Ezequiel 1

BLIVRE · Chapter 1/48

1E sucedeu que, aos trinta anos, no quarto [mês] , aos cinco do mês, estando eu em meio dos exilados, junto ao rio Quebar, os céus se abriram, e vi visões de Deus.

2Aos cinco do mês, que foi no quinto ano do cativeiro do rei Joaquim,

3verdadeiramente veio a palavra do SENHOR ao sacerdote Ezequiel, filho de Buzi, na terra dos caldeus, junto ao rio Quebar; e ali a mão do SENHOR esteve sobre ele.

4Então olhei, e eis que um vento tempestuoso vinha do norte, uma grande nuvem, e um fogo incandescente, e ao seu redor um resplendor, e no meio do fogo uma coisa que parecia como de âmbar,

5E no meio dela havia a semelhança de quatro animais; e esta era sua aparência; eles tinham semelhança humana.

6E cada um tinha quatro rostos, e cada um quatro asas.

7E suas pernas eram retas, e a planta de seus pés como a planta de pé de bezerro; e reluziam como o bronze polido.

8E [tinham] mãos humanas debaixo de suas asas, em seus quatro lados; [assim] os quatro [tinham] seus rostos e suas asas.

9Suas asas se juntavam umas às outras. Não viravam quando se moviam; cada um andava na direção de seu rosto.

10E a aparência de seus rostos era [como] rosto de homem; e rosto de leão à direita nos quatro; e à esquerda rosto de boi nos quatro; também havia nos quatro um rosto de águia;

11[Assim] eram seus rostos. E suas asas estavam estendidas por cima, cada um duas, as quais se juntavam; e as outras duas cobriam seus corpos.

12E cada um se movia na direção de seu rosto; para onde o espírito se dirigia, eles iam; não viravam quando se moviam.

13Quanto à semelhança dos animais, sua aparência era como pedaços de carvão acesos, como aparência de tochas acesas; o fogo se movia entre os animais; e brilhava intensamente, e do fogo saíam relâmpagos.

14E os animais corriam e voltavam, à semelhança de relâmpagos.

15E enquanto eu estava vendo os animais, eis que uma roda estava na terra junto aos animais, junto a seus quatro rostos.

16E a aparência das rodas, e sua feitura, era como da cor do berilo; e as quatro tinham uma mesma semelhança; sua aparência e sua obra era como se uma roda estivesse no meio de [outra] roda.

17Quando andavam, moviam-se sobre seus quatro lados; não viravam quando se moviam.

18E seus aros eram altos e espantosos; e seus aros estavam cheios de olhos ao redor das quatro [rodas] .

19E quando os animais andavam, as rodas andavam junto a eles: e quando os animais se levantavam da terra, levantavam-se [também] as rodas.

20Para onde o espírito queria ir, iam, para onde era o espírito ia; e as rodas [também] se levantavam com eles, pois o espírito dos animais estava nas rodas.

21Quando eles andavam, elas andavam; e quando eles paravam, elas paravam; e quando se levantavam da terra, as rodas se levantavam com eles; pois o espírito dos animais estava nas rodas.

22E sobre as cabeças dos animais havia algo semelhante a um firmamento, da cor de um cristal espantoso, estendido acima sobre suas cabeças.

23E debaixo do firmamento estavam suas asas deles estendidas uma à outra; a cada um tinha duas, e outras duas com que cobriam seus corpos.

24E ouvi o ruído de suas asas quando se moviam, como o som de muitas águas, como a voz do Onipotente, o ruído de uma multidão, como o som de um exército. Quando paravam, abaixavam suas asas.

25E quando se paravam e abaixavam suas asas, ouvia-se uma voz de cima do firmamento que estava sobre suas cabeças.

26E acima do firmamento que estava sobre suas cabeças, havia a figura de um trono, que parecia com a pedra de safira; e sobre a figura do trono havia uma semelhança que parecia com um homem sentado acima dele.

27E vi o que parecia com o bronze polido, com a aparência de fogo ao seu redor do lado de dentro, da aparência de sua cintura para cima; e de sua cintura para baixo, vi que parecia como fogo, e havia um resplendor ao redor dele;

28Tal como a aparência do arco celeste, que surge nas nuvens em dia de chuva, assim era o aparência do resplendor ao redor. Esta foi a visão da semelhança da glória do SENHOR. E quando eu a vi, caí sobre meu rosto, e ouvi voz de um que falava.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Ezekiel, a priest exiled in Babylon, has a stunning vision by the Chebar River: four living creatures with wheels full of eyes, and above it all a throne shining with the glory of the Lord. When he sees this, he falls facedown on the ground.

Explanation

Ezekiel writes around 593 BC, already exiled in Babylon along with other Jews taken away after the first fall of Jerusalem. He is a priest, but far from the temple, so God comes to him in a foreign land — showing that God's presence is not confined to a single place. The vision of the living creatures and the wheels (later called cherubim, in chapter 10) represents God's mobile throne, able to act in any nation. For anyone who feels far from home or from the spiritual life they once had, this chapter teaches that God reaches people exactly where they are, even in exile.

