Vision of God’s Glory Departing from the Temple

¹Then I looked, and behold, in the expanse (firmament) that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared something [glorious and brilliant] above them looking like a [huge] sapphire stone, formed to resemble a throne. ² And the Lord spoke to the man (seventh angel) clothed in linen and said, “Go between the whirling wheels under the cherubim; fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And he entered as I watched.

³ Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered; and a cloud [the Shekinah glory of God] filled the inner courtyard. ⁴ Then the glory and brilliance of the Lord moved upward from the cherubim to [rest over] the threshold of the temple; and the temple was filled with the cloud and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory. ⁵ And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard [even] as far as the outer courtyard, like the voice of ^[a]God Almighty when He speaks.

⁶ It came about when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” the man entered and stood beside a wheel. ⁷ Then a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between [the four of] them, and took some [of it] and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and departed. ⁸ Beneath their wings the cherubim seemed to have [something in] the form of a man’s hand.

⁹ Then I looked and behold, [there were] four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and another wheel beside each other cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a sparkling Tarshish stone (beryl). ¹⁰ As for their appearance, all four looked alike, as if one wheel were within another wheel. ¹¹ When they moved, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went; but they followed in the direction which they faced, without turning as they went. ¹² Their whole body, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around, even the wheels belonging to all four of them. ¹³ Regarding the wheels [attached to them], I heard them called, “the whirling (rolling, revolving) wheels.” ¹⁴ And each one had four faces: the first face was the face of the ^[b]cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵ Then the cherubim rose upward. They are the [same four] living beings [regarded as one] that I saw by the River Chebar [in Babylonia]. ¹⁶ Now when the cherubim moved, the wheels would go beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the earth, the wheels would remain beside them. ¹⁷ When the cherubim stood still, the wheels would stand still; and when they rose upward, the wheels would rise with them, for the spirit of the living beings was in these [wheels].

¹⁸ Then the [Shekinah] glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and rested over the cherubim. ¹⁹ As I looked at them, the cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth, they departed with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory and brilliance of the God of Israel hovered over them.

²⁰ These are the living beings that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim. ²¹ Each one had four faces and each one had four wings, and beneath their wings was the form of human hands. ²² As for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the River Chebar. Each one went straight forward.