And every one had four faces: The subject now changes back to the cherubim, that is, the living creatures. Translators may need to make this clear by rendering this clause as “Every one of the cherubim had four faces.”

The first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle: According to Ezekiel, these creatures were the same as the creatures he saw in his first vision (see verses 15, 20, 22). But this description of their faces is different. Instead of a human face at the front, a lion’s face on the right, an ox’s face on the left, and an eagle’s face at the back (see 1.10), these creatures had the faces of the cherub, a man, a lion, and an eagle. Three of these faces are the same as in chapter 1 and, going clockwise, they are in the same order. But what of the other face? Nowhere does the Bible tell us what the face of a cherub looks like, but it is certain that it did not look like the Medieval European paintings of chubby angels. Some translations, relying on Ezekiel’s own statements, identify the cherub with an “ox” (New Living Translation) or “bull” (see Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). In the light of Ezekiel’s insistence that the creatures were the same, this is the best solution. But if translators have used different terms to differentiate the “living creatures” of chapter 1 from the “cherubim” of this chapter, they may follow Revised Standard Version to reflect the different terms used in the Hebrew text.

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 .