The Four Living Creatures

The prophet first sees a whirlwind, a great cloud, flashing fire, and brilliant radiance approaching from the north, with amber-like brightness at its center. From within it come four living creatures whose basic form is human, yet each bears four faces and four wings, straight gleaming legs, and human hands beneath their wings. Their movements are unified and direct, without turning aside, conveying disciplined and living order.

I⁴ looked and saw a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire was a gleam like amber, ⁵and within it was the form of four living creatures. ⁶And this was their appearance: They had a human form, but each had four faces and four wings. ⁷Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, gleaming like polished bronze. ⁸Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four living creatures had faces and wings, ⁹and their wings were touching one another. They did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead.

The faces of the creatures combine man, lion, ox, and eagle, suggesting fullness of created vitality and perception. Their wings stretch upward and touch one another while the creatures go wherever the spirit leads without deviation. Fire moves among them like glowing coals and torches, with lightning flashing outward, and their motion is as quick as flashes of light.

¹⁰The form of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and also the face of an eagle. ¹¹Such were their faces. ¹²Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching the wings of the creature on either side, and two wings covering its body. Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they moved. ¹³In the midst of the living creatures was the appearance of glowing coals of fire, or of torches. Fire moved back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. ¹⁴The creatures were darting back and forth as quickly as flashes of lightning.