Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings.
Parallel Translations
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Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings.
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And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
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And every one had four faces, and every one of them had four wings.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 1:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 10:14 Every one them had four faces. The first face was the face of the cherub. The second face was the face of a man. The third face was the face of a lion. The fourth was the face of an eagle.
- Exodus 25:20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
- 1 Kings 6:24-27 Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits. The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were of one measure and one form. One cherub was ten cubits high, and so was the other cherub. He set the cherubim within the inner house. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house.
- Isaiah 6:2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
- Ezekiel 1:8-11 They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. The four of them had their faces and their wings like this: Their wings were joined to one another. They didn’t turn when they went. Each one went straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man. The four of them had the face of a lion on the right side. 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. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies.
- Ezekiel 1:15 Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it.
- Ezekiel 10:10 As for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, like a wheel within a wheel.
- Ezekiel 10:21-22 Every one had four faces, and every one four wings. The likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves. They each went straight forward.
- Revelation 4:7-8 The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He now comes to the heads and wings themselves.…
He now comes to the heads and wings themselves. Many suppose that each animal had four heads, and then that four appearances belonged to each head; others extend the wings much further, because they assign four wings to each of the four heads, and others even sixteen; but this does not seem in accordance with the Prophet’s words. He simply says each had four heads, and then four wings. The wings and the heads correspond; but one animal was endowed with only four heads, and so I do not think that it had more than four wings, which will again be evident from the context. He adds afterwards —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 1:6 And every one had four faces, and…
Eze 1:6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
Ver. 6. And every one had four faces.] To set forth, saith an expositor, that the power of angels is exercised about all creatures. It is as if the angels did bear on them the heads of all living creatures - i.e., did comprehend in themselves all the elements and all the parts of the world; not as if they did move or act by their own power, but as they are God’s hands and agents, employed by him at pleasure, for the good of his Church especially, {Heb 1:14} as being fit and ready to every good work. So should we strive to be. {Tit 3:1}
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And every one had four wings.] To set forth their agility, their incredible swiftness, far beyond that of the sun, which yet, if Bellarmine {a} reckoneth right, runneth, in the eighth part of an hour, seven thousand miles; others say many more.
{a} De Ascens. ment. in Deum, grad. 7.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain And every one of those four living creatures which…
And every one of those four living creatures which appeared to the prophet had four faces: this hieroglyphic, though it seems to present us with a monstrous sight, yet does not unbecome the Divine Wisdom, nor doth it want like representations, as Eze 10:14; Rev 4:6; 5:6; and speaks either the full fitness of angels to do God’s commands in all things and occasions, or the perfection of their nature and obedience; or the universal dominion of God, and the universal subjection of the creatures.
Faces; some would have this not literally understood of that part of the body which is properly the face, though I see no cause for it; but as these living creatures had wings, so they had faces, and what those were the 10th verse does tell us.
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And every one had four wings; if it were every face had four wings, each living creature would have sixteen wings, but it is every one of the living creatures had four wings. With two they did fly, noting the speed of their obedience; and with two they cover their body, denoting the reverence of their mind, and obedience.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And or but everyone had four faces,.... Which are…
And or but everyone had four faces,.... Which are described; see Gill on Eze 1:10. The Targum multiplies the faces in a strange monstrous manner, paraphrasing the words thus,
"each had four faces, and there were four faces to everyone "of them", and every creature had sixteen faces; the number of the faces of the four creatures was sixty and four;''
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and everyone had four wings; the seraphim in Isa 6:2; and the four beasts or living creatures in Rev 4:8; had six wings; and so it seems that these had also, from Eze 1:11; as will be seen there; nor is this any contradiction to the account here given, since it is not said they had only four wings. The Targum gives the same monstrous account of their wings as of their faces, saying,
"each had four wings, and there were four wings for everyone of them, sixteen wings to every face, and sixty four to every creature; and the number of the wings of the four living creatures were two hundred and fifty six.''
