The Glory of God Leaves the Temple

10 Then I looked, and in the expanse that was above the heads of the cherubim there appeared over them, as it were, a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. ² And He spoke to the man clothed with linen and said, “Go in between the wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with coals of fire from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And he entered in my sight.

³ Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. ⁴ Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub and stood over the threshold of the temple. And the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of the Lord. ⁵ The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of the Almighty God when He speaks.

⁶ When He had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, “Take fire from between the wheels, from among the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside the wheel. ⁷ One cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubs, and took some, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed with linen, who took it and went out. ⁸ There appeared among the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

⁹ Then I looked, and there were the four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub. And the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a beryl stone. ¹⁰ As for their appearances, all four had one likeness, as if one wheel had been in the middle of a wheel. ¹¹ When they went, they went on their four sides. They did not turn as they went, but they followed to the place wherever the head looked. They did not turn as they went. ¹² Their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels that the four had were full of eyes all round. ¹³ As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing the whirling wheels. ¹⁴ Each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was 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 up. They are the living creatures that I saw by the River Kebar. ¹⁶ When the cherubim went, the wheels went by them. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also would not turn from beside them. ¹⁷ When the cherubim stood, the wheels stood. And when they rose up, the wheels also rose up with them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. ¹⁹ The cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them. They stood at the door of the east gate of the house of the Lord; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²⁰ These are the living creatures that I saw under the God of Israel by the River Kebar. So I knew that they were cherubim. ²¹ Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings. And the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. ²² The likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the River Kebar, their appearances and themselves. Each went straight forward.