Of cherubim and palm trees: In Hebrew this verse begins with a word that is literally “and it was made/carved.” Revised Standard Version includes this word at the end of the previous verse, but it is better to place it here at the beginning of a new sentence. A pattern of cherubim and palm trees was carved on the walls of the Temple. Cherubim are the supernatural winged creatures that guarded God’s throne (see the comments on 9.3), but Ezekiel also used this term for the four-faced “living creatures” (Good News Translation) that carried the throne of God in the earlier visions Ezekiel saw (see the comments on 10.1). For carved palm trees, see 40.16. The beginning of verse 18 may be rendered “Cherubim and palm trees were carved [on the walls]” or “People had carved cherubim and palm trees [on the walls].”
A palm tree between cherub and cherub: There was a regular pattern of cherubim and palm trees one after the other.
Every cherub had two faces: the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side: Here each cherub had two faces, one of a man, that is, “a human face” (Good News Translation), in one direction, and the other of a young lion, facing the other direction. For young lion, see the comments on 19.2. A human face and a lion’s face were two of the four faces of the cherubim in Ezekiel’s earlier visions (see 1.10). It is possible that the other two faces were not visible because these figures were not three dimensional, but carved on a flat surface. Ezekiel emphasizes the regularity of the cherub-palm tree-cherub pattern by saying the human face looked in one direction and the lion’s face looked in the other direction. A model for this whole sentence is “Each cherub had two faces. 19 A human face looked toward a palm tree in one direction, and a lion’s face looked toward a palm tree in the other direction.”
They were carved on the whole temple round about: Ezekiel repeats that these carvings were on the walls “all around” (Good News Translation) the Temple. The whole temple refers to the whole building.
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 .