God's glory leaves the temple

10 In the vision, I saw something that looked like a throne. It was made from a blue jewel called sapphire. It was above the roof and it was high over the heads of the cherubs. ² The Lord said to the man who was wearing linen clothes, ‘Go between the wheels that are under the cherubs. Pick up some of the hot coals that are burning among the cherubs. Fill your hands with them. Then throw them everywhere over the city.’ Then the man did this, as I watched him.

³ The cherubs stood at the south side of the temple when the man went in among them. A cloud filled the inside yard of the temple.^{[a] 4} Then the Lord's bright glory rose up. It went up from above the cherubs. It moved to the entrance of the temple. The cloud filled the temple. The bright glory of the Lord's shone everywhere in the yard. ⁵ The noise of the cherubs' wings was very loud. It reached as far as the outside yard. The noise was like the voice of Almighty God when he speaks.

⁶ The Lord gave a command to the man who was wearing linen clothes. He said, ‘Go in among the cherubs. Take coals of fire from between the wheels.’ So the man went in and he stood beside one of the wheels.

⁷ Then one of the cherubs put his hand towards the fire which was among the cherubs. He took some coals from the fire. He put them into the hands of the man who was wearing linen clothes. The man took the coals and he went out. ⁸ (Under the wings of the cherubs I could see something that looked like human hands.)

⁹ In the vision, I saw four wheels beside the cherubs. There was one wheel at the side of each cherub. The wheels shone like bright jewels. ¹⁰ All the four wheels looked the same. Each wheel had another wheel that went across the middle of it. ¹¹ When the cherubs moved, they could go forward in any of the four directions. They did not have to turn as they moved. When the head turned in a certain direction, they would move that way. They did not need to turn. ¹² Eyes completely covered their bodies. This included their backs, their hands and their wings. Eyes also covered the edges of all the wheels. ¹³ I heard someone call the wheels, ‘wheels that turn very fast’.^[b]

¹⁴ Each of the cherubs had four faces. One face was the face of a bull. The second face was the face of a man. The third face was a lion's face. And the fourth face was an eagle's face.

¹⁵ The cherubs rose up into the air. They were the same as the living things that I had seen beside the River Kebar. ¹⁶ When they moved, the wheels that were beside them also moved. When the cherubs lifted up their wings to fly into the air, the wheels moved beside them. ¹⁷ When the cherubs stood still, the wheels also stood still. And when the cherubs rose in the air, the wheels also rose with them. This was because the spirit of the living things was in the wheels.

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the entrance of the temple. It stopped at a place above the cherubs. ¹⁹ Then the cherubs lifted up their wings and they rose up from the ground. The wheels also moved with them. I watched them do this. They stopped by the east gate of the Lord's temple. The glory of Israel's God stayed above them.^[c]

²⁰ They were the same living things that I had seen beside the Kebar River when they were under Israel's God. I realized that they were cherubs. ²¹ Each of them had four faces and four wings. They had something with the shape of human hands under their wings. ²² They had the same four faces that I had seen beside the River Kebar. Each of them moved forward and they did not turn.