Ezekiel 1:22

THE MESSAGE

Over the heads of the living creatures was something like a dome, shimmering like a sky full of cut glass, vaulted over their heads. Under the dome one set of wings was extended toward the others, with another set of wings covering their bodies. When they moved I heard their wings—it was like the roar of a great waterfall, like the voice of The Strong God, like the noise of a battlefield. When they stopped, they folded their wings.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Over the heads of the living creatures the likeness of an expanse was spread out. It gleamed like awe-inspiring crystal,

Hebrew Names Version
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.

King James Version
And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

English Standard Version
Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads.

New American Standard Bible
Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads.

New Century Version
Now, over the heads of the living creatures was something like a dome that sparkled like ice and was frightening.

Amplified Bible
Now stretched over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, looking like the terrible and awesome shimmer of icy crystal.

World English Bible
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.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the similitude of the firmament vpon the heads of the beasts was wonderfull, like vnto chrystall, spred ouer their heads aboue.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now over the heads of the living creatures there was something with the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads above.

Berean Standard Bible
Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of an awesome expanse, gleaming like crystal.

Contemporary English Version
Above the living creatures, I saw something that was sparkling like ice, and it reminded me of a dome. Each creature had two of its wings stretched out toward the creatures on either side, with the other two wings folded against its body.

Complete Jewish Bible
Over the heads of the living creatures was what appeared to be a dome glittering like ice; it was awesome, spread out over their heads, above them.

Darby Translation
And there was the likeness of an expanse over the heads of the living creature, as the look of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

Easy-to-Read Version
There was an amazing thing over the heads of the living beings. It was like a bowl turned upside down, and the bowl was clear like crystal.

George Lamsa Translation
And over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, resembling pure crystal, stretched out over their heads above.

Good News Translation
Above the heads of the creatures there was something that looked like a dome made of dazzling crystal.

Lexham English Bible
Now the likeness above the heads of the living creatures was an expanse like the outward appearance of awesome ice spread out above their heads upward.

Literal Translation
And a likeness was over the heads of the living creature, an expanse like the color of awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads from above.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Aboue ouer ye heades of the beestes there was a firmament, which was fashioned as it had bene off the most pure Christall, & that was spred out aboue vpon their heades:

American Standard Version
And over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of a firmament, like the terrible crystal to look upon, stretched forth over their heads above.

Bible in Basic English
And over the heads of the living beings there was the form of an arch, looking like ice, stretched out over their heads on high.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, like the colour of the terrible ice, stretched forth over their heads above.

King James Version (1611)
And the likenesse of the firmament vpon the heads of the liuing creature was as the colour of the terrible chrystall, stretched foorth ouer their heads aboue.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the similitude of the firmament vpon the heades of the beastes, was like the colour of christall wonderfull, spread ouer their heades aboue.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the likeness over the heads of the living creatures was as a firmament, as the appearance of crystal, spread out over their wings above.

English Revised Version
And over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of a firmament, like the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the licnesse of the firmament was aboue the heed of the beestis, and as the biholdyng of orible cristal, and stretchid abrood on the heed of tho beestis aboue.

Update Bible Version
And over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of a firmament, like the awesome crystal to look at, stretched forth over their heads above.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature [was] as the color of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

New English Translation
Over the heads of the living beings was something like a platform, glittering awesomely like ice, stretched out over their heads.

New King James Version
The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures [fn] was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads.

New Living Translation
Spread out above them was a surface like the sky, glittering like crystal.

New Life Bible
Over the heads of the living beings there was something that looked like the sky. It shined like crystal and spread over their heads.

New Revised Standard
Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And there was a likeness over the heads of the living one - an expanse, like terrible crystal to look upon, -stretched forth over their heads above.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And over the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of the firmament, the appearance of crystal terrible to behold, and stretched out over their heads above.

Revised Standard Version
Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads.

Young's Literal Translation
And a likeness [is] over the heads of the living creatures of an expanse, as the colour of the fearful ice, stretched out over their heads from above.

Contextual Overview

¹⁵As I watched the four creatures, I saw something that looked like a wheel on the ground beside each of the four-faced creatures. This is what the wheels looked like: They were identical wheels, sparkling like diamonds in the sun. It looked like they were wheels within wheels, like a gyroscope. ¹⁷They went in any one of the four directions they faced, but straight, not veering off. The rims were immense, circled with eyes. When the living creatures went, the wheels went; when the living creatures lifted off, the wheels lifted off. Wherever the spirit went, they went, the wheels sticking right with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures went, the wheels went; when the creatures stopped, the wheels stopped; when the creatures lifted off, the wheels lifted off, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ²²Over the heads of the living creatures was something like a dome, shimmering like a sky full of cut glass, vaulted over their heads. Under the dome one set of wings was extended toward the others, with another set of wings covering their bodies. When they moved I heard their wings—it was like the roar of a great waterfall, like the voice of The Strong God, like the noise of a battlefield. When they stopped, they folded their wings. ²⁵And then, as they stood with folded wings, there was a voice from above the dome over their heads. Above the dome there was something that looked like a throne, sky-blue like a sapphire, with a humanlike figure towering above the throne. From what I could see, from the waist up he looked like burnished bronze and from the waist down like a blazing fire. Brightness everywhere! The way a rainbow springs out of the sky on a rainy day—that's what it was like. It turned out to be the Glory of God ! When I saw all this, I fell to my knees, my face to the ground. Then I heard a voice.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the likeness: Ezekiel 1:26, Ezekiel 10:1, Exodus 24:10, Job 37:22, Revelation 4:3, Revelation 4:6, Revelation 21:11

