¹ In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, as I was among the exiles by the River Chebar, heaven opened and I saw visions from God.

² On the fifth of the month -- it was the fifth year of exile for King Jehoiachin-

³ the word of Yahweh was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in Chaldaea by the River Chebar. There the hand of Yahweh came on him.

⁴ I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with flashing fire and brilliant light round it, and in the middle, in the heart of the fire, a brilliance like that of amber,

⁵ and in the middle what seemed to be four living creatures. They looked like this: They were of human form.

⁶ Each had four faces, each had four wings.

⁷ Their legs were straight; they had hooves like calves, glittering like polished brass.

⁸ Below their wings, they had human hands on all four sides corresponding to their four faces and four wings.

⁹ They touched one another with their wings; they did not turn as they moved; each one moved straight forward.

¹⁰ As to the appearance of their faces, all four had a human face, and a lion's face to the right, and all four had a bull's face to the left, and all four had an eagle's face.

¹¹ Their wings were spread upwards, each had one pair touching its neighbour's, and the other pair covering its body.

¹² And each one moved straight forward; they went where the spirit urged them, they did not turn as they moved.

¹³ Between these living creatures were what looked like blazing coals, like torches, darting backwards and forwards between the living creatures; the fire gave a brilliant light, and lightning flashed from the fire,

¹⁴ and the living creatures kept disappearing and reappearing like flashes of lightning.

¹⁵ Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel touching the ground beside each of the four-faced living creatures.

¹⁶ The appearance and structure of the wheels were like glittering chrysolite. All four looked alike, and their appearance and structure were such that each wheel seemed to have another wheel inside it.

¹⁷ In whichever of the four directions they moved, they did not need to turn as they moved.

¹⁸ Their circumference was of awe-inspiring size, and the rims of all four sparkled all the way round.

¹⁹ When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures left the ground, the wheels too left the ground.

²⁰ They moved in whichever direction the spirit chose to go, and the wheels rose with them, since the wheels shared the spirit of the animals.

²¹ When the living creatures moved on, they moved on; when the former halted, the latter halted; when the former left the ground, the wheels too left the ground, since the wheels shared the spirit of the animals.

²² Over the heads of the living creatures was what looked like a solid surface glittering like crystal, spread out over their heads, above them,

²³ and under the solid surface, their wings were spread out straight, touching one another, and each had a pair covering its body.

²⁴ I also heard the noise of their wings; when they moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters, like the voice of Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp; and when they halted, they lowered their wings;

²⁵ there was a noise too.

²⁶ Beyond the solid surface above their heads, there was what seemed like a sapphire, in the form of a throne. High above on the form of a throne was a form with the appearance of a human being.

²⁷ I saw a brilliance like amber, like fire, radiating from what appeared to be the waist upwards; and from what appeared to be the waist downwards, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all round.

²⁸ The radiance of the encircling light was like the radiance of the bow in the clouds on rainy days. The sight was like the glory of Yahweh. I looked and fell to the ground, and I heard the voice of someone speaking to me.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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