Using almost exactly the same words as in chapter 1, Ezekiel interrupts the dialogue between God and the man in linen clothes, and again describes the throne of God, carried by the four strange living creatures.

Then I looked, and behold: In Hebrew this verse begins in the same way as 1.4 (see the comments there). It uses a vivid style for relating a vision. New Jerusalem Bible makes this explicit with “Then, in a vision I saw.”

On the firmament that was over the heads of the cherubim: For firmament see 1.22. This is the first time Ezekiel calls the “living creatures” (Good News Translation) that carried God’s throne cherubim (see 9.3). At the end of this vision he explicitly identifies them as such (see verse 20). Most of the details of these cherubim are identical with those of the living creatures in chapters 1 and 3. The details differ a little, but Ezekiel says three times that they were the same creatures he had seen earlier by the Chebar River (see verses 15, 20, 22). Therefore, even though Ezekiel calls them cherubim now, translators may use the same term in this chapter that they used for the living creatures in chapters 1 and 3, as Good News Translation has done. This will help to avoid confusion, although it can cause a slight problem in verse 20. However, translators who want to introduce and use the term cherubim may say “living creatures called cherubim” or “winged creatures called cherubim,” keeping in mind that cherubim is the plural form of “cherub.”

There appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne: The description here is very vague. On the platform carried by the living creatures was something that looked like a sapphire, that is, a valuable dark blue gemstone, and it seemed to be shaped like a throne. In 1.26 Ezekiel described this as something that “was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire” (see the comments there). Many translations understand this verse in the same way as 1.26 by saying it looked like “a throne made of sapphire” (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). However, other translators follow the text and retain the distinction between the two descriptions; for example, New Century Version renders the description here in 10.1 as “something like a sapphire gem which looked like a throne.” In many languages there appeared is more naturally rendered “I saw” or “there was.”

This verse may be restructured as follows:

• Then in my vision I saw what looked like a throne made of a valuable blue stone, which was on the platform over the heads of the living creatures called cherubim.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .