CHAPTER 3

After Ezekiel, peace be on him, had set forth the description of the Chariot as given in the beginning of the book, the selfsame apprehension returned to him a second time when, in a vision of prophecy, he was borne to Jerusalem. Thereupon he explained to us things that at first had not been explained. Thus for our benefit he replaced the word living creatures by the word cherubim, making it known to us that the living creatures that were mentioned at first are also angels — I mean, the cherubim. He says: And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them.¹ Thus he confirms the fact that, as we have mentioned, the two motions were bound together. Then he says: This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Khebar; and I knew that they were the cherubim.² Accordingly he repeats the description of the selfsame forms and the selfsame motions and makes it clear that the living creatures are the cherubim and the cherubim are the living creatures. Thereupon he explains in this second description another notion, namely, the notion that the wheels [ophannim] are the galgallim³ [spheres]; he says:⁴ As for the wheels [ophannim], they were called in my hearing: Hagalgal.⁵ Then he explains a third notion regarding the wheels [ophannim], saying with reference to them: But to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went.6 Thus he states explicitly that the compulsory motion of the wheels followed to the place whither the head looked. That is to say, as he has explained, it followed whither the air will be.⁷ Then he adds a fourth notion regarding the wheels; he says: And the wheels were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had.⁸ [7a] He did not mention this notion at first. Then he says in this last apprehension with regard to the wheels: their flesh and their backs and their hands and their wings.⁹ At first he had not mentioned that the wheels had flesh or hands or wings, but only that they were bodies. Finally, however, he goes so far as to say that they have flesh, hands, and wings; but he does not ascribe to them any form whatever. In this second apprehension he also explains that every wheel is related to a cherub, saying: One wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub.¹⁰ He also explains there that the four living creatures are one living creature because of the adherence of all of them to one another; for he says: This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Khebar.¹¹ Similarly he calls the wheels, One wheel upon the earth,¹² in spite of there being, as he also mentions, four wheels; and this because of their being joined to one another and of their having¹³ all four one likeness.¹⁴ These are the explanations, regarding the forms of the living creatures and the wheels, that are added for our benefit in this second apprehension.