¹ Now it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

² In the fifth [day] of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,

³ the word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Yahweh was there on him.

⁴ I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of its midst as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire.

⁵ Out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.

⁶ Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings.

⁷ Their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass.

⁸ They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and the four of them had their faces and their wings [thus]:

⁹ their wings were joined one to another; they didn't turn when they went; each one went straight forward.

¹⁰ As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and the four of them had the face of a lion on the right side; and the four of them had the face of an ox on the left side; the four of them also had the face of an eagle.

¹¹ Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and Two covered their bodies.

¹² Each one went straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they went; they didn't turn when they went.

¹³ As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches: [the fire] went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

¹⁴ The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

¹⁵ Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it.

¹⁶ The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and the four of them had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.

¹⁷ When they went, they went in their four directions: they didn't turn when they went.

¹⁸ As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around.

¹⁹ When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

²⁰ Wherever the spirit was to go, they went; there was the spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

²¹ When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

²² Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome crystal to look on, stretched forth Over their heads above.

²³ Under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the other: each one had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies.

²⁴ When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army: when they stood, they let down their wings.

²⁵ There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads: when they stood, they let down their wings.

²⁶ Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above.

²⁷ I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.

²⁸ As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.

¹ The high priest said, "Are these things so?"

² He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³ and said to him, 'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.'

⁴ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.

⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child.

⁶ God spoke in this way: that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷ 'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.'

⁸ He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ "The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him,

¹⁰ and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹ Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.

¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time.

¹³ On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's race was revealed to Pharaoh.

¹⁴ Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.

¹⁵ Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,

¹⁶ and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.

¹⁷ "But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸ until there arose a different king, who didn't know Joseph.

¹⁹ The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn't stay alive.

²⁰ At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father's house.

²¹ When he was thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.

²² Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.

²³ But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

²⁴ Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian.

²⁵ He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn't understand.

²⁶ "The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?'

²⁷ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸ Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

²⁹ Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰ "When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹ When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him,

³² 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Moses trembled, and dared not look.

³³ The Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

³⁴ I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.'

³⁵ "This Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?'--God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶ This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷ This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, 'The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.'

³⁸ This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,

³⁹ to whom our fathers wouldn't be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

⁴¹ They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

⁴² But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

⁴³ You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'

⁴⁴ "Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen;

⁴⁵ which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David,

⁴⁶ who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷ But Solomon built him a house.

⁴⁸ However, the Most High doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

⁴⁹ 'heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?' says the Lord; 'or what is the place of my rest?

⁵⁰ Didn't my hand make all these things?'

⁵¹ "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

⁵² Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

⁵³ You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn't keep it!"

⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

⁵⁵ But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

⁵⁶ and said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.

⁵⁸ They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹ They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

⁶⁰ He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them!" When he had said this, he fell asleep.