Jarchi is of the same opinion, and confirms it in his note on the text, which is this,
""four faces to one"; that is, to the face of a man only were four faces, and so, to the lion, to the eagle, and to the ox, lo, sixteen to a living creature, and so to every living creature; and four wings to everyone of the faces, lo, sixty and four wings to a living creatures and which, according to the Targum of Jonathan, amounts to two hundred and fifty six wings;''
what these wings signified; see Gill on Eze 1:11;
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Wings - With two they flew, denoting the speed…
Wings - With two they flew, denoting the speed of their obedience; and with two they covered their body, denoting their reverence.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. Every one had four faces] There were…
Verse 6. Every one had four faces] There were four several figures of these living creatures, and each of these figures had four distinct faces: but as the face of the man was that which was presented to the prophet's view, so that he saw it more plainly than any of the others; hence it is said, Eze 1:5, that each of these figures had the likeness of a man; and the whole of this compound image bore a general resemblance to the human figure.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain In the Revelation of John each “beast” has its…
In the Revelation of John each “beast” has its own distinctive character, here each unites in itself the four characters; there each has six wings, like the Seraphim Isa 6:2, here only four.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Faces. This sometimes means shapes; and Pererius supposes that…
Faces. This sometimes means shapes; and Pererius supposes that the animal had the head of a man, and the breast covered with lions’ hair, the feet or round cloven hoofs of an ox, and the wings of an eagle. But it had rather four faces as well as wings, the faces of the man and lion being to the right, and the other two to the left; (Calmet; Tirinus) or the eagle was behind (Haydock) or above the head of the man, and the lion and ox at his right and left. (Cornelius a Lapide) (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Not only were there four distinct living creatures, but…
Not only were there four distinct living creatures, but each of the four had four faces, making sixteen in all. The four living creatures of the cherubim answer by contrast to the four world monarchies represented by four beasts, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome (Dan. 7:1-28). The Fathers identified them with the four Gospels: Matthew the lion, Mark the ox, Luke the man, John the eagle. Two cherubim only stood over the ark in the temple; two more are now added, to imply that, while the law is retained as the basis, a new form is needed to be added to impart new life to it. The number four may have respect to the four quarters of the world, to imply that God's angels execute His commands everywhere. Each head in front had the face of a man as the primary and prominent one: on the right the face of a lion, on the left the face of an ox, above from behind the face of an eagle. The Mosaic cherubim were similar, only that the human faces were put looking towards each other, and towards the mercy seat between, being formed out of the same mass of pure gold as the latter (Exo 25:19-20). In Isa 6:2 two wings are added to cover their countenances; because there they stand by the throne, here under the throne; there God deigns to consult them, and His condescension calls forth their humility, so that they veil their faces before Him; here they execute His commands. The face expresses their intelligence; the wings, their rapidity in fulfilling God's will. The Shekinah or flame, that signified God's presence, and the written name, JEHOVAH, occupied the intervening space between the cherubim Gen 4:14, Gen 4:16; Gen 3:24 ("placed"; properly, "to place in a tabernacle"), imply that the cherubim were appointed at the fall as symbols of God's presence in a consecrated place, and that man was to worship there. In the patriarchal dispensation when the flood had caused the removal of the cherubim from Eden, seraphim or teraphim (Chaldean dialect) were made as models of them for domestic use (Gen 31:19, Margin; Gen 31:30). The silence of the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth chapters of Exodus to their configuration, whereas everything else is minutely described, is because their form was so well-known already to Bezaleel and all Israel by tradition as to need no detailed description. Hence Ezekiel (Eze 10:20) at once knows them, for he had seen them repeatedly in the carved work of the outer sanctuary of Solomon's temple (Kg1 6:23-29). He therefore consoles the exiles with the hope of having the same cherubim in the renovated temple which should be reared; and he assures them that the same God who dwelt between the cherubim of the temple would be still with His people by the Chebar. But they were