ezekiel 2:9
Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Ezekiel immediately after commanding him to open his mouth and eat what He will provide. The vision occurs at the precise moment of prophetic commissioning when the prophet is positioned to receive a tangible message.
The words — The Hebrew יָד שְׁלוּחָה (yad sheluchah) literally means "a stretched hand," denoting the instrument delivering the scroll. The phrase מְגִלַּת סֵפֶר (megillat sefer) translates to "a document scroll," underscoring the physical form of the revelation.
The thread — A divine hand extending to Ezekiel reappears in Ezekiel 8:3 and parallels the touch in Daniel 10:10. The scroll motif directly continues in Ezekiel 3:1, where the prophet is commanded to consume the same written object.
Why it lands — The text requires immediate compliance with a visual command before full comprehension is granted. It asks the reader to treat divine instruction as a physical reality that must be received before it can be understood.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 8:3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.
- Ezekiel 3:1 “Son of man,” He said to me, “eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.”
- Daniel 10:10 Suddenly, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
- Revelation 5:1 Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One seated on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.
- Revelation 10:8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the small scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land.”
- Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
- Jeremiah 36:2 “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.
- Daniel 5:5 At that moment the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. As the king watched the hand that was writing,
- Daniel 10:16 And suddenly one with the likeness of a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and said to the one standing before me, “My lord, because of the vision, I am overcome with anguish, and I have no strength.
- Hebrews 10:7 Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God.’”