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Ezekiel 1
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| 1 |
1 Thirty years had passed;[1] it was the fifth day of the fourth month, and I was sharing the lot of the exiles by the river Chobar, when heaven opened, and I saw a vision of God. 2 The fifth day of the month, and the fifth year since king Joachin was banished. 3 To the priest Ezechiel, son of Buzi, the divine word came; there in the Chaldaean land, by the river Chobar, the power of the Lord could reach him. | 1 Et factum est in trigesimo anno, in quarto, in quinta mensis, cum essem in medio captivorum juxta fluvium Chobar, aperti sunt cæli, et vidi visiones Dei. 2 In quinta mensis, ipse est annus quintus transmigrationis regis Joachin, 3 factum est verbum Domini ad Ezechielem filium Buzi sacerdotem, in terra Chaldæorum, secus flumen Chobar: et facta est super eum ibi manus Domini. |
| 4 |
4 I looked round me, to find that a storm-wind had sprung up from the north, driving a great cloud before it; and this cloud had fire caught up in it, that fringed it with radiance. And there in the heart of it, in the very heart of the fire, was a glow like amber, 5 that enclosed four living figures. These were human in appearance, 6 but each had four faces, and two pairs of wings. 7 Either leg was straight-formed, yet ended in a calf’s hoof; they sparkled like red-hot bronze. 8 On each of the four sides, human arms shewed beneath the wings; faces and wings looked outwards four ways.[2] 9 Wings of each were held touching wings of other; and when they moved, they did not turn round, but each kept an onward course. 10 As for the appearance of their faces, each had the face of a man, yet each of the four looked like a lion when seen from the right, like an ox when seen from the left, like an eagle when seen from above.[3] 11 So much for their faces; each had two wings spread out above him, those two which met his neighbours’ wings; with the other two he veiled his body. 12 Each of them marched straight forward, following the movement of a divine impulse, never swerving as he marched. 13 There was that, too, in the appearance of the living figures which put me in mind of flaming coals, or of torches; that was what I saw going to and fro in the midst of the living figures, a glow as of fire, and from this glow lightning came out. 14 So the living creatures came and went, vivid as lightning-flashes. | 4 Et vidi, et ecce ventus turbinis veniebat ab aquilone, et nubes magna, et ignis involvens, et splendor in circuitu ejus: et de medio ejus, quasi species electri, id est, de medio ignis: 5 et in medio ejus similitudo quatuor animalium. Et hic aspectus eorum, similitudo hominis in eis. 6 Quatuor facies uni, et quatuor pennæ uni. 7 Pedes eorum, pedes recti, et planta pedis eorum quasi planta pedis vituli: et scintillæ quasi aspectus æris candentis. 8 Et manus hominis sub pennis eorum, in quatuor partibus: et facies et pennas per quatuor partes habebant. 9 Junctæque erant pennæ eorum alterius ad alterum: non revertebantur cum incederent, sed unumquodque ante faciem suam gradiebatur. 10 Similitudo autem vultus eorum, facies hominis et facies leonis a dextris ipsorum quatuor, facies autem bovis a sinistris ipsorum quatuor, et facies aquilæ desuper ipsorum quatuor. 11 Facies eorum et pennæ eorum extentæ desuper: duæ pennæ singulorum jungebantur, et duæ tegebant corpora eorum. 12 Et unumquodque eorum coram facie sua ambulabat: ubi erat impetus spiritus, illuc gradiebantur, nec revertebantur cum ambularent. 13 Et similitudo animalium, aspectus eorum quasi carbonum ignis ardentium, et quasi aspectus lampadarum: hæc erat visio discurrens in medio animalium, splendor ignis, et de igne fulgur egrediens. 14 Et animalia ibant et revertebantur, in similitudinem fulguris coruscantis. |
| 15 |
15 And as I watched the living figures, all at once wheels appeared close to them, one at each of the four sides, 16 of strange colour and form. All four were alike, the colour of aquamarine,[4] and each looked like a wheel within a wheel. 17 Moved they, it was ever one of the four ways the living figures looked; and they did not turn round in moving. 18 As for their size, their height was terrible to look upon; and the whole frame of them, all round, was full of eyes. 19 Onward the wheels moved, when the living figures moved onward, at their side; rose above the earth when the living figures rose above it. 20 They too had a living impulse in them, they too, whenever that impulse stirred them, must rise up and follow the way it went; 21 with the living figures, whose vital impulse they shared, the wheels too moved, and halted, and rose. | 15 Cumque aspicerem animalia, apparuit rota una super terram juxta animalia, habens quatuor facies. 