Ezekiel 10:9-19

9 I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz.

10 As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel.

11 As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about^[a] as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went.

12 Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels.

13 I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.”

14 Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

15 Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the living creatures I had seen by the Kebar River.

16 When the cherubim moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side.

17 When the cherubim stood still, they also stood still; and when the cherubim rose, they rose with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

18 Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.

19 While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the LORD’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

Ezekiel 10:9-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 10

In this chapter is a vision, very much like that in the first chapter, with some difference, and with a different view, the design of it being to represent the wrath of God against Jerusalem, and his departure from the city and temple. A throne much like that in Eze 1:26 is described, Eze 10:1; orders are given from it to scatter coals over the city, Eze 10:2; the situation of the cherubim when these orders were given, Eze 10:3; the removal of the glory of the Lord from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the consequences of it; the house filled with smoke; the court with the brightness of the Lord's glory; and the sound of the cherubim's wings heard to the outer court, as the voice of God, Eze 10:4,5; the orders of taking and scattering fire over the city executed, and the manner in which they were, Eze 10:6,7; a description of the cherubim and the wheels, much like that in the first chapter, Eze 10:8-17; the departure of the glory of God from the threshold to the east gate of the Lord's house, with the motion of the cherubim and wheels along with him, Eze 10:18,19; and the chapter is concluded with observing, that the cherubim are the same with the living creatures seen in the vision of the first chapter, and had the same form, likeness, and motion, Eze 10:20-22.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 28:20; Ezekiel 1:15-16; Revelation 21:20
• 2. Revelation 4:6-8
• 3. Ezekiel 1:15-21
• 4. 1 Kings 7:36
• 5. Ezekiel 1:6
• 6. 1 Kings 7:29
• 7. Ezekiel 1:10; Ezekiel 41:19; Revelation 4:7
• 8. S Isaiah 6:2; Ezekiel 1:3,5
• 9. S Psalms 137:1
• 10. S Ezekiel 3:13; Ezekiel 1:20-21
• 11. S 1 Samuel 4:21
• 12. S Psalms 18:10
• 13. Ezekiel 11:1,22
• 14. Ezekiel 43:4

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "aside"