“carved image,” and may have been too closely associated with the kind of idolatry Ezekiel witnessed all around him in Babylon. dēmût may also be used of idols (cf. Exod. 20:4), but it is more abstract. What Ezekiel sees is not an actual representation but a reflection of deity. Nevertheless, the redundancy of “a likeness like the appearance of a man” guards the prophet from even contemplating any idolatrous notions. While extra-Israelite motifs have been incorporated into the vision, this strategy