Ezekiel 1:22

Hebrew Bible

20 Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise up beside them because the spirit of the living being was in the wheel. 21 When the living beings moved, the wheels moved, and when they stopped moving, the wheels stopped. When they rose up from the ground, the wheels rose up from the ground; the wheels rose up beside them because the spirit of the living being was in the wheel. 22 Over the heads of the living beings was something like a dome41, glittering awesomely like ice, stretched out over their heads. 23 Under the platform their wings were stretched out, each toward the other. Each of the beings also had two wings covering its body. 24 When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings—it was like the sound of rushing waters, or the voice of the Sovereign One, or the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

Sirach 43:13

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon

11 Look at the rainbow, and praise him who made it; it is exceedingly beautiful in its brightness. 12 It encircles the sky with its glorious arc; the hands of the Most High have stretched it out. 13 By his command he sends the driving snow and speeds the lightnings of his judgment. 14 Therefore the storehouses are opened, and the clouds fly out like birds. 15 In his majesty he gives the clouds their strength, and the hailstones are broken in pieces.

 Notes and References

"... If we discuss “throne” and “temple” within a cosmological context in ancient Judaism, another important text from the Tanak comes into focus: Ezekiel 1–3 (and chapters 8–11). In these visions, the prophet faces a heavenly scene that provides further important testimony to a heavenward-like, cosmological concept, by referring to the Cherubim (compare Ezekiel 10:1–9) and the “firmament” in connection with precious stones: crystal (Ezekiel 1:22) and sapphire or lapis lazuli (Ezekiel 1:26). The term, an embossed metal sheet or firm plate, denotes in Ezekiel 1 (compare verses 22–24, 26) the division between the earthly sky below and the upper heavens. The precious stones function as a symbolic realization of a divided heaven. This is already the case in a Neo-Assyrian religious explanatory text from the first millennium BCE, whose origin may be traced back to the Kassite period (second half of the second millennium BCE) ... As attested in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder (Natural History 37.37), jasper (Greek: ἴασπις) is a translucent stone, and also in Ezekiel 1:22 the firm plate is like the “splendor of ice” or “crystal”. What is more, just as Bel or Marduk sat on the “high podium inside,” in the lapis lazuli sanctuary, so Ezekiel 1:26 and 10:1 refer to the throne of YHWH, made of lapis lazuli (see also Exodus 24:9–10) ..."

Stefan Beyerle "Heaven: Use, Function and Content of a Cosmic Concept" in Duggan, Michael W., et al. (eds.) Cosmos and Creation: Second Temple Perspectives (pp. 13-33) De Gruyter, 2020

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