Ezekiel 1

¹ In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, as I was among the exiles on the bank of the river Chebar, heaven opened and I saw visions from God.

² On the fifth of the month – it was the fifth year of exile for King Jehoiachin –

³ the word of Yahweh was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldaeans, on the bank of the river Chebar.[*a]

⁴ I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with light around it, a fire from which flashes of lightning darted, and in the centre a sheen like bronze at the heart of the fire.

⁵ In the centre I saw what seemed four animals. They looked like this. They were of human form.

⁶ Each had four faces, each had four wings.

⁷ Their legs were straight; they had hooves like oxen, glittering like polished brass.

⁸ Human hands showed under their wings; the faces of all four were turned to the four quarters[*b].

⁹ Their wings touched each other; they did not turn as they moved; each one went straight forward.

¹⁰ As to what they looked like, they had human faces, and all four had a lion’s face to the right, and all four had a bull’s face to the left, and all four had an eagle’s face.

¹¹ Their wings were spread upwards; each had two wings that touched, and two wings that covered his body;

¹² and they all went straight forward; they went where the spirit urged them; they did not turn as they moved.

¹³ Between these animals something could be seen like flaming brands or torches, darting between the animals; the fire flashed light, and lightning streaked from the fire.

¹⁴ And the creatures ran to and fro like thunderbolts.

¹⁵ I looked at the animals; there was a wheel on the ground by each of them, one beside each of the four.

¹⁶ The wheels glittered as if made of chrysolite. All four looked alike, and seemed to be made one inside the other.

¹⁷ They went forward four ways and kept their course unswervingly.

¹⁸ Their rims seemed enormous when I looked at them and all four rims had eyes all the way round.

¹⁹ When the animals went forward, the wheels went forward beside them; and when the animals left the ground, the wheels too left the ground.

²⁰ Where the spirit urged them, there the wheels went, since the spirit of the animal was in the wheels.

²¹ When the animals moved on, they moved on; when the former halted, the latter halted; when the former left the ground, the wheels too left the ground, since the spirit of the animal was in the wheels.

²² Over the heads of the animals a sort of vault, gleaming like crystal, arched above their heads;

²³ under this vault their wings stretched out to one another, and each had two covering his body.

²⁴ I heard the noise of their wings as they moved; it sounded like rushing water, like the voice of Shaddai, a noise like a storm, like the noise of a camp; when they halted, they folded their wings,

²⁵ and there was a noise.

²⁶ Above the vault over their heads was something that looked like a sapphire; it was shaped like a throne and high up on this throne was a being that looked like a man.

²⁷ I saw him shine like bronze, and close to and all around him from what seemed his loins upwards was what looked like fire; and from what seemed his loins downwards I saw what looked like fire, and a light all round

²⁸ like a bow in the clouds on rainy days; that is how the surrounding light appeared. It was something that looked like the glory of Yahweh. I looked, and prostrated myself, and I heard a voice speaking.