Ezekiel 1

¹ In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was among the exiles by the Chebar River, the heavens opened, and I saw visions of God.

² It was the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.

³ The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the Chebar River. There the hand of the LORD was upon him.

⁴ I looked, and there was a storm wind coming from the north, a great cloud, and a fire flashing and swirling, with a radiance around it. From within it, from the midst of the fire, came something like the gleam of amber.

⁵ From within it came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the form of a human being.

⁶ Each had four faces, and each had four wings.

⁷ Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of a calf’s feet. They gleamed like polished bronze.

⁸ Under their wings, on their four sides, they had human hands. All four had faces and wings.

⁹ Their wings touched one another. They did not turn as they moved; each went straight ahead.

¹⁰ This was the shape of their faces: each had a human face. All four had a lion’s face on the right, an ox’s face on the left, and an eagle’s face.

¹¹ Their faces and wings were spread out above: each had two wings touching the wings of another, and two covering its body.

¹² Each went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit wished to go, they went; they did not turn as they moved.

¹³ The living creatures looked like blazing coals of fire, like flaming torches. The fire moved among the living creatures and shone brightly; lightning flashed out of the fire.

¹⁴ The living creatures darted back and forth, like flashes of lightning.

¹⁵ As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each of the four.

¹⁶ The wheels looked and were made like gleaming beryl, and all four were alike. Their appearance and construction were as if one wheel were inside another.

¹⁷ They could move in any of their four directions; they did not turn as they moved.

¹⁸ Their rims were tall and awe-inspiring, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.

¹⁹ When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose too.

²⁰ Wherever the spirit wished to go, they went; wherever the spirit went, the wheels rose alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²¹ When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved; when they stopped, the wheels stopped. When they rose from the ground, the wheels rose alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²² Above the heads of the living creatures was something like a vault, gleaming like awe-inspiring ice, stretched out overhead.

²³ Under the vault, their wings were straight, each facing the other. Each had two wings covering it and two covering its body.

²⁴ When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings: it was like the sound of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of tumult, like the sound of an army. When they stopped, they lowered their wings.

²⁵ A voice came from above the vault over their heads. When they stopped, they lowered their wings.

²⁶ Above the vault over their heads was something like a sapphire stone, shaped like a throne. Above the throne’s shape was a form that looked like a human being, high above.

²⁷ I saw something like the gleam of amber, with the appearance of fire all around it, within it, from what looked like its waist upward. From what looked like its waist downward, I saw something like fire, with a radiance all around it.

²⁸ Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the radiance all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown and heard the voice of someone speaking.

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