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ha-ko•heinꞋ, ha-Nâ•viꞋ, ca. B.C.E. 597  |
 Bâ•vëlꞋ ca. B.C.E. 735. Tël Aviv (Mesopotamia, not modern Israel) was located near modern Nippur, Iraq. "The valley" likely referred to the valley of the Euphrates near the "River Kᵊvâr, which is thought to have been a man-made canal offshoot from the Euphrates River that ran through Nippur (modern southern Iraq) and dried-up long ago. |
Preface: For centuries, commentators who know not a whit more than you do how to interpret the visions of Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ have ranged from insistence on angelic beings to complex symbology to Christian mysticism to later (!), "Jewish" Qa•bâl•âhꞋ and, in the modern era, questions whether he saw UFOs, or foresaw warplanes, tanks and other war machines. In the original (Hebrew) text, the grammar doesn't distinguish between "he" and "it" (simply masc. sing.) or between "she" and "it" (simply fem. sing.) Yet, translators have always presumed their own, Dark Ages mysticism into the text in all (non-Hebrew) translations.
This translation avoids that trap. For example, instead of translating the conventional "living being" for çÇéÌÈä, this translation allows that, while Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ may indeed have been describing a "living being" or "fantastic angelic qi•ruvꞋ," he may just as well have been envisioning a self-animated machine. War machines (ballistas) had, in his time, already been around the pre-history Middle East for centuries and, only 2 centuries later, the history-recording Greeks were already making advanced machines like the Antikythera calendar computer. "Animated-figure" faithfully conveys the Hebrew ambiguity, allowing the reader to make that determination in each case where the Hebrew is ambiguous.
Notably, while commentators have always been practically unanimous in considering this first chapter of Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ to be the primary source describing the Më•rᵊkâv•âhꞋ, the word îÆøÀëÌÈáÈä is never mentioned anywhere in this chapter! The connection is entirely assumed from descriptions in Yᵊsha•yâhꞋu 66.15, Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu 4.13, Kha•va•quqꞋ 3.8 and Zᵊkhar•yâhꞋ 6.1-3.
Now it came to pass in the 30th year, on the 5th of 4thmonth, as I was among the Gâl•utꞋ, on the River Kᵊvar that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of Ël•oh•imꞋ.
In the 5th day of the month, which was the 5th year of the Gâl•utꞋ of mëlꞋëkh Yoyâkhin,
the DᵊvarꞋ é‑‑ä was persisting with Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ Bën-BuzꞋi ha-ko•heinꞋ, ha-Nâ•viꞋ in the land of the Kasᵊd•imꞋ on the River Kᵊvar; and there, over him, was Yâd é‑‑ä.
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 Egyptian
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Then I saw and, look, a storm ruꞋakh came from the north, a large cloud, with a consuming fire and a luminescence all around the cloud emanating from its interior like an eye of electrum, from the midst of the fire.
From the interior emanated the form of four animated-figures. And this was their appearance: they had a man-like form.
One had four faces and one of them had four wings.
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the eye of burnished brass;
With hands of a man [emanating] from under their wings over their four quarters; and the four of them had faces and wings.
Their wings were joined each to the other; they didn't turn around when they went; every one went straight ahead.
As for the form of their faces, they had the face of a man; and the four had the face of a lion on the right side; and the four had the face of an ox on the left side; the four also had the face of an eagle.
Thus were their faces. Their wings outstretched upward; the two wings of each were joined to the other, [when folded] the two also covered their fuselages.
And each went in the direction they faced; wherever the ruꞋakh propelled them, they went; they didn't deviate in their going.
As for the form of the animated-figures, their appearance was like coals of fire, burning like the appearance of torches, flitting back and forth among the animated-figures. The fire shined and lightning emanated from the fire.
So the animated-figures ran back and forth, like the appearance lightning flashes.
As I looked at the animated-figures, then look: there was one inboard wheel of the animated-figures for each of its four faces.
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 Peridot |
The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like an eye of peridot. All four had the same form as the one; and their appearance and their workings were like a wheel within a wheel.
In their going, they went on their four quarters; they didn't deviate in their going.
Their fuselages were high and they were awesome. The fuselages of the four were full of eyes all around.
When the animated-figures went, the wheels went with them. When the animated-figures were lifted-up from the earth, the wheels were lifted-up.
