Ezekiel 1:1-14

It was the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month of our captivity. I was by the Kebar River among the people who had been carried away as captives. The sky opened, and I saw visions of God. It was the fifth day of the month of the fifth year that King Jehoiachin had been a prisoner. The LORD spoke his word to Ezekiel son of Buzi in the land of the Babylonians by the Kebar River. There he felt the power of the LORD. When I looked, I saw a stormy wind coming from the north. There was a great cloud with a bright light around it and fire flashing out of it. Something that looked like glowing metal was in the center of the fire. Inside the cloud was what looked like four living creatures, who were shaped like humans, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight. Their feet were like a calf’s hoofs and sparkled like polished bronze. The living creatures had human hands under their wings on their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings, and their wings touched each other. The living creatures did not turn when they moved, but each went straight ahead. Their faces looked like this: Each living creature had a human face and the face of a lion on the right side and the face of an ox on the left side. And each one also had the face of an eagle. That was what their faces looked like. Their wings were spread out above. Each had two wings that touched one of the other living creatures and two wings that covered its body. Each went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, the living creatures would also go, without turning. The living creatures looked like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire went back and forth among the living creatures. It was bright, and lightning flashed from it. The living creatures ran back and forth like bolts of lightning.