1. On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
2. This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity.
3. (The lord gave this message to Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, beside the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians, and he felt the hand of the lord take hold of him.)
4. As I looked, I saw a great storm coming from the north, driving before it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and shone with brilliant light. There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle of the fire glowed something like gleaming amber.
5. From the center of the cloud came four living beings that looked human,
6. except that each had four faces and four wings.
7. Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a calf and shone like burnished bronze.