16 Et aspectus rotarum et opus earum quasi visio maris: et una similitudo ipsarum quatuor: et aspectus earum et opera quasi sit rota in medio rotæ. 17 Per quatuor partes earum euntes ibant, et non revertebantur cum ambularent. 18 Statura quoque erat rotis, et altitudo, et horribilis aspectus: et totum corpus oculis plenum in circuitu ipsarum quatuor. 19 Cumque ambularent animalia, ambulabant pariter et rotæ juxta ea: et cum elevarentur animalia de terra, elevabantur simul et rotæ. 20 Quocumque ibat spiritus, illuc, eunte spiritu, et rotæ pariter elevabantur sequentes eum: spiritus enim vitæ erat in rotis. 21 Cum euntibus ibant, et cum stantibus stabant: et cum elevatis a terra, pariter elevabantur et rotæ sequentes ea, quia spiritus vitæ erat in rotis. |
| 22 |
22 Over the living figures a vault seemed to rise, like a sheet of dazzling crystal resting on their heads; 23 under this vault each held two wings erect to meet his neighbour’s. Each had two turned upwards to overshadow him, and two turned downwards to veil his body.[5] 24 When they moved, the sound of their wings reached me, loud as waters in flood or thunders from on high,[6] incessant as the hum of a great throng or an armed camp; only when they came to rest did they lower their wings. 25 A voice would come from the firmament over their heads; then they would halt, then they would lower their wings.[7] 26 Above this vault that rested on them, sapphire blue towered up into the form of a throne, nor did that throne seem to be empty; a shape was there above it, as of one enthroned, 27 and all about him it was filled with amber-coloured flame. Upwards from his loins, downwards from his loins, an arch of light seemed to shine, 28 like rainbow among the clouds on a day of storm; there was brightness all about him. | 22 Et similitudo super capita animalium firmamenti, quasi aspectus crystalli horribilis, et extenti super capita eorum desuper. 23 Sub firmamento autem pennæ eorum rectæ alterius ad alterum: unumquodque duabus alis velabat corpus suum, et alterum similiter velabatur. 24 Et audiebam sonum alarum, quasi sonum aquarum multarum, quasi sonum sublimis Dei: cum ambularent, quasi sonus erat multitudinis ut sonus castrorum: cumque starent, demittebantur pennæ eorum. 25 Nam cum fieret vox super firmamentum quod erat super caput eorum, stabant, et submittebant alas suas. 26 Et super firmamentum quod erat imminens capiti eorum, quasi aspectus lapidis sapphiri similitudo throni: et super similitudinem throni similitudo quasi aspectus hominis desuper. 27 Et vidi quasi speciem electri, velut aspectum ignis, intrinsecus ejus per circuitum: a lumbis ejus et desuper, et a lumbis ejus usque deorsum, vidi quasi speciem ignis splendentis in circuitu, 28 velut aspectum arcus cum fuerit in nube in die pluviæ. Hic erat aspectus splendoris per gyrum. |
[1] This must refer either to the prophet’s age, or to some date artificially chosen, e.g. the rediscovery of the Law under Josias.
[2] It is not easy to form a clear picture of what the prophet saw; but it seems most probable that the four figures stood back to back in a square, the eight upper wings all touching. If so, the ‘four sides’ will be the four sides of the square, and each angel will have had one arm (or hand) shewing underneath either of his lower wings.
[3] If the assumption made in the previous note is true, we can understand why no reference is made to the appearance of the angelic body from behind; we are given a view from above instead. But the Hebrew text and the other versions omit the word ‘above’, leaving the whole picture in considerable confusion.
[4] Literally, ‘a vision of the sea’. The Latin translators seem to have supposed, here as in Is. 23.10 and elsewhere, that ‘Tharsis’ was a Hebrew word meaning ‘sea’. (In 10.9 the rendering given is ‘chrysolith’). Here, as in Ex. 28.20, it evidently means some kind of precious stone, possibly jasper. It is doubtful whether the phrase ‘a wheel within a wheel’ describes a wheel with an inner circle joining its spokes in addition to the outside rim, or to two wheels intersecting one another at right angles, forming a kind of approach to a sphere.
[5] The Hebrew text of this verse is perhaps corrupt; it seems to imply that each angel used all four wings to veil his body, which is in contradiction with all the other evidence this chapter provides. The statement in the Latin version that ‘each of them veiled his body with two wings, and the other one was veiled similarly’ yields no acceptable sense.
[6] Literally, ‘the voice of the most High’; it seems clear that thunder is referred to, cf. Apoc. 14.2.
[7] This is the sense given in the Latin version to a sentence in the Hebrew which is obscure, and perhaps corrupt.
Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd
