And the cherubim mounted up: Good News Translation takes this clause to be part of Ezekiel’s general description of the way in which the living creatures and the wheels moved (similar to 1.17-21). Since in Hebrew it is not a temporal clause (so Good News Translation), but an independent one, it is better to take it as describing what Ezekiel saw in his vision; for example, New International Version has “Then the cherubim rose upward.” Ezekiel does not say where the cherubim were going, but if translators need to specify it, we can assume that they went from where they were standing on the south side of the Temple (see Ezek 10.3) toward the entrance of the Temple (see verse 18). However, for most languages it will be enough to say “Then the cherubim rose up from where they were.”

These were the living creatures that I saw by the river Chebar: As soon as the creatures rose up from the ground, Ezekiel was able to recognize that, despite the differences he had already described, they were the same creatures as those he had seen earlier. For the river Chebar, see the comments on 1.1. This phrase is better rendered “the Chebar Canal” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

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 .