Yehezkiel 10:10-14

10:10 As for their appearance, all four of them looked the same, something like a wheel within a wheel. ¹  10:11 When they ²  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 follow ³  without turning as they moved, 10:12 along with their entire bodies, ⁴  their backs, their hands, and their wings. The wheels of the four of them were full of eyes all around. 10:13 As for their wheels, they were called “the wheelwork” ⁵  as I listened. 10:14 Each of the cherubim ⁶  had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub, ⁷  the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.

[10:10]  ¹ tn 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 [WBC], 1:33-34). See also 1:16.

[10:11]  ² sn That is, the cherubim.

[10:11]  ³ tn Many interpreters assume that the human face of each cherub was the one that looked forward.

[10:12]  ⁴ tc The phrase “along with their entire bodies” is absent from the LXX and may be a gloss explaining the following words.

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Or “the whirling wheels.”

[10:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “each one”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:14]  ⁷ sn 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. NAB, NLT “an ox”; TEV, CEV “a bull”). This may be justified based on v. 22, which states the creatures’ appearance was the same.