complete verse (Ezekiel 10:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 10:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “Each one of them had four heads and four wings. There were under the armpits of the wings what was like arms of a person.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Each one of them had four faces and four wings, and under their wings there were-what-seemed-like the hand of a man.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Each of them had four faces and four wings, and under their wings was what resembled a human’s hands.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 10:21 - 10:22

Each had four faces, and each four wings, and underneath their wings the semblance of human hands: See 1.6 and 8. In verse 21 Ezekiel continues to emphasize that the two groups of creatures he saw were the same. Each of the creatures had four faces, four wings, and what looked like a human hand under each wing.

And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the very faces whose appearance I had seen by the river Chebar: In verse 22 Ezekiel emphasizes even more that the two groups of creatures were the same, but this emphasis is not reflected in many translations because the Hebrew is strained. New King James Version expresses the Hebrew of this sentence literally, saying “And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I had seen by the River Chebar, their appearance and their persons.” This is a summary statement which says that the similarity was not restricted to the creatures’ faces but extended to the creatures as a whole.

They went every one straight forward: See 1.9. The similarity of the two groups of creatures also extended to the way they moved. Each creature moved straight ahead without turning.

A model that combines verses 21-22 is:

• These creatures were exactly like those I had seen by the Chebar Canal. They each had four faces and four wings, and under each wing was what looked like a human hand. Their faces looked the same. Everything about them was the same. They even moved in the same way—each one moving straight ahead without turning.

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 .