Discovery BoxEzekiel 10:9-22
Context10:9 As I watched, I noticed 1 four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; 2 the wheels gleamed like jasper. 3 10:10 As for their appearance, all four of them looked the same, something like a wheel within a wheel. 4 10:11 When they 5 moved, they would go in any of the four directions they faced without turning as they moved; in the direction the head would turn they would follow 6 without turning as they moved, 10:12 along with their entire bodies, 7 their backs, their hands, and their wings. The wheels of the four of them were full of eyes all around. 10:13 As for their wheels, they were called “the wheelwork” 8 as I listened. 10:14 Each of the cherubim 9 had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub, 10 the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.
10:15 The cherubim rose up; these were the living beings 11 I saw at the Kebar River. 10:16 When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them; when the cherubim spread 12 their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not move from their side. 10:17 When the cherubim 13 stood still, the wheels 14 stood still, and when they rose up, the wheels 15 rose up with them, for the spirit 16 of the living beings 17 was in the wheels. 18
10:18 Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. 10:19 The cherubim spread 19 their wings, and they rose up from the earth 20 while I watched (when they went the wheels went alongside them). They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the Lord’s temple as the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.
10:20 These were the living creatures 21 which I saw at the Kebar River underneath the God of Israel; I knew that they were cherubim. 10:21 Each had four faces; each had four wings and the form of human hands under the wings. 10:22 As for the form of their faces, they were the faces whose appearance I had seen at the Kebar River. Each one moved straight ahead.
[10:9] 1 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[10:9] 2 tn The MT repeats this phrase, a clear case of dittography.
[10:9] 3 tn Heb “Tarshish stone.” The meaning is uncertain. The term has also been translated “topaz” (NEB), “beryl” (KJV, NASB, NRSV), and “chrysolite” (RSV, NIV).
[10:10] 4 tn Or “like a wheel at right angles to another wheel.” Some envision concentric wheels here, while others propose “a globe-like structure in which two wheels stand at right angles” (L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:33-34). See also 1:16.
[10:11] 5 sn That is, the cherubim.
[10:11] 6 tn Many interpreters assume that the human face of each cherub was the one that looked forward.
[10:12] 7 tc The phrase “along with their entire bodies” is absent from the LXX and may be a gloss explaining the following words.
[10:13] 8 tn Or “the whirling wheels.”
[10:14] 9 tn Heb “each one”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:14] 10 sn The living creature described here is thus slightly different from the one described in Ezek 1:10, where a bull’s face appeared instead of a cherub’s. Note that some English versions harmonize the two descriptions and read the same here as in 1:10 (cf. NAB, NLT “an ox”; TEV, CEV “a bull”). This may be justified based on v. 22, which states the creatures’ appearance was the same.
[10:15] 11 tn Heb “it was the living creature.”
[10:17] 13 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:17] 14 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:17] 15 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:17] 17 tn Heb “living creature.”
[10:17] 18 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