Fun facts

  • The Chebar River was an irrigation canal near the Babylonian city of Nippur, a region where archaeologists have confirmed the settlement of exiled Jewish communities.
  • The four faces of the living creatures (man, lion, ox, eagle) reappear in prophetic literature and were later associated, in Christian tradition, with the four Gospels.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Ezequiel 1:1Ezekiel was a priest, thirty years old when this vision came — the age when a Jewish priest normally began serving in the temple. Instead, he was far from home, exiled by a river in Babylon. That is why the book opens with such a precise date: it marks the moment when, with no temple to serve in, he began receiving visions instead. The river Chebar was a canal near the city of Nippur, where the deported Jews lived.
  2. Ezequiel 1:2This verse gives the vision’s “official” date: five years after King Jehoiachin was taken captive by the Babylonians — so readers of the time could place the moment on the calendar of the exile, not just by Ezekiel’s age.
  3. Ezequiel 1:3The text confirms who received the vision: Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, in the land of the Chaldeans. Saying that “the hand of the LORD” was upon him is how the book describes the moment God’s power takes hold of the prophet.
  4. Ezequiel 1:4The vision opens with a storm coming from the north — the direction the Babylonian invasion would later come from — bringing cloud, fire, and an intense brightness: the first signs that something extraordinary is approaching.
  5. Ezequiel 1:5Out of the storm come four beings with a human form — the foundation of the vision, which grows stranger and more magnificent with every detail added in the verses that follow.
  6. Ezequiel 1:6Each of the four creatures had four faces and four wings — the vision’s way of saying that these beings see and act in every direction at once, with no need to turn around.
  7. Ezequiel 1:7The creatures’ feet were straight, with soles like a calf’s hoof, and gleamed like polished bronze — details that reinforce how strange and radiant the scene is, far removed from any ordinary animal.
  8. Ezequiel 1:8Under the wings, on all four sides, were human hands — one more detail that blends human and animal features in the same creature, typical of the visual language of this kind of vision.
  9. Ezequiel 1:9Each creature’s wings were joined to the next one’s, and they always moved straight ahead without turning their bodies — the image of a group moving in perfect sync, in any direction.
  10. Ezequiel 1:10The four creatures in the vision have the faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle all at once — this is not a zoo, it is an ancient way of pointing to the height of every kind of strength in creation: human intelligence, the lion’s power, the ox’s might, and the eagle’s sight. This kind of composite, exaggerated imagery is typical of apocalyptic vision, a genre that uses grand symbols rather than a literal zoological description.
  11. Ezequiel 1:11Each creature had two wings stretched out, joined to the others, and two folded down to cover its own body — a posture that appears again in chapter 10, when this same vision is described in more detail.
  12. Ezequiel 1:12This repeats the idea from verse 9: the creatures went wherever “the spirit” led them, without turning aside — showing that their movement was guided by something greater, not by their own will.
  13. Ezequiel 1:13The creatures looked like burning coals and torches, with fire moving among them and lightning flashing out from their midst — the scene grows more intense, harder to pin down to a single image.
  14. Ezequiel 1:14The creatures darted back and forth as fast as a flash of lightning — the vision uses the fastest phenomenon there is to describe their speed.
  15. Ezequiel 1:15The wheels within wheels, covered with eyes, are another image the vision uses to say that God’s presence moves in any direction without turning — nothing lies beyond its reach. Later, in chapter 10, these same wheels are given a name, galgal, roughly meaning “whirl” or “whirlwind.”
  16. Ezequiel 1:16The wheels gleamed like precious stone and seemed to be one wheel inside another — a shape impossible to build in reality, meant to convey movement in every direction.
  17. Ezequiel 1:17Like the creatures, the wheels also moved in all four directions without turning — reinforcing again the idea of free movement, with no blind spot.
  18. Ezequiel 1:18The rims of the wheels were tall and covered with eyes all around — eyes usually symbolize total watchfulness, saying that nothing escapes this presence’s reach.
  19. Ezequiel 1:19Wheels and creatures always moved together, rising and advancing at the same time — the text makes clear they form a single moving unit, not two separate things.
  20. Ezequiel 1:20The same “spirit” that guided the creatures was also in the wheels — that is why they moved in perfect step, as though they were part of the same living being.
  21. Ezequiel 1:21One more repetition of the same pattern: creatures and wheels stopped, moved, and rose always in perfect sync, with no lag between them.
  22. Ezequiel 1:22Above the creatures’ heads was something like a crystal surface, bright and imposing — a kind of ceiling separating this scene from what comes next: the throne.
  23. Ezequiel 1:23Beneath that crystal ceiling, the creatures’ wings kept the posture already described, covering their bodies — the text closes this description from the bottom up, preparing to reveal what sits above it all.
  24. Ezequiel 1:24The sound of the wings in motion was like the roar of many waters or an army on the march — when the creatures stopped, they lowered their wings, as if resting for a moment.
  25. Ezequiel 1:25A voice came from above the crystal ceiling, even before any figure appeared — the sound arrives first, building anticipation for what is about to be revealed.
  26. Ezequiel 1:26Only after all this description does a throne appear, with something like a human figure seated on it — the high point of the vision, though the text uses only comparisons, never claiming to have seen God directly.
  27. Ezequiel 1:27The figure on the throne is described with fire and brightness both above and below the waist — the text avoids describing a face or a defined body, keeping its distance from portraying God physically.
  28. Ezequiel 1:28After describing lights, fire, and a rainbow, the text sums it all up as only “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” — in other words, not even the prophet claims to have seen God directly, only the closest reflection human language can reach. Falling face down is the standard response of someone confronted with more than they can process, and it repeats many times throughout the book.

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