The Babylonian Exile

You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.

Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?

Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,

unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.

In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.

On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—

the word of the LORD came directly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Kebar. And there the LORD’s hand was upon him.

I looked and saw a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire was a gleam like amber,

and within it was the form of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had a human form,

but each had four faces and four wings.

Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, gleaming like polished bronze.

Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four living creatures had faces and wings,

and their wings were touching one another. They did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead.

The form of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and also the face of an eagle.

Such were their faces. Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching the wings of the creature on either side, and two wings covering its body.

Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they moved.

In the midst of the living creatures was the appearance of glowing coals of fire, or of torches. Fire moved back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it.

The creatures were darting back and forth as quickly as flashes of lightning.

When I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces.

The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel.

As they moved, they went in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved.

Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

So as the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose.

Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

When the creatures moved, the wheels moved; when the creatures stood still, the wheels stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.