Ezekiel 10

The cherubim and the glory

¹I looked, and on the vault above the heads of the cherubim I saw something that looked like a sapphire stone, something that looked like a throne, appearing above them.^{a 2}He said to the man dressed in linen, “Go in among the whirling wheels beneath the cherub. Take two handfuls of burning coals from among the cherubim and toss them over the city.” He went in while I watched. ³The cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. ⁴Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherub and moved to the threshold of the temple. Cloud filled the temple, and the court was flooded with the radiance of the glory of the LORD. ⁵The sound of the cherubim’s wings carried to the outer court. It was like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks. ⁶When he had given the man dressed in linen the command, “Take fire from among the whirling wheels, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside one of the wheels. ⁷Then one of the cherubim reached out its hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among them. It took some and put it into the hands of the man dressed in linen, who took it and went out. ⁸Under their wings the cherubim could be seen to have something that looked like human hands. ⁹I looked, and there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub. The wheels gleamed like chrysolite. ¹⁰As for their appearance, all four had the same form, as if a wheel were inside a wheel. ¹¹When they moved, they could go in any of the four directions without turning as they went. Wherever the head faced, the wheels followed it, without turning as they went. ¹²Their whole bodies, their backs, their hands and their wings, and the wheels too, were full of eyes all around, the wheels that the four of them had. ¹³As for the wheels, I heard them called “the whirling wheels.” ¹⁴Each one had four faces: the first was the face of a cherub, the second a human face, the third a lion’s face and the fourth an eagle’s face.^{b 15}Then the cherubim rose up. These were the living creatures I had seen by the Kebar Canal. ¹⁶When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels stayed at their side. ¹⁷When the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when they rose, the wheels rose with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them. ¹⁸Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. ¹⁹As I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and they went out with the wheels beside them. They halted at the entrance to the east gate of the LORD’s house, with the glory of the God of Israel above them. ²⁰These were the living creatures I saw under the God of Israel at the Kebar Canal, and I knew that they were cherubim. ²¹Each had four faces and four wings, and under their wings was something that looked like human hands. ²²As for their faces, they were the very faces I had seen by the Kebar Canal, in how they looked and in what they were. Each one went straight ahead.