HOLY BIBLE: Ezekiel 1 (original) (raw)

4 καὶ εἶδον καὶ ἰδοὺ πνεῦμα ἐξαῖρον ἤρχετο ἀπὸ βορρᾶ καὶ νεφέλη μεγάλη ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ φέγγος κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ καὶ πῦρ ἐξαστράπτον καὶ ἐν τῷ μέσῳ αὐτοῦ ὡς ὅρασις ἠλέκτρου ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ φέγγος ἐν αὐτῷ 5 καὶ ἐν τῷ μέσῳ ὡς ὁμοίωμα τεσσάρων ζῴων καὶ αὕτη ἡ ὅρασις αὐτῶν ὁμοίωμα ἀνθρώπου ἐ{P'} αὐτοῖς 6 καὶ τέσσαρα πρόσωπα τῷ ἑνί καὶ τέσσαρες πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνί 7 καὶ τὰ σκέλη αὐτῶν ὀρθά καὶ πτερωτοὶ οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν καὶ σπινθῆρες ὡς ἐξαστράπτων χαλκός καὶ ἐλαφραὶ αἱ πτέρυγες αὐτῶν 8 καὶ χεὶρ ἀνθρώπου ὑποκάτωθεν τῶν πτερύγων αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὰ τέσσαρα μέρη αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν τῶν τεσσάρων 9 οὐκ ἐπεστρέφοντο ἐν τῷ βαδίζειν αὐτά ἕκαστον κατέναντι τοῦ προσώπου αὐτῶν ἐπορεύοντο 10 καὶ ὁμοίωσις τῶν προσώπων αὐτῶν πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπου καὶ πρόσωπον λέοντος ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῖς τέσσαρσιν καὶ πρόσωπον μόσχου ἐξ ἀριστερῶν τοῖς τέσσαρσιν καὶ πρόσωπον ἀετοῦ τοῖς τέσσαρσιν 11 καὶ αἱ πτέρυγες αὐτῶν ἐκτεταμέναι ἄνωθεν τοῖς τέσσαρσιν ἑκατέρῳ δύο συνεζευγμέναι πρὸς ἀλλήλας καὶ δύο ἐπεκάλυπτον ἐπάνω τοῦ σώματος αὐτῶν 12 καὶ ἑκάτερον κατὰ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐπορεύετο οὗ ἂν ἦν τὸ πνεῦμα πορευόμενον ἐπορεύοντο καὶ οὐκ ἐπέστρεφον 13 καὶ ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ζῴων ὅρασις ὡς ἀνθράκων πυρὸς καιομένων ὡς ὄψις λαμπάδων συστρεφομένων ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ζῴων καὶ φέγγος τοῦ πυρός καὶ ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐξεπορεύετο ἀστραπή 14

4 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, 5 that enclosed four living figures. These were human in appearance, 6 but each had four faces, and two pairs of wings. 7 Either leg was straight-formed, yet ended in a calf’s hoof; they sparkled like red-hot bronze. 8 On each of the four sides, human arms shewed beneath the wings; faces and wings looked outwards four ways.[2] 9 Wings of each were held touching wings of other; and when they moved, they did not turn round, but each kept an onward course. 10 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.[3] 11 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. 12 Each of them marched straight forward, following the movement of a divine impulse, never swerving as he marched. 13 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. 14 So the living creatures came and went, vivid as lightning-flashes.

4 Et vidi, et ecce ventus turbinis veniebat ab aquilone, et nubes magna, et ignis involvens, et splendor in circuitu ejus: et de medio ejus, quasi species electri, id est, de medio ignis: 5 et in medio ejus similitudo quatuor animalium. Et hic aspectus eorum, similitudo hominis in eis. 6 Quatuor facies uni, et quatuor pennæ uni. 7 Pedes eorum, pedes recti, et planta pedis eorum quasi planta pedis vituli: et scintillæ quasi aspectus æris candentis. 8 Et manus hominis sub pennis eorum, in quatuor partibus: et facies et pennas per quatuor partes habebant. 9 Junctæque erant pennæ eorum alterius ad alterum: non revertebantur cum incederent, sed unumquodque ante faciem suam gradiebatur. 10 Similitudo autem vultus eorum, facies hominis et facies leonis a dextris ipsorum quatuor, facies autem bovis a sinistris ipsorum quatuor, et facies aquilæ desuper ipsorum quatuor. 11 Facies eorum et pennæ eorum extentæ desuper: duæ pennæ singulorum jungebantur, et duæ tegebant corpora eorum. 12 Et unumquodque eorum coram facie sua ambulabat: ubi erat impetus spiritus, illuc gradiebantur, nec revertebantur cum ambularent. 13 Et similitudo animalium, aspectus eorum quasi carbonum ignis ardentium, et quasi aspectus lampadarum: hæc erat visio discurrens in medio animalium, splendor ignis, et de igne fulgur egrediens. 14 Et animalia ibant et revertebantur, in similitudinem fulguris coruscantis.

[1] This must refer either to the prophet’s age, or to some date artificially chosen, e.g. the rediscovery of the Law under Josias.

[2] It is not easy to form a clear picture of what the prophet saw; but it seems most probable that the four figures stood back to back in a square, the eight upper wings all touching. If so, the ‘four sides’ will be the four sides of the square, and each angel will have had one arm (or hand) shewing underneath either of his lower wings.

[3] If the assumption made in the previous note is true, we can understand why no reference is made to the appearance of the angelic body from behind; we are given a view from above instead. But the Hebrew text and the other versions omit the word ‘above’, leaving the whole picture in considerable confusion.

[4] Literally, ‘a vision of the sea’. The Latin translators seem to have supposed, here as in Is. 23.10 and elsewhere, that ‘Tharsis’ was a Hebrew word meaning ‘sea’. (In 10.9 the rendering given is ‘chrysolith’). Here, as in Ex. 28.20, it evidently means some kind of precious stone, possibly jasper. It is doubtful whether the phrase ‘a wheel within a wheel’ describes a wheel with an inner circle joining its spokes in addition to the outside rim, or to two wheels intersecting one another at right angles, forming a kind of approach to a sphere.

[5] The Hebrew text of this verse is perhaps corrupt; it seems to imply that each angel used all four wings to veil his body, which is in contradiction with all the other evidence this chapter provides. The statement in the Latin version that ‘each of them veiled his body with two wings, and the other one was veiled similarly’ yields no acceptable sense.

[6] Literally, ‘the voice of the most High’; it seems clear that thunder is referred to, cf. Apoc. 14.2.

[7] This is the sense given in the Latin version to a sentence in the Hebrew which is obscure, and perhaps corrupt.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd