God’s glory leaves the temple and city
10
📚Then I looked and saw in the expanse that was above the heads of the cherubim an appearance above them of something like a sapphire stone, like the appearance of the likeness of a throne. 2 📚And he spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, “Go in between the wheels, under the cherub, and fill your hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city”. And in my sight he went in. 10:2 Verses 6,7; Ezek 1:13. These coals symbolize God’s fiery judgments falling on Jerusalem.⚜
3 📚Now the cherubim stood at the right side of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud was filling the inner courtyard. 4 📚Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood above the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud, and the courtyard was full of the brightness of the LORD’s glory.
10:4 2 Chron 7:1-3. This was the last time this was ever true of the temple Solomon built.⚜
5 📚And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer courtyard, like the voice of the Almighty God 📖 when he speaks.
6 📚And it came about, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim”, that he went in, and stood beside the wheels. 7 📚And one cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it, and put it into the hands of the one who was clothed in linen, who took it and went out. 8 📚And there appeared among the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings.
9 📚And when I looked, I saw the four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the colour of a beryl stone. 10 📚And as for their appearances, the four of them had the same likeness, as if one wheel was inside another wheel. 11 📚When they went, they went in the direction of one of their four sides. They did not turn as they went, but followed to the place where the head was looking. They did not turn as they went. 12 📚And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes all around, even the wheels that the four of them had.
10:12 This is a fact not stated in the description of the cherubim in Ezek 1:5-14. Full of eyes signifies great intelligence and great watchfulness.⚜
13 As for the wheels, in my hearing they were called “The Whirling Wheels”.
10:13 A fact about the wheels not given in chapter 1.⚜
14 📚And each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
15 📚And the cherubim rose up. This is the living being that I saw by the Kebar River.
10:15 Verse 20. Ezekiel did not call them cherubim in chapter 1. Perhaps he did not then recognize them to be such.⚜
16 📚And when the cherubim went, the wheels went with them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise up from the earth, the wheels also did not turn from beside them. 17 📚When they stood, these stood, and when they went up, these went up with them; for the spirit of the living creature was in them.
18 📚Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple, and stood above the cherubim. 19 📚And the cherubim raised their wings, and rose from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and each one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’s house. And the glory of the God of Israel was up above them.
10:18-19 Signifies the slow, reluctant departure of God from His temple, His home, His people.⚜
20 📚This is the living being that I saw under the God of Israel by the Kebar River; and I knew that they were the cherubim. 21 📚Each one had four faces, and each one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. 22 📚And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces whose appearance I had seen by the Kebar River. Each one went straight forward.