by the river chebar

I recently read through the book of Ezekiel and the descriptions in it are crazy! My imagination still needs a little work, lol! But I really wanted to illustrate some of the amazing things that Ezekiel described.

This is the text that inspired this painting:

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, which was]in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves' feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings. Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies. And each one went straight forward; they went wherever the spirit wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning.
~ Ezekiel 1:1-13



Just for the sake of being authentic, as inspiration I used a photo of a canal from the Euphrates river. I did a little research and learned that the "River Chebar" was actually a canal from the Euphrates. I used some various images found on the internet as inspiration for the water and clouds.

I was also very inspired by http://shadowness.com/ascendingstorm/

This painting was very difficult as I did not have an exact image to use as reference, I had to kind of figure things out as I went along. I had so much fun painting this, and I'm planning on doing many more pieces of art relating to Ezekiel's visions and the 4 living creatures.


Acrylic on 16x20 canvas board. Approximately 17 hours.

• Favorites:14 favorites
• Comments:30 comments
• Views:205 views
• Submitted:Jan 27th
• Resolution:864x1074
• Date Created:Aug 5th, 2011
• Filesize:363 KB
• Share to:FacebookTwitter

• Copy Link:
• SN Code: