Cherubim

The cherubim appear in UPDV scripture in three overlapping registers: as the divinely-stationed guardians of holy access, as the wing-spread figures fastened to the ark and woven or carved through the sanctuary, and as the throne-bearing chariot-figures of Yahweh's glory. From the east of Eden to the most-holy house, and from the river Chebar to the heavenly tabernacle Hebrews looks back upon, the cherubim are exhibited as the canopy-spreading, mercy-seat-flanking, glory-bearing creatures whose wings mark the place where holiness is kept and from which divine speech issues.

Guardians of the Way

The Cherubim enter the canon at the gate of the lost garden. After the man is driven out, Yahweh God posts them with the every-way-turning flame of a sword to keep the way of the tree of life: "he caused the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to stay at the east of the garden of Eden to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen 3:24). The posting-station is the east of the garden, the paired implement is the flame-sword, and the keeping-purpose is access to the tree, so the cherubim are exhibited at origin as the divinely-stationed flame-sword-paired guardians of access to life.

That same guardian register reappears at the Tyre oracle. Ezekiel addresses the king of Tyre under a cherub-title at his pre-fall standing: "You were the anointed cherub that covers; I set you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire" (Eze 28:14). The anointed-and-covering cherub is exhibited as the canopy-spreading guardian-figure of the holy precinct, divinely set on God's mountain and free to traverse the stones of fire — a standing the v16 verdict overturns when violence is found in him: "I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire" (Eze 28:16).

The Mercy-Seat Pair

At Sinai the cherubim are commanded as a paired figure on the cover of the ark. Yahweh tells Moses, "you will make two cherubim of gold; of beaten work you will make them, at the two ends of the mercy-seat" (Ex 25:18). The next verse fixes the count at one cherub per end and fuses each to the cover itself: "make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end: of one piece with the mercy-seat you⁺ will make the cherubim on the two ends of it" (Ex 25:19). Their posture and gaze is fastened: "the cherubim will spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy-seat will the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex 25:20).

The make-orders are executed exactly. Bezalel's workshop replicates the command — "he made two cherubim of gold; of beaten work he made them, at the two ends of the mercy-seat" (Ex 37:7) — and the wing-and-face posture is preserved (Ex 37:8-9). Hebrews looks back across this whole arrangement and names the pair under a glory-title: "above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we can't now speak severally" (Heb 9:5). The cherubim are thus exhibited as the wing-spread, mutually-facing, mercy-seat-gazing figures of the ark-cover — and as the glory-titled overshadowers in the heavenly-pattern register.

The Voice From Between

The mercy-seat pair is not decorative; the cherub-flanked space between them is the locus from which Yahweh speaks. At the tent of meeting the divine speech is sourced precisely there: "he heard [the Speech] speaking to him from above the mercy-seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim: and he spoke to him" (Num 7:89). The earlier promise had set the same site: "there [my Speech] will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony" (Ex 25:22). The cherubim are exhibited here as the ark-top, mercy-seat-flanking attendants between whom divine speech issues to Moses.

Embroidered and Woven Through the Sanctuary

The cherub-figures are not confined to the ark. They thread the whole tabernacle textile-program. The ten curtains of the tabernacle are commanded "of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim the work of the skillful workman you will make them" (Ex 26:1), and the inner veil that screens the most-holy place is given the same craft: "you will make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubim the work of the skillful workman it will be made" (Ex 26:31). Bezalel and the wise-hearted men carry both out: the ten-curtain tabernacle (Ex 36:8) and the veil (Ex 36:35). The cherub-motif thus spans curtain, veil, and ark-cover — so that to step through the veil into the inner room is already to step among woven cherubim before reaching the gold pair on the mercy-seat.

Yahweh of Hosts Who Sits Above the Cherubim

The mercy-seat pair generates a divine title that travels through the historical books, the psalms, and the prophets. When the ark is summoned from Shiloh it is fetched as the ark "of Yahweh of hosts who sits [above] the cherubim" (1Sa 4:4); David retrieves it under the same throne-name (2Sa 6:2; 1Ch 13:6). Hezekiah prays into that title at the Assyrian crisis: "O Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sits [above] the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth" (2Ki 19:15; cf. Is 37:16). Asaph invokes it as a petition: "You who sit [above] the cherubim, shine forth" (Ps 80:1), and the enthronement-psalm pairs the throne-formula with the trembling of the peoples: "Yahweh reigns; let the peoples tremble: He sits [above] the cherubim; let the earth be moved" (Ps 99:1). The cherubim are exhibited under this title as the ark-top enthronement-figures above which Yahweh sits as Shepherd-King of Israel.

A flying register sits beside the seated one. In David's deliverance-song Yahweh comes down on storm-wings: "he rode on a cherub, and flew; Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind" (2Sa 22:11; the parallel reads "he soared on the wings of the wind," Ps 18:10). The cherub here is exhibited as the storm-mount that bears Yahweh out of the heavens.

In Solomon's Temple

What had been a mercy-seat pair becomes, in Solomon's oracle, a colossal pair fitted to the most-holy house. "And in the oracle he made two cherubim of olive-wood, each ten cubits high" (1Ki 6:23). Their wings span the room: each wing five cubits, the four wings together stretching ten cubits to ten cubits across the inner sanctuary so that "the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house" (1Ki 6:27). They are gold-overlaid (1Ki 6:28) and stand under one measure-and-form template: "the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubim were of one measure and one form" (1Ki 6:25).

The chronicler reports the same pair as cast-and-gold-overlaid: "in the most holy house he made two cherubim of molten work; and they overlaid them with gold" (2Ch 3:10). The wing-arithmetic is restated as a twenty-cubit canopy made of two five-plus-five spans (2Ch 3:11-13). When the priests carry the ark in, the colossal pair receives it as the mercy-seat pair had received it on the ark-cover itself: "the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above" (1Ki 8:6-7; cf. 2Ch 5:7-8).

The cherub-motif then radiates outward across the house. The walls round about — inside and outside — are carved "with carved figures of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers" (1Ki 6:29); the olive-wood doors are carved with the same triad and gold-fitted to the relief (1Ki 6:32, 35); the chronicler restates the wall-engraving (2Ch 3:7); the inner veil is wrought with cherubim (2Ch 3:14); and the bronze laver-stands carry cherubim alongside lions, oxen, and palm-trees on their panels and supports (1Ki 7:29, 36). David's pattern given to Solomon names the whole arrangement under one chariot-title: "gold for the pattern of the chariot, [even] the cherubim, that spread out [their wings], and covered the ark of the covenant of Yahweh" (1Ch 28:18).

The Throne-Bearing Chariot of Glory

Ezekiel's visions raise the cherubim from sanctuary furnishings to throne-bearing