day 4

The throne in heaven

1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ 

2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 

3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 

4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 

5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. 

6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the centre, round the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and behind. 

7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 

8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all round, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘ “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” who was, and is, and is to come.’ 

9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honour and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 

10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 

11 ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’

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Ezekiel’s inaugural vision

1 In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. 

2 On the fifth of the month – it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin – 

3 the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the River Kebar in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the Lord was on him. 

4 I looked, and I saw a violent storm coming out of the north – an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The centre of the fire looked like glowing metal, 

5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 

6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 

7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 

8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, 

9 and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved. 

10 Their faces looked like this: each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 

11 Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upwards, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. 

12 Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 

13 The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. 

14 The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning. 

15 As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. 

16 This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: they sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. 

17 As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. 

18 Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. 

19 When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. 

20 Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 

21 When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 

22 Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome. 

23 Under the vault their wings were stretched out one towards the other, and each had two wings covering its body. 

24 When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings. 

25 Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. 

26 Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 

27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 

28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

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