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Ezekiel

About this book
Chapter 10

1 As I watched, I saw on the platform above the top of the cherubim something like a sapphire, resembling the shape of a throne, appearing above them. 2 The Lord said to the man dressed in linen, “Go between the wheelwork underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” He went as I watched. 3 (The cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.) 4 Then the glory of the Lord arose from the cherub and moved to the threshold of the temple.⁠ The temple was filled with the cloud while the court was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory. 5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard from the outer court, like the sound of the Sovereign God when he speaks. 6 When the Lord commanded the man dressed in linen, “Take fire from within the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood by one of the wheels. 7 Then one of the cherubim stretched out his hand toward the fire that was among the cherubim. He took some and put it into the hands of the man dressed in linen, who took it and left. 8 (The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.) 9 As I watched, I noticed four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; the wheels gleamed like jasper. 10 As for their appearance, all four of them looked the same, something like a wheel within a wheel. 11 When they moved, they would go in any of the four directions they faced without turning as they moved; in the direction the head would turn they would follow without turning as they moved, 12 along with their entire bodies, their backs, their hands, and their wings. The wheels of the four of them were full of eyes all around.⁠ 13 As for their wheels, they were called “the wheelwork” as I listened. 14 Each of the cherubim had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle. 15 The cherubim rose up; these were the living beings I saw at the Kebar River. 16 When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them; when the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not move from their side. 17 When the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when they rose up, the wheels rose up with them, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. 18 Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. 19 The cherubim spread their wings, and they rose up from the earth while I watched (when they went, the wheels went alongside them). They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the Lord’s temple as the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them. 20 These were the living creatures⁠ that I saw at the Kebar River underneath the God of Israel; I knew that they were cherubim. 21 Each had four faces; each had four wings and the form of human hands under the wings. 22 As for the form of their faces, they were the faces whose appearance I had seen at the Kebar River. Each one moved straight ahead.

Texts in conversation

Compare Ezekiel 10:12 and 3 Enoch 25:5

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Ezekiel, the wheels next to the cherubim are described as covered with eyes. In 3 Enoch, an angel prepares the eye-covered wheels to praise God, organizing the image of the heavenly liturgy.

Passages

Ezekiel 10:12

Hebrew Bible
11 When they moved, they would go in any of the four directions they faced without turning as they moved; in the direction the head would turn they would follow without turning as they moved, 12 along with their entire bodies, their backs, their hands, and their wings. The wheels of the four of them were full of eyes all around. 13 As for their wheels, they were called “the wheelwork” as I listened. 14 Each of the cherubim had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

3 Enoch 25:5

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
5 Why is he called 'OPHPHANNIEL? Because he is appointed over the 'Ophannim and the 'Ophannim are given in his charge. He stands every day and attends and beautifies them. And he exalts and orders their apartment and polishes their standing-place and makes bright their dwellings, makes their corners even and cleanses their seats. And he waits upon them early and late, by day and by night, to increase their beauty, to make great their dignity and to make them diligent in praise of their Creator. 6 And all the 'Ophannim are full of eyes, and they are all full of brightness; seventy two sapphire stones are fixed on their garments on their right side and seventy two sapphire stones are fixed on their garments on their left side.
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... 1. Theophanies: The visions of the Merkabah in Ezekiel 1; 3:12-15, 22-24; 8:1-4; 10:1-22; and 43:1-7 were their basic texts. These provided them with such fundamental elements as the Merkabah (3En 1:1, 5-7); the wheels (ophanim; 3En 25); the four creatures (hayyot; 3En 20f.); the throne of glory (3En 1:10,12); the hasmal (3En 36:2,7); the cherubim (3En 22). Daniel 7:9-10 and Isaiah 6 were incorporated into Ezekiel's picture. Daniel 7 records a vision of God seated on a fiery throne which has wheels of flame. It furnishes the additional motifs of the heavenly law court (3En 28:7), the River of Fire (3En 18:19-21; 19:4; 33:4; 36:1-2; 37:1), and the hosts of attendant angels (cf. 3En 19:6). Isaiah 6 contains a vision of God seated on a high and exalted throne (cf. 3En 26:12). Isaiah 6 contributes to the total picture the seraphim (3En 26) and the QeduSSah (3En 1:12; 20:2). Note also the vision of heaven in 1 Kings 22:19-22, in which the Lord is seen seated on his throne with all the array of heaven standing before him. Ezekiel employs the language of the nature theophanies ("fire, lightning, storm") to express the appearance of God's glory. The Merkabah texts expand this imagery by drawing on other Old Testament accounts of nature theophanies, particularly God's appearance to Israel at Sinai (Ex 19:16-18; cf. IKgs 19:11- 13; Pss 18:7-15 and 97:2-5). For combinations of these elements see 3 Enoch 34 and 37. 2. Angels: Such Old Testament phrases as "the host of heaven" (IKgs 22:19) and "the host of the height" (Isa 24:31) suggest that the number of the angels is virtually infinite (cf. 3En 19:6). The Old Testament appplies various names to the angels: seraphim (Isa 6:2, 6); cherubim (Ezek 10); creatures (hayyot) (Ezek 1); Watchers and holy ones (Hrin and qaddisin) (Dan 4:14). 3 Enoch takes these names as designations of different orders of angels (3En 19-22; 25-28:6). The angels are represented in Genesis 19: If. and Daniel 8:15f. as having human form, and in Joshua 5:13; Numbers 22:23; and 1 Chronicles 21:16, 30 as being armed with weapons; cf. 3 Enoch 22:3-9. The powerful "angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament (who is sometimes hard to distinguish from God himself) may be the prototype of 3 Enoch's Metatron (cf. Ex 23:20-23 with Judg 2:1-5, and see 3En 12:5 and b.Sanh 38b). ...”
Philip S. Alexander, “3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983), 1:246.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Ezekiel 10:12 and 3 Enoch 25:5

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