^10:9As I watched, I noticed¹⁴ four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub;¹⁵ the wheels gleamed like jasper.¹⁶^10:10As for their appearance, all four of them looked the same, something like a wheel within a wheel.¹⁷^10:11When they¹⁸ 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 follow¹⁹ without turning as they moved, ^10:12along with their entire bodies,²⁰ their backs, their hands, and their wings. The wheels of the four of them were full of eyes all around. ^10:13As for their wheels, they were called “the wheelwork”²¹ as I listened. ^10:14Each of the cherubim²² had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub,²³ the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.

^10:15The cherubim rose up; these were the living beings²⁴ I saw at the Kebar River. ^10:16When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them; when the cherubim spread²⁵ their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not move from their side. ^10:17When the cherubim²⁶ stood still, the wheels²⁷ stood still, and when they rose up, the wheels²⁸ rose up with them, for the spirit²⁹ of the living beings³⁰ was in the wheels.³¹

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Footnotes

14 The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
15 The repeats this phrase, a clear case of dittography.
16 Heb “Tarshish stone.” The meaning is uncertain. The term has also been translated “topaz” (), “beryl” (, , ), and “chrysolite” (, ).
17 Or “like a wheel at right angles to another wheel.” Some envision concentric wheels here, while others propose “a globe-like structure in which two wheels stand at right angles” (L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [], 1:). See also 1:16.
18 That is, the cherubim.
19 Many interpreters assume that the human face of each cherub was the one that looked forward.
20 The phrase “along with their entire bodies” is absent from the and may be a gloss explaining the following words.
21 Or “the whirling wheels.”
22 Heb “each one”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 The living creature described here is thus slightly different from the one described in Ezek 1:10, where a bull’s face appeared instead of a cherub’s. Note that some English versions harmonize the two descriptions and read the same here as in 1:10 (cf. , “an ox”; , “a bull”). This may be justified based on v. 22, which states the creatures’ appearance was the same.
24 Heb “it was the living creature.”
25 Heb “lifted.”
26 Heb “they”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
27 Heb “they”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 Heb “they”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
29 Or “wind.”
30 Heb “living creature.”
31 Heb “them”; the referent (the wheels) has been specified in the translation for clarity.