The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Prophecy of Ezechiel
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Chapter 1
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Thirty years had passed; 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.
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The fifth day of the month, and the fifth year since king Joachin was banished.
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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.

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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,
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that enclosed four living figures. These were human in appearance,
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but each had four faces, and two pairs of wings.
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Either leg was straight-formed, yet ended in a calf’s hoof; they sparkled like red-hot bronze.
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On each of the four sides, human arms shewed beneath the wings; faces and wings looked outwards four ways.
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Wings of each were held touching wings of other; and when they moved, they did not turn round, but each kept an onward course.
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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.
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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.
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Each of them marched straight forward, following the movement of a divine impulse, never swerving as he marched.
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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.
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So the living creatures came and went, vivid as lightning-flashes.

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And as I watched the living figures, all at once wheels appeared close to them, one at each of the four sides,
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of strange colour and form. All four were alike, the colour of aquamarine, and each looked like a wheel within a wheel.
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Moved they, it was ever one of the four ways the living figures looked; and they did not turn round in moving.
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As for their size, their height was terrible to look upon; and the whole frame of them, all round, was full of eyes.
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Onward the wheels moved, when the living figures moved onward, at their side; rose above the earth when the living figures rose above it.
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They too had a living impulse in them, they too, whenever that impulse stirred them, must rise up and follow the way it went;
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with the living figures, whose vital impulse they shared, the wheels too moved, and halted, and rose.

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Over the living figures a vault seemed to rise, like a sheet of dazzling crystal resting on their heads;
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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.
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When they moved, the sound of their wings reached me, loud as waters in flood or thunders from on high, incessant as the hum of a great throng or an armed camp; only when they came to rest did they lower their wings.
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A voice would come from the firmament over their heads; then they would halt, then they would lower their wings.
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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,
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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,
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like rainbow among the clouds on a day of storm; there was brightness all about him.