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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 10:4 and 3 Enoch 5:13

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Ezekiel, God's glory is said to move from the cherub to the temple's threshold. In 3 Enoch, God withdraws from earth to heaven, extending Ezekiels' description of God's departure from the temple to a complete withdrawal from humanity.

Passages

Ezekiel 10:4

Hebrew Bible
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.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

3 Enoch 5:13

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
12 Now you are on earth and the idols likewise. What have you to do with the inhabitants of the earth who worship idols?" 13 At once the Holy One, blessed be He, lifted up His Shekina from the earth, from their midst. 14 In that moment came the ministering angels, the troops of hosts and the armies of 'Araboth in thousand camps and ten thousand hosts: they fetched trumpets and took the horns in their hands and surrounded the Shekina with all kinds of songs. And He ascended to the high heavens, as it is written (Ps. xlvii. 5): "God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet".
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... sinful humanity. Enoch is lifted on high in a fiery chariot (cf. 2 Kgs 2:11 and 1 En 70) and his removal coincides with the removal of the shekina from earth (cf. Ezek 10:4). He is taken on high, where he is shown all the secrets of heaven (3 En 8 and 11, Schäfer, Synopse § 892, 895), transformed into a glorious angelic being (chs. 9 and 15, Schäfer, Synopse § 856) and given a throne of glory and a name like that of God. He is placed at the door of the seventh hall of heaven (where God himself dwells) and is made God’s intermediary and vice-regent. Before him all the angels in heaven are compelled to prostrate themselves. This is the most exalted of all the traditions about Enoch. ...”
Christopher Rowland and Christopher R. A. Morray-Jones, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 44.

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 10:4 and 3 Enoch 5:13

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