2 Samuel 22:15

Hebrew Bible

11 He mounted a cherub and flew; he glided on the wings of the wind. 12 He shrouded himself in darkness, in thick rain clouds. 13 From the brightness in front of him came coals of fire. 14 The Lord thundered from the sky; the Most High shouted loudly. 15 He shot arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them. 16 The depths of the sea were exposed; the inner regions of the world were uncovered by the Lord’s battle cry, by the powerful breath from his nose.

Ezekiel 1:4

Hebrew Bible

2 (On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile— 3 the Lord’s message came to the priest Ezekiel the son of Buzi, at the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. The hand of the Lord came on him there.) 4 As I watched, I noticed a windstorm coming from the north—an enormous cloud, with lightning flashing, such that bright light rimmed it and came from it like glowing amber from the middle of a fire. 5 In the fire were what looked like four living beings. In their appearance they had human form, 6 but each had four faces and four wings.

 Notes and References

"... The prophets chose another language, other imagery with which to describe their intercourse with Yahweh, drawn as we have seen from the concept of the messenger of the Council of ʾEl ... Nevertheless, they used a refined or purged language of revelation, because Yahweh, so to say, no longer used the storm as a mode of self-manifestation”. It appears that Cross had in mind the difference in language and imagery between such scenes of theophany as those described in 2 Samuel 22, 8–16 on the one hand, and those described in Isaiah and Ezekiel on the other. Schematizations, though, whenever they are made, should be applied with caution, and it seems that Ezekiel 1, 4, for instance, still has something in common with the storm-God kind of theophany. Noteworthy is the fact that God is described in the theophany of 2 Samuel 22 as riding the stormy clouds, yet He still occupies there a palace (Hekhal; v.7) as He does in Isaiah 6, 1 ..."

Gruenwald, Ithamar Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism (p. 69) Brill, 2014

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