crystal: The Hebrew kerach which generally denotes ice, doubtless here signifies crystal (ךסץףפבככןע, from ךסץןע, cold, ice, and ףפוככןלבי, to concrete), as it is rendered by the LXX and Vulgate. It is a very large class of silicious minerals, hard, pellucid, naturally colourless, of regularly angular figures, and of simple plates; not flexible, nor elastic, but giving fire with steel; not fermenting by acid menstrua, but calcinable in a strong fire. There are three orders of pure crystal. The first is perfect columnar crystals, with double pyramids, of eighteen planes, in an hexangular pyramid at each end; the second is that of perfect crystals, without a column, of twelve or sixteen planes, in two hexangular pyramids; and the third is that of imperfect crystals, with single pyramids, of ten or twelve planes, in an hexangular or pentangular column. Terrible crystal seems to denote that which was well cut and polished, vividly refracting the rays of light.

Reciprocal: Job 28:17 - crystal Psalms 150:1 - in the firmament Ezekiel 10:20 - the living

Cross-References

Genesis 1:14
God spoke: "Lights! Come out! Shine in Heaven's sky! Separate Day from Night. Mark seasons and days and years, Lights in Heaven's sky to give light to Earth." And there it was.

Genesis 9:1
God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don't eat that.

Genesis 30:27
Laban said, "If you please, I have learned through divine inquiry that God has blessed me because of you." He went on, "So name your wages. I'll pay you."

Genesis 35:11
God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants.

Job 40:15
"Look at the land beast, Behemoth. I created him as well as you. Grazing on grass, docile as a cow— Just look at the strength of his back, the powerful muscles of his belly. His tail sways like a cedar in the wind; his huge legs are like beech trees. His skeleton is made of steel, every bone in his body hard as steel. Most magnificent of all my creatures, but I still lead him around like a lamb! The grass-covered hills serve him meals, while field mice frolic in his shadow. He takes afternoon naps under shade trees, cools himself in the reedy swamps, Lazily cool in the leafy shadows as the breeze moves through the willows. And when the river rages he doesn't budge, stolid and unperturbed even when the Jordan goes wild. But you'd never want him for a pet— you'd never be able to housebreak him!"

Job 42:12
God blessed Job's later life even more than his earlier life. He ended up with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand teams of oxen, and one thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first daughter Dove, the second, Cinnamon, and the third, Darkeyes. There was not a woman in that country as beautiful as Job's daughters. Their father treated them as equals with their brothers, providing the same inheritance.

Psalms 128:3
Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes, your household lush as a vineyard, The children around your table as fresh and promising as young olive shoots. Stand in awe of God's Yes. Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God !

Proverbs 10:22
God 's blessing makes life rich; nothing we do can improve on God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature,.... This was not a real firmament, but the likeness of one; it was like the firmament which God created on the second day, which divided between the waters above and below, and which he called Heaven; and is no other than the airy and starry heavens. Its name is in Hebrew

רקיע, "an expanse"; from its being stretched out as a curtain, and a tent to dwell in; and a "firmament" from its firmness and continuance; and therefore called the firmament of his power, Genesis 1:8

Psalms 150:1; and this visionary one was "over the heads of the living creatures"; which shows that they could not be angels, for those have their habitation in the third heaven, above the firmament; much less in hieroglyphic of the trinity of Persons, who are the three that bear record in heaven, and are not under the firmament; but ministers of the Gospel, who are on earth, and are subject to Christ, whose throne is above the firmament, Ezekiel 1:26; and who receive their commission and gifts from him, and are accountable to him. This firmament

[was] as the colony of the tenable crystal; crystal is a very white, transparent, precious stone, resembling ice, from whence it has its name; hence Pliny t thought it was no other than ice vehemently frozen; and here it is called "terrible", because exceeding clear and bright, so that there was no looking upon it, without the eyes being dazzled with the glory of it. The sky is called a molten looking glass, in which the glory of God, and his handiwork, may be seen, Job 37:18; and as the throne of Christ was over this crystal firmament, it shows that, though he is in heaven, he sees all that is done on earth, and in his churches, and by his ministers; and the saints also see him by faith, and through the glass of the Gospel: it is only a crystal firmament that is between them,

stretched forth over their heads above; that is, over the heads of the living creatures, as before; said to be stretched out, in allusion to its name, an expanse, as before observed.

t Nat. Hit. l. 37. c. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

“The color” (Hebrew, “eye”) “of the terrible crystal” refers to the dazzling brightness of the “firmament,” a clear bright expanse between the “throne” and the “living creatures,” separating heaven from earth.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ezekiel 1:22. The colour of the terrible crystal — Like a crystal, well cut and well polished, with various faces, by which rays of light were refracted, assuming either a variety of prismatic colours, or an insufferably brilliant splendour. This seems to be the meaning of the terrible crystal. Newcome translates, fearful ice. The common translation is preferable.