Ezekiel 1:5–21

^5*At the centre of the storm, I saw what looked like four living creatures in human form, ⁶but each of them had four faces and four wings. ⁷Their legs were straight, and they had hoofs like those of a bull. They shone like polished bronze. ⁸In addition to their four faces and four wings, they each had four human hands, one under each wing. ⁹Two wings of each creature were spread out so that the creatures formed a square with their wing tips touching. When they moved, they moved as a group without turning their bodies.

^10*Each living creature had four different faces: a human face in front, a lion’s face at the right, a bull’s face at the left, and an eagle’s face at the back. ¹¹Two wings^b of each creature were raised so that they touched the tips of the wings of the creatures next to it, and their other two wings were folded against their bodies. ¹²Each creature faced all four directions, and so the group could go wherever they wished, without having to turn.

^13*Among^c the creatures there was something that looked like a blazing torch, constantly moving. The fire would blaze up and shoot out flashes of lightning. ¹⁴The creatures themselves darted to and fro with the speed of lightning.

^15*As I was looking at the four creatures, I saw four wheels touching the ground, one beside each of them.^{d 16*}All four wheels were alike; each one shone like a precious stone, and each had another wheel intersecting it at right angles, ^17*so that the wheels could move in any of the four directions. ^18*The rims of the wheels were covered with eyes.^{e 19*}Whenever the creatures moved, the wheels moved with them, and if the creatures rose up from the earth, so did the wheels. ^20*The creatures went wherever they wished, and the wheels did exactly what the creatures did, because the creatures controlled them. ^21*So every time the creatures moved or stopped or rose in the air, the wheels did exactly the same.