Wherever the ruꞋakh propelled, they went; there the ruꞋakh went and the wheels were lifted up beside them; because a ruꞋakh of the animated-figure was in the wheels.
When [the animated-figures] went, [the wheels] went, and when [the animated-figures] hovered, [the wheels] hovered; and when [the animated-figures] were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them; because a ruꞋakh of the animated-figure was in the wheels.
Over the heads of the animated-figures was a form of the sky, like the eye of an awesome glacier stretching-forth over their heads from above.
Under the sky their wings were straight, each relative to the other. Each [animated-figure] had two [wings] that covered themselves. So each had two [wings] that covered themselves and their fuselages.
Whenever they went I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters, like the Sound of Shad•aiꞋ, a sound of words like the sound of an army-camp. When they hovered, they relaxed their wings.
There became a sound from above, skyward, over their heads. When they hovered, they relaxed their wings.
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 Lapis lazuli |
From above, skyward over their heads, was the form of a throne like the appearance of a lapis lazuli stone. From above, the form was like the appearance of a man on it.
I saw [something] like an eye of electrum. It had an appearance like a house of fire around it. From the appearance of its lower-body upward; and from the appearance of its lower-body downward, I saw what appeared to be like fire shining all round.
Like the appearance of the (rain)bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the shining round about. This was the appearance of the form of the Kâ•vodꞋ é‑‑ä. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a sound of speaking.
Notes:
The 30th year of the reign of Nᵊvu-apul-ushur Sr. (Akkadian, Hellenized to Nabopolassar), father of Nᵊvu-khadᵊnëtzꞋar, crowned himself king of Akkad / Iraq / Bâ•vëlꞋ ca. B.C.E. 627 + 30 years ⇒ ca. BCE 597, the year Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ arrived in Tël •vivꞋ, Bâ•vëlꞋ. Given the additive differences between the Judaic and secular calendars plus the tendency to sometimes ascribe the year of beginning and ending of reigns to both deceased and incoming kings, this margin of elasticity-error easily includes the 5th year of the reign of Yᵊhō•yâ•khinꞋ Bën-Yᵊhō•yâ•qimꞋ, MëlꞋëkh of combined-YᵊhudꞋâh in Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim ca. B.C.E. 604-3 + 5 years also early ca. B.C.E. 597. For details, see my Chronology of the Tanakh, from the "Big ðÈèÈä" Live-LinkT 
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 Antikythera calendar computer, ca. B.C.E. 205 (previously estimated to ca. B.C.E. 85). |
Three centuries before Archimedes and a couple of centuries before Euclid, this Antikythera calendar, most recently dated to ca. B.C.E. 205, was produced (the concept clearly having been the fruition of many decades of serious theory, engineering and design) on Babylonian arithmetic rather than Greek trigonometry—a hint that earlier advanced arithmetical applications in Bâ•vëlꞋ had already long been in use for some time to become known throughout the ancient world. Aside from Greek history, war machines date back at least to ballistas hurling burning tar balls at Sᵊdom ca. B.C.E. 1879—centuries before Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ penned this vision (ca. B.C.E. 597).
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 Reproduction from x-rays of Antikythera calendar computer reveals complexity of a calendar computer machine that calculated and displayed the movement of the planets. |
Archytas (B.C.E. ca. 428-327), a scientist of the school of Pythagoras (B.C.E. ca. 570-495, born during Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ's lifetime), famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato (B.C.E. ca. 428-348), invented a steam-powered, pigeon robot that flew along a wire ca. B.C.E. 410; less than two centuries before Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ—who lived in the more arithmetically and technologically advanced Bâ•vᵊl•iꞋ civilization! When Archytas' writings on hydraulics, pneumatics and mechanics were translated into Latin in the 16th century C.E., Hero's readers were amazed to discover descriptions of inventions of working machines that included vending machines, a water-pump, a wind-organ, and the aeolipile (the first recorded steam engine)—information that was lost in the Dark Ages for 1,000 years. There is no reason why Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ wouldn't have been describing various cutting-edge, scientific and technology automata of the time; including flying-kᵊruv•imꞋ and man-like robots, on the drawing boards of various Bâ•vᵊl•iꞋ scientists, perhaps including himself, of his day!.
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 Syma quadcopter drone |
Lit. inland (usually translated "in the land," "in the earth" or "on the land"), áÌÈàÈøÆõ
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