Ezekiel 1:4-24

New Century Version

⁴ When I looked, I saw a stormy wind coming from the north. There was a great cloud with a bright light around it and fire flashing out of it. Something that looked like glowing metal was in the center of the fire. ⁵ Inside the cloud was what looked like four living creatures, who were shaped like humans, ⁶ but each of them had four faces and four wings. ⁷ Their legs were straight. Their feet were like a calf’s hoofs and sparkled like polished bronze. ⁸ The living creatures had human hands under their wings on their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings, ⁹ and their wings touched each other. The living creatures did not turn when they moved, but each went straight ahead.

¹⁰ Their faces looked like this: Each living creature had a human face and the face of a lion on the right side and the face of an ox on the left side. And each one also had the face of an eagle. ¹¹ That was what their faces looked like. Their wings were spread out above. Each had two wings that touched one of the other living creatures and two wings that covered its body. ¹² Each went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, the living creatures would also go, without turning. ¹³ The living creatures looked like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire went back and forth among the living creatures. It was bright, and lightning flashed from it. ¹⁴ The living creatures ran back and forth like bolts of lightning.

¹⁵ Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground by each of the living creatures with its four faces. ¹⁶ The wheels and the way they were made were like this: They looked like sparkling chrysolite. All four of them looked the same, like one wheel crossways inside another wheel. ¹⁷ When they moved, they went in any one of the four directions, without turning as they went. ¹⁸ The rims of the wheels were high and frightening and were full of eyes all around.

¹⁹ When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them. When the living creatures were lifted up from the ground, the wheels also were lifted up. ²⁰ Wherever the spirit would go, the living creatures would go. And the wheels were lifted up beside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ²¹ When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved. When the living creatures stopped, the wheels stopped. And when the living creatures were lifted from the ground, the wheels were lifted beside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²² Now, over the heads of the living creatures was something like a dome that sparkled like ice and was frightening. ²³ And under the dome the wings of the living creatures were stretched out straight toward one another. Each living creature also had two wings covering its body. ²⁴ I heard the sound of their wings, like the roaring sound of the sea, as they moved. It was like the voice of God Almighty, a roaring sound like a noisy army. When the living creatures stopped, they lowered their wings.