Exodus 25:18-20

The cherubim. The cherubim were composite emblematic figures, always implying the nearness of the deity, and appearing distinctively in the OT. (1) as bearers of the deity, (2) as guardians of a sacred spot. Thus (1) in Psalms 18:10 Jehovah rides on a cherub in the thunderstorm; in Psalms 80:1 and elsewhere, He is described, with allusion to the cherubim in the Temple, as -sitting upon" them; and in the vision of Ezekiel (Exodus 1:5 ff., cf. Exodus 10:1 ff.) four cherubim bear the -firmament," which supports Jehovah's throne: in Ezekiel 1:6-10 it is said that each had four faces (of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle), fourth wings, the hands of a man, and the feet of calves. Figures of cherubim were also carved as ornaments upon the walls and doors of the Temple (1Ki 6:29; 1 Kings 6:32; 1 Kings 6:35), and on the bases of the ten lavers (1 Kings 7:29): in Exodus 26:31 they are to be worked into the veil in front of the Most holy place, and in Ezekiel 41:18-20; Ezekiel 41:25 cherubim with twofaces, one that of a man, the other that of a lion, are to be carved on the walls and doors of the restored Temple. (2) As guardians of a sacred spot, cherubim appear in Genesis 3:24, and in the remarkable picture of the glory of the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:13-17 [read, after LXX., in v.14 -With the cherub I set thee, thou wast in the holy mountain of God," and v.16 end-and the cherubis destroyed thee from the midst," &c.; see Davidson's notes in the Camb. Bible. In origin, the cherub doubtless a mythological conception; Psalms 18:10 would suggest that it arose in a personification of the thunder-cloud, within which the Hebrews believed Jehovah to be borne along (see on Exodus 9:23 a). Composite figures of different kinds were, however, common in the art of many of Israel's neighbours, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians, from one or other of whom they also found their way into early Greek art 1 [201]; and it is highly probable that elements from some of these quarters were also combined in the Hebrew idea of a cherub 2 [202]. See further Cherub in DB., EB.,; and DB.v. 644.

[201] Comp. the illustrations of winged human figures, including one with an eagle's head, in Ball's Light from the East, pp. 28 33; and the gold-guarding γρῦπες (eagle-headed lions), told of by the Greeks (Aesch. P. V.803 f.; Hdt. iii. 116, iv. 13, 27), derived, as Furtwängler thinks, from Hittite art; also the winged animals on the bronze stands from Larnaka, figured in Burney's Notes on the Heb. text of Kings, opp. to p. 91. The etymology of cherubis not known; nor has the word been found hitherto [1910] in any Bab. or Ass. inscription (see KAT.3 p. 632, n.5).

[202] See Furtwängler's very full art. Gryps in Roscher's Mythologisches Lexicon.