What does Ezechiel Chapter 10 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Coals accompany cloud and glory. Wheels move with cherubims. Departure pauses at the east gate.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 10 sees above the cherubims' heads a sapphire-like appearance of a throne in the firmament. The linen-clad man is commanded to take coals from between wheels and cherubims and pour them upon the city. He enters while cherubims stand on the house's right side and a cloud fills the inner court. Glory rises to the threshold, filling house with cloud and court with brightness; wing-sound reaches the outer court like God's speaking voice. A cherub transfers fire into the man's hands and he goes forth. Pouring is commanded but not explicitly narrated as performed in the verses; the editorial summary describes scattering. Prior altar consecration and a southern compass direction are not supplied.

Human-hand likeness appears below wings. Four chrysolite-like wheels stand by cherubims, alike with a wheel within a wheel, following movement in four ways without turning back. The edition identifies forward, backward, right and left. Bodies, necks, hands, wings and circles have eyes, and the wheels are called voluble, glossed rolling wheels or galgal. Each has cherub, man, lion and eagle faces. Golden color, spherical construction, countless eyes and an omniscience interpretation are not stated.

The creatures match those at Chobar. Their wheels move, rise and stand with them because life's spirit is in them. Glory leaves the threshold for above the cherubims, who rise with wheels and stop at the east gate, with Israel's divine glory above. Ezechiel understands these are cherubims, four-faced and four-winged, with hands beneath and the same forward impulse. The span does not name the next chapter's eastern mount or establish a universal institutional-immunity doctrine.

The story inside

Opening: Coals accompany cloud and glory. Development: Wheels move with cherubims. Conclusion: Departure pauses at the east gate.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Coals accompany cloud and glory.
2
Wheels move with cherubims.
3
Departure pauses at the east gate.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 92034–92040
10:2. And he spoke to the man, that was clothed with linen, and said: Go in between the wheels that are under the cherubims and fill thy hand with the coals of fire that are between the cherubims, and pour them out upon the city. And he went in, in my sight: 10:3. And the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.
Lines 92068–92081
10:11. And when they went, they went by four ways: and they turned not when they went: but to the place whither they first turned, the rest also followed, and did not turn back. By four ways.... That is, by any of the four ways, forward, backward, to the right or to the left. 10:12. And their whole body, and their necks, and their hands, and their wings, and the circles were full of eyes, round about the four wheels. 10:13. And these wheels he called voluble, in my hearing. Voluble.... That is, rolling wheels, galgal.
Lines 92097–92103
10:18. And the glory of the Lord went forth from the threshold of the temple: and stood over the cherubims. 10:19. And the cherubims lifting up their wings, were raised from the earth before me: and as they went out, the wheels also followed: and it stood in the entry of the east gate of the house of the Lord: and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.