²⁴ He drove out the humans, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.^(A)

⁷ Of the angels he says,

¹⁸ You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work at the two ends of the cover. ¹⁹ Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the cover you shall make the cherubim at its two ends. ²⁰ The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the cover with their wings. They shall face one to another; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the cover.^{(A) 21} You shall put the cover on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I am giving you.^{(B) 22} There I will meet with you, and from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will tell you all that I am commanding you for the Israelites.^(C)

¹⁶ David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.^{(A) 17} And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the command to count the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house, but do not let your people be plagued!”^(B)

¹⁸ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁹ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,^{(A) 20} by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),^{(B) 21} and since we have a great priest over the house of God,^{(C) 22} let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.^(D)

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.^(A)

² He said to the man clothed in linen, “Go within the wheelwork underneath the cherubim; fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He went in as I looked on.^{(A) 3} Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.^{(B) 4} Then the glory of the Lord rose up from the cherub to the entryway of the temple; the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of the Lord.^{(C) 5} The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty^[a] when he speaks.^(D)

⁶ When he commanded the man clothed in linen, “Take fire from within the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside a wheel. ⁷ And a cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the cherubim, took some of it, and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. ⁸ The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings.

⁹ I looked, and there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like gleaming beryl.^{(E) 10} And as for their appearance, the four looked alike, something like a wheel within a wheel. ¹¹ When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved, but in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without veering as they moved. ¹² Their entire bodies—backs, hands, and wings—were covered with eyes all around, as were the wheels of the four of them.^{(F) 13} As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing “the wheelwork.” ¹⁴ Each one had four faces: the first face was that of the cherub, the second face was that of a human, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.^(G)

¹⁵ The cherubim rose up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the River Chebar. ¹⁶ When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise up from the earth, the wheels at their side did not veer.^{(H) 17} When they stopped, the others stopped, and when they rose up, the others rose up with them, for a living spirit was in them.^(I)

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord went out from the entryway of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. ¹⁹ The cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight as they went out with the wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.^(J)

²⁰ These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.^{(K) 21} Each had four faces, each four wings, and underneath their wings something like human hands.^{(L) 22} As for what their faces were like, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the River Chebar. Each one moved straight ahead.^(M)

Psalm 99

Praise to God for His Holiness