Ezekiel 10:9-17

C. The Throne-Chariot of God 10:9-17

TRANSLATION

(9) And I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, a wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a tarshish stone. (10) Now as for their appearance, the four had the same likeness as when a wheel is in the midst of a wheel. (11) When they moved, they moved unto their four sides; they did not turn as they moved, but to the place which the head turned, they followed; they did not turn as they moved. (12) And all their body, their backs, their hands and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about, the wheels which the four had. (13) As for the wheels, to them one was calling in my presence, O wheel. (14) And each 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 were lifted up. This was the living creature which I saw at the river of Chebar. (16) And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them, and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise above the earth, these same wheels did not turn from beside them. (17) When these stood, they stood, and when they were lifted up, they lifted themselves up, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

COMMENTS

One might expect to find in the remaining verses of chapter 10 a graphic description of the conflagration which was to befall Jerusalem. But such is not the case. Instead the prophet again describes the throne-chariot which had occupied his attention in chapter 1. The variations in the two descriptions serve to underscore the visionary and symbolic import of the entire narrative.

1. A tarshish colored wheel appeared along side each of the four cherubim (Ezekiel 10:9).

2. The four wheels were identical, each appearing to consist of a wheel within a wheel (Ezekiel 10:10; cf. Ezekiel 1:16).

3. The wheels were such that they could move in any direction without benefit of a turning mechanism (Ezekiel 10:11; cf. Ezekiel 1:17). Which ever direction the head, i.e., the cherub,[243] looked, the wheel followed. The cherubim were the principal driving force of the chariot. The spirit of the living creatures (cherubim) was in the wheels, and that gave unity to the whole operation.

[243] Others take the head to refer to the front wheel.

4. Whereas in chapter 1 the rings of the wheels were full of eyes (Ezekiel 1:18), here the eyes are everywhere. The entire bodies of the cherubim, their backs, hands and wings as well as the wheels are covered with eyes (Ezekiel 10:12).[244] Multiplied eyes are here, as always in Scripture, symbolic of omniscience.[245]

[244] Others limit Ezekiel 10:12 to the wheels and thus maintain the harmony between chapter 1 and the present vision. The term backs is taken to mean rings or felloes (as in Ezekiel 1:18) and the hands are understood as axles. But what part of a wheel could be designated as a wing?

[245] Zechariah saw seven eyes on the Messianic stone set symbolically before the high priest Joshua (Zechariah 3:9). The living creatures of Revelation were covered with eyes (Revelation 4:6).

5. The elaborate wheels were identified in the hearing of Ezekiel as being the chariot (haggalgal). He recognized that as the correct name for the mysterious and complex visionary object (Ezekiel 10:13).

Attention shifts in Ezekiel 10:14 from the wheels to the cherubim. As in chapter 1, each cherub had four faces. Three of the faces are the same as those seen in chapter 1 the man, the lion, the eagle. But the face of the ox (Ezekiel 1:10) is now described as the face of the cherub. In chapter 1 this face was third in order while here it is first. In the previous vision the creatures were called by the general term living creatures. Ezekiel now realized that they were cherubim. The ox-like face which looked straight forward is thus assumed to be the primary or real face of each cherub. The definite article the face of the cherub possibly indicates that this was the form that had given the coals of fire in Ezekiel 10:7.

Ezekiel then observed the cherubim the living creatures of chapter 1 mount up (Ezekiel 10:15). The method by which the throne-chariot became air-borne is described in Ezekiel 10:16-17. The main point here is that the wheels moved in conjunction with the flight of the cherubim (Ezekiel 10:16-17; cf. Ezekiel 1:19; Ezekiel 1:21).