Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 331
EZEKIEL
On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside
the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions
of God. This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity.
(The Lord gave this message to Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, beside the
Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians, and he felt the hand of the
Lord take hold of him.)
As I looked, I saw a great storm coming from the north, driving before
it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and shone with brilliant light.
There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle of the fire glowed some
thing like gleaming amber. From the center of the cloud came four living
beings that looked human, except that each had four faces and four wings.
Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a calf and
shone like burnished bronze. Under each of their four wings I could see
human hands. So each of the four beings had four faces and four wings.
The wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it.
Each one moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.
Each had a human face in the front, the face of a lion on the right side,
the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle at the back. Each
had two pairs of outstretched wings—one pair stretched out to touch the
wings of the living beings on either side of it, and the other pair covered its
body. They went in whatever direction the spirit chose, and they moved
straight forward in any direction without turning around.
The living beings looked like bright coals of fire or brilliant torches,
and lightning seemed to flash back and forth among them. And the living
beings darted to and fro like flashes of lightning.
As I looked at these beings, I saw four wheels touching the ground be
side them, one wheel belonging to each. The wheels sparkled as if made
of beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel
had a second wheel turning crosswise within it. The beings could move in
any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved. The
rims of the four wheels were tall and frightening, and they were covered
with eyes all around.
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