32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, [they] gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

² So Aaron replied, Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and daughters, and bring them to me.

³ So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.

⁴ And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

⁵ And when Aaron saw the molten calf, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.

⁶ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves;

⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people;

¹⁰ Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation.

¹¹ But Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why does Your wrath blaze hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

¹² Why should the Egyptians say, For evil He brought them forth, to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and change Your mind concerning this evil against Your people.

¹³ [Earnestly] remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

¹⁴ Then the Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do to His people.

10 Then I looked and behold, in the firmament that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something looking like a sapphire stone, in form resembling a throne.

² And [the Lord] spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, Go in among the whirling wheels under the cherubim; fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city. And he went in before my eyes.^(A)

³ Now the cherubim stood on the south side of the house when the man went in; and the cloud [the Shekinah] filled the inner court.

⁴ Then the glory of the Lord mounted up from the cherubim to stand over the threshold of the [Lord’s] house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory.^(B)

⁵ And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks.^(C)

⁶ And when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, [the man] went in and stood beside a wheel.

⁷ And a cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

⁸ And the cherubim seemed to have the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

⁹ And I looked and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like sparkling chrysolite.

¹⁰ And as for their appearance, they four looked alike, as if a wheel had been within a wheel.

¹¹ When they went, they went in any one of the four directions [in which their four individual faces were turned]; they did not turn as they went, but to the place to which the front wheel faced the others followed; they turned not as they went.

¹² And their whole body, their backs, their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that each had.

¹³ As regarding the wheels [attached to them], they were called in my hearing the whirling wheels.

¹⁴ And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵ And the cherubim mounted upward. This is the [same] living creature [the four regarded as one] that I saw by the river Chebar [in Babylonia].^(D)

¹⁶ And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels did not turn from beside them.

¹⁷ When those stood still, these stood still; and when those mounted up, these [the wheels] mounted up also, for the spirit of life was in these [wheels].^(E)

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord [the Shekinah, cloud] went forth from above the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.

¹⁹ And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight, and they went forth with the wheels beside them; and they stood at the entrance of the East Gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel [the Shekinah, cloud] was over them.

²⁰ This is the living creature [of four combined creatures] that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.

²¹ Each one had four faces and each one had four wings, and what looked like the hands of a man was under their wings.

²² And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces which I saw by the river Chebar, with regard to their appearances and themselves; they went every one straight forward.

4 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard addressing me like [the calling of] a ^[a]war trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future.

² At once I came under the [Holy] Spirit’s power, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne!^(A)

³ And He Who sat there appeared like [the crystalline brightness of] jasper and [the fiery] sardius, and encircling the throne there was a halo that looked like [a rainbow of] emerald.^(B)

⁴ Twenty-four other thrones surrounded the throne, and seated on these thrones were twenty-four elders (^[b]the members of the heavenly Sanhedrin), arrayed in white clothing, with crowns of gold upon their heads.

⁵ Out from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne seven blazing torches burned, which are the seven Spirits of God [^[c]the sevenfold Holy Spirit];

⁶ And in front of the throne there was also what looked like a transparent glassy sea, as if of crystal. And around the throne, in the center at each side of the throne, were four living creatures (beings) who were full of eyes in front and behind [with intelligence as to what is before and at the rear of them].^(C)

⁷ The first living creature (being) was like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature [was] like a flying eagle.^(D)

⁸ And the four living creatures, individually having six wings, were full of eyes all over and within [underneath their wings]; and day and night they never stop saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty (Omnipotent), Who was and Who is and Who is to come.^(E)

⁹ And whenever the living creatures offer glory and honor and thanksgiving to Him Who sits on the throne, Who lives forever and ever (through the eternities of the eternities),^(F)

¹⁰ The twenty-four elders (^[d]the members of the heavenly Sanhedrin) fall prostrate before Him Who is sitting on the throne, and they worship Him Who lives forever and ever; and they throw down their crowns before the throne, crying out,

¹¹ Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and dominion, for You created all things; by Your will they were [brought into being] and were created.^(G)