Ezekiel 1

1 And it cometh to pass, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth of the month, and I [am] in the midst of the Removed by the river Chebar, the heavens have been opened, and I see visions of God //Elohim//.

^2 ^In the fifth of the month -- it is the fifth year of the removal of the king Jehoiachin --

Kings - 2 Kings 24,, 2 Kings 25,

Ezekiel is a war refugee, stripped of all social standing, in the land of his captor, The thirtieth year is the year he would have started serving at the temple.

^3 ^hath the word of Jehovah certainly been unto Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and there is on him there a hand of Jehovah //Yahweh//.

^4 ^And I look, and lo, a tempestuous wind is coming from the north, a great cloud, and fire catching itself, and brightness to it round about, and out of its midst as the colour of copper, out of the midst of the fire.

Khashal (glowing object) - only time used in the Bible - now in modern day it refers to electricity.

^5 ^And out of its midst [is] a likeness of four living creatures, and this [is] their appearance; a likeness of man [is] to them,

Living things - same word in Genesis for wild animals.

^6 ^and four faces [are] to each, and four wings [are] to each of them,

^7 ^and their feet [are] straight feet, and the sole of their feet [is] as a sole of a calf's foot, and they are sparkling as the colour of bright brass;

^8 ^and hands of man under their wings -- on their four sides, and their faces and their wings -- [are] to them four;

^9 ^joining one unto another [are] their wings, they turn not round in their going, each straight forward they go.

^10 ^As to the likeness of their faces, the face of a man, and the face of a lion, toward the right [are] to them four, and the face of an ox on the left [are] to them four, and the face of an eagle [are] to them four.

^11 ^And their faces and their wings are separate from above, to each [are] two joining together, and two are covering their bodies.

^12 ^And each straight forward they go, whither the spirit //Ruach// is to go, they go, they turn not round in their going.

^13 ^As to the likeness of the living creatures, their appearances [are] as coals of fire -- burning as the appearance of lamps; it is going up and down between the living creatures, and brightness [is] to the fire, and out of the fire is going forth lightning.

^14 ^And the living creatures are running, and turning back, as the appearance of the flash.

^15 ^And I see the living creatures, and lo, one wheel [is] in the earth, near the living creatures, at its four faces.

^16 ^The appearance of the wheels and their works [is] as the colour of beryl, and one likeness [is] to them four, and their appearances and their works [are] as it were the wheel in the midst of the wheel.

Beryl = Tarshish stone, aquamarine

So the language he uses could mean like wheel with maybe what we might call, like a spoke wheel in the middle. It could also be that he's describing one wheel this way and another wheel perpendicular. - BP: Tim Mackie

^17 ^On their four sides, in their going they go, they turn not round in their going.

^18 ^As to their rings, they are both high and fearful, and their rings [are] full of eyes round about them four.

Hebrew word "eyes," which is, actually, a normal way in Hebrew to talk about a facet of a jewel.. You know, if you like etch a jewel with real refractive facets. So it could be that they were full of jeweled facets all around.

^19 ^And in the going of the living creatures, the wheels go beside them, and in the living creatures being lifted up from off the earth, lifted up are the wheels.

^20 ^Whither the spirit //Ruach// is to go, they go, thither the spirit //Ruach// [is] to go, and the wheels are lifted up over-against them, for a living spirit [is] in the wheels.

^21 ^In their going, they go; and in their standing, they stand; and in their being lifted up from off the earth, lifted up are the wheels over-against them; for a living spirit [is] in the wheels.

living spirit - singular - switching from four living beings to a singular living being with breath.

depiction from BP: Tim Mackie

Corresponse to pieces of the tabernacle :

• Cherebim, the boundary lines. Made up of all the categories of creatures
• On top of the ark of the testimony were two of these. A platform over which the diving glory rests. Ezekiel is seeing a more intense verision of what the high priest would see going into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement.

Other depiction:

• Psalms 18 - David said he rode upn a cherub and flew, sped upon the wings of the wind ... a similar image of the cherub over the ark of the witness.

^22 ^And a likeness [is] over the heads of the living creatures //living being - singular// of an expanse, as the colour of the fearful ice, stretched out over their heads from above.

"platform," it's the Hebrew word "raqia'." It's the same word used in Genesis 1 to talk about when God separated the waters from the waters, the blue thing that keeps the waters back. It's like a solid dome type thing. It's the same word used here for a solid platform. It's the sky. He's seeing the sky.

^23 ^And under the expanse their wings [are] straight, one toward the other, to each are two covering on this side, and to each are two covering on that side -- their bodies.

^24 ^And I hear the noise of their wings, as the noise of many waters, as the noise of the Mighty One, in their going -- the noise of tumult, as the noise of a camp, in their standing they let fall their wings.

^25 ^And there is a voice from above the expanse, that [is] above their head: in their standing they let fall their wings.

^26 ^And above the expanse that [is] over their head, as an appearance of a sapphire stone, [is] the likeness of a throne, and on the likeness of the throne a likeness, as the appearance of man upon it from above.

^27 ^And I see as the colour of copper, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of his loins and upward, and from the appearance of his loins and downward, I have seen as the appearance of fire, and brightness [is] to it round about.

Khashal (glowing object) - only time used in the Bible - now in modern day it refers to electricity.

^28 ^As the appearance of the bow //rainbow// that is in a cloud in a day of rain, so [is] the appearance of the brightness round about.

Some translations have:

This was the appearance of the lineness of the glory of Yahweh

and I saw and I fell upon my face.

Notes

BP: Ezekiel Class