Ezekiel

Ezekiel

¹It happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was among the captives by the river Chebar: the heavens opened, and I saw visions of God. ²It was the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year after King Jeconiah was taken into captivity. ³The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of Persia by the river Chebar. And the hand of the LORD came upon me. ⁴I looked, and a wind was coming out of the north, with a great cloud and brightness all around it. Fire flashed out of it, and in its center was something that looked like gleaming amber in the middle of the fire. ⁵Out of its center came the likeness of four living creatures, and this was how they looked: they had a human face among them. ⁶Each one had four faces and four wings. ⁷Their legs were straight, and their feet had soles like the sole of a calf's foot. Light flashed from them, and they darted about like glowing bronze. ⁸They had human hands under their wings on their four sides, and all four had their faces and their wings joined together. ⁹The wings of each one were joined to the others. When they moved, they went straight ahead and did not turn; each one went straight forward. ¹⁰This is how their faces looked: a human face and a lion's face on the right of all four, and an ox's face and an eagle's face on the left of all four. ¹¹Their wings were spread out above. With two wings each was joined to the others, and with two they covered their bodies. ¹²Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit was, they followed, and they did not turn. ¹³The living creatures looked like burning coals of fire and like torches moving back and forth among the creatures. The fire was bright, and lightning came out of the fire. ¹⁴The living creatures ran and turned back like flashes of lightning. ¹⁵I looked, and I saw a wheel on the ground beneath the four living creatures. ¹⁶The wheels looked like tarshish stone, and all four had the same form. They were made like a wheel inside a wheel. ¹⁷They moved in any of their four directions without turning their backs as they went, and they were very high. ¹⁸I saw that their rims were full of eyes all around, all four of them. When the creatures moved, the wheels moved with them. ¹⁹When the creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose with them too. ²⁰Wherever the cloud was, the spirit was there. The creatures moved, and the wheels rose with them, because the spirit of life was in those wheels. ²¹When the creatures moved, the wheels moved. When they stood still, the wheels stood still. When they rose from the earth, the wheels rose with them, because the spirit of life was in the wheels. ²²Above the heads of the living creatures was something like a sky, the color of ice, spread out over their wings above. ²³Under that sky their wings were spread out, joined one to another, and with two wings each covered its body. ²⁴As they moved, I heard the sound of their wings. It was like the roar of many waters, like the noise of an army, like the din of a camp. Whether they moved or stood, they folded their wings. ²⁵A voice came from above the sky over their heads. When they stood still, they folded their wings. ²⁶Above the sky over their heads was the likeness of a throne that looked like sapphire, and high above, on the likeness of the throne, was a figure that looked like a man. ²⁷I saw something like gleaming amber, like fire inside it and all around it. From what looked like his waist upward, and from what looked like his waist downward, it looked like fire, and brightness surrounded him. ²⁸Like a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the brightness all around him.