not in Zerubbabel's temple; therefore Ezekiel's foretold temple, if literal, is yet future. The ox is selected as chief of the tame animals, the lion among the wild, the eagle among birds, and man the head of all, in his ideal, realized by the Lord Jesus, combining all the excellencies of the animal kingdom. The cherubim probably represent the ruling powers by which God acts in the natural and moral world. Hence they sometimes answer to the ministering angels; elsewhere, to the redeemed saints (the elect Church) through whom, as by the angels, God shall hereafter rule the world and proclaim the manifold wisdom of God (Mat 19:28; Co1 6:2; Eph 3:10; Rev 3:21; Rev 4:6-8). The "lions" and "oxen," amidst "palms" and "open flowers" carved in the temple, were the four-faced cherubim which, being traced on a flat surface, presented only one aspect of the four. The human-headed winged bulls and eagle-headed gods found in Nineveh, sculptured amidst palms and tulip-shaped flowers, were borrowed by corrupted tradition from the cherubim placed in Eden near its fruits and flowers. So the Aaronic calf (Exo 32:4-5) and Jeroboam's calves at Dan and Beth-el, a schismatic imitation of the sacred symbols in the temple at Jerusalem. So the ox figures of Apis on the sacred arks of Egypt.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. Four faces — A man’s face in front,…
6. Four faces — A man’s face in front, an eagle’s behind, the face of an ox on the left, and of a lion on the right. This is the usual explanation, but Hugo Winckler (Altorientalische Forschungen, 1896), from a monument recently discovered at Sendschirli which seems to somewhat resemble this description, would draw the conclusion that each one had a human body and “the appearance of a man,” but also that each creature was four-headed; the four heads facing the cardinal points: the four faces of the man looking toward the east, the four lion faces toward the west, the four bull faces toward the north, the four eagle faces toward the south. The fact seems to be that these were symbolic creatures, never intended for pictorial representation.
Four wings — The winged sun-disk is the oldest known symbol of deity and was reverenced in Arabia, Babylonia, Phoenicia, and Egypt. Even in Christian times this same symbol was used for the divine Christ by the Copts. Wesley says of the use of these wings: “With two they flew, denoting the speed of their obedience; and with two they covered their body, denoting their reverence.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. had four faces] These were a man’s in…
6. had four faces] These were a man’s in front of each, an eagle’s opposite to this at the back of each; a lion’s on the right hand of each, and the face of an ox on the left of each. Thus four different faces were presented in each direction, so that in whatever direction the whole moved, while a man’s face was presented first, those of a lion, an ox and an eagle were also encountered. In this view the four living creatures made up one creature, and each of the four was in small that which the four were combined.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) Four faces.—The cherubim, being merely symbolical figures, are…
(6) Four faces.—The cherubim, being merely symbolical figures, are variously represented. Those placed in the Tabernacle and in the Temple of Solomon appear to have had only a single face; those described in Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple (Eze_41:18-19) had two; the four living creatures of Rev_4:7 were each different from the other: one like a man, one like a lion, one like an ox, and one like an eagle, and these four are combined here in each one of the cherubim (Eze_1:10). Man is the head of the whole animal creation, the lion of wild beasts, the ox of the domestic animals, and the eagle of the birds.
Four wings.—In Rev_4:8, six wings are mentioned, as also with the seraphim of Isa_6:2. The cherubim in Solomon’s Temple had two (1Ki_6:27). In Eze_10:21, as here, they have four. The number is plainly not important, though doubtless assigned to them with reference to the number of creatures, and of their faces, and of the wheels; but that they should have more than the normal number of two is here appropriate, partly to concur with the other indications of the fulness of their life and activity, and partly because (Eze_1:11) two of them were used to express their reverence, as were four of those of the seraphim in Isaiah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain We note the points of contrast with other like…
We note the points of contrast with other like visions.
1. Eze_6:2 each seraph has six wings, as each "living creature" Rev_4:8.
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2. Eze_4:7 the four heads are distributed, one to each of the"living creatures," while here each has four faces, and forms, as it were, a Janus quadrifrons. The wings are described more minutely in ver. 11.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.