Ezekiel 10

¹ I looked, and I saw that above the vault over the cherubs’ heads there was something that looked like a sapphire, and there showed above them the semblance of a throne.

² He then said to the man in white, ‘Go under the chariot, beneath the cherubs; take a handful of burning coal from between the cherubs and scatter it over the city’. He went in as I watched.

³ The cherubs were on the right of the Temple as the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.

⁴ The glory of Yahweh rose off the cherubs and up to the threshold of the Temple; the Temple was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of Yahweh.

⁵ The noise of the cherubs’ wings could be heard even in the outer court, like the thunder of God Almighty when he speaks.

⁶ When he ordered the man in white to take the fire from under the chariot, between the cherubs, the man went and stopped by the wheel;

⁷ one cherub stretched his hand towards the fire which was between the cherubs, took some and put it into the hands of the man in white, who took it and went off.

⁸ I then saw that the cherubs had what seemed to be a human hand under their wings.

⁹ I looked; there were four wheels at the side of the cherubs, one wheel at the side of each cherub, and the wheels glittered as if made of chrysolite.

¹⁰ All four looked alike, and seemed to be one inside the other.

¹¹ They went forward four ways and kept their course unswervingly, moving the way they faced and never swerving off their course.

¹² Their bodies, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels – the wheels of all four – were covered in eyes all over.

¹³ I heard that the wheels were called ‘galgal’.

¹⁴ Each cherub had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵ The cherubs rose; this was the creature I had seen by the river Chebar.

¹⁶ As the cherubs went forward, the wheels went forward beside them; and the wheels did not swerve even when the cherubs spread their wings to leave the ground.

¹⁷ When the former stopped, the latter stopped; when the former rose, the latter rose with them, since the spirit of the creature was in them.

¹⁸ The glory of Yahweh came out from the Temple threshold and paused over the cherubs.

¹⁹ The cherubs spread their wings and rose from the ground to leave, and as I watched the wheels rose with them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of Yahweh, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.

²⁰ This was the creature that I had seen supporting the God of Israel beside the river Chebar, and I was now certain that these were cherubs.

²¹ Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings.

²² Their faces were just as I had seen them beside the river Chebar. Each moved straight forward.