The Vision of the Chariot

1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the River Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.^{(A) 2} On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin),^{(B) 3} the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar, and the hand of the Lord was on him there.

⁴ As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually and in the middle of the fire something like gleaming amber.^{(C) 5} In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form.^{(D) 6} Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings.^{(E) 7} Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze.^{(F) 8} Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus:^{(G) 9} their wings touched one another; each of them moved straight ahead, without turning as they moved. ¹⁰ As for the appearance of their faces: the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle;^{(H) 11} such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.^{(I) 12} Each moved straight ahead; wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. ¹³ In the middle of^[a] the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; the fire was bright, and lightning issued from the fire.^{(J) 14} The living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning.^(K)

¹⁵ As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.^{[b](L) 16} As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl, and the four had the same form, their construction being something like a wheel within a wheel.^{(M) 17} When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved.^{(N) 18} Their rims were tall and awesome, for the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.^{(O) 19} When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.^{(P) 20} Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for a living spirit was in the wheels.^{(Q) 21} When they moved, the others moved; when they stopped, the others stopped; and when they rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for a living spirit was in the wheels.^(R)

²² Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome, shining like crystal,^[c] spread out above their heads.^{(S) 23} Under the dome their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another, and each of the creatures had two wings covering its body. ²⁴ When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of mighty waters, like the thunder of the Almighty,^[d] a sound of tumult like the sound of an army; when they stopped, they let down their wings.^{(T) 25} And there came a voice from above the dome over their heads; when they stopped, they let down their wings.

²⁶ And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire,^[e] and seated above the likeness of the throne was something that seemed like a human form.^{(U) 27} Upward from what appeared like the loins I saw something like gleaming amber, something that looked like fire enclosed all around, and downward from what looked like the loins I saw something that looked like fire, and there was a splendor all around.^{(V) 28} Like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendor all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.^(W)

The Vision of the Scroll

2 He said to me: “O mortal,^[f] stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.”^{(X) 2} And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.^{(Y) 3} He said to me, “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation^[g] of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day.^{(Z) 4} The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’^{(AA) 5} Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.^{(AB) 6} And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.^{(AC) 7} You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.^(AD)

⁸ “But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”^{(AE) 9} I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^{(AF) 10} He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

3 He said to me, “O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”^{(AG) 2} So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. ³ He said to me, “Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.^(AH)

⁴ He said to me, “Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.^{(AI) 7} But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me, because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.^{(AJ) 8} See, I have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. ⁹ Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”^{(AK) 10} He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹ then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”^(AL)

Ezekiel at the River Chebar

¹² Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose^[h] from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling;^{(AM) 13} it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another and the sound of the wheels beside them that sounded like a loud rumbling. ¹⁴ The spirit lifted me up and bore me away; I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me.^{(AN) 15} I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar.^[i] And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.^(AO)

¹⁶ At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.^{(AP) 18} When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give them no warning and do not speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way in order to save their lives, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(AQ) 19} But if you warn the wicked and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.^{(AR) 20} Again, if the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before them, they shall die; because you have not warned them, they shall die for their sin, and their righteous deeds that they have done shall not be remembered, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(AS) 21} If, however, you warn the righteous not to sin and they do not sin, they shall surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved your life.^(AT)

Ezekiel Isolated and Silenced

²² Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, “Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.”^{(AU) 23} So I rose up and went out into the valley, and the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell on my face.^{(AV) 24} The spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.^{(AW) 25} As for you, mortal, cords shall be placed on you, and you shall be bound with them so that you cannot go out among the people,^{(AX) 26} and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.^{(AY) 27} But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; let those who will hear, hear, and let those who refuse to hear, refuse, for they are a rebellious house.^(AZ)

Abominations in the Temple

8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.^{(A) 2} I looked, and there was a figure that looked like a man;^[a] below what appeared to be its loins the figure was fire, and above the loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming amber.^{(B) 3} It stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, to the seat of the image of jealousy that provokes to jealousy.^(C)

God’s Glory Leaves Jerusalem

10 Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire,^[a] in form resembling a throne.^{(A) 2} He said to the man clothed in linen, “Go within the wheelwork underneath the cherubim; fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He went in as I looked on.^{(B) 3} Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.^{(C) 4} Then the glory of the Lord rose up from the cherub to the entryway of the temple; the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of the Lord.^{(D) 5} The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty^[b] when he speaks.^(E)

⁶ When he commanded the man clothed in linen, “Take fire from within the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside a wheel. ⁷ And a cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the cherubim, took some of it, and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. ⁸ The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings.

⁹ I looked, and there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like gleaming beryl.^{(F) 10} And as for their appearance, the four looked alike, something like a wheel within a wheel. ¹¹ When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved, but in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without veering as they moved. ¹² Their entire bodies—backs, hands, and wings—were covered with eyes all around, as were the wheels of the four of them.^{(G) 13} As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing “the wheelwork.” ¹⁴ Each one had four faces: the first face was that of the cherub, the second face was that of a human, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.^(H)

¹⁵ The cherubim rose up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the River Chebar. ¹⁶ When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise up from the earth, the wheels at their side did not veer.^{(I) 17} When they stopped, the others stopped, and when they rose up, the others rose up with them, for a living spirit was in them.^(J)

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord went out from the entryway of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. ¹⁹ The cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight as they went out with the wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.^(K)

²⁰ These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.^{(L) 21} Each had four faces, each four wings, and underneath their wings something like human hands.^{(M) 22} As for what their faces were like, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the River Chebar. Each one moved straight ahead.^(N)