Ezekiel describes four living creatures with humanlike form, each with four faces and four wings Ezekiel 1:5–6. Their movement is straight and unified, “wherever the spirit would go” Ezekiel 1:12. Later he identifies these living creatures as cherubim Ezekiel 10:20.
In Ezekiel 1:4–7 the scene opens with Ezekiel watching a violent weather-front coming from the north. He describes a huge cloud with lightning and an intense surrounding glow. At the center is something like fire and something that looks like glowing metal. These verses sit at the beginning of Ezekiel’s opening vision (1:1–28), where the prophet reports what he sees in careful, step-by-step description. The writing moves from the widest frame (a storm approaching) to the inner core (fire and glowing brightness) and then to the beings that come out of it.
Ezekiel reports an overwhelming sight that moves from the outside in: a violent storm-front from the north, a cloud packed with lightning and radiant glow, and a blazing center that looks like fire mixed with something like glowing metal (Ezekiel 1:4).
A common mistake is to treat this as trivia. Names, places, numbers, and sequence details often carry memory, covenant identity, or narrative movement in the biblical story.
Start with Ezekiel 1:5-6, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
5Out of the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.
6Everyone had four faces, and everyone of them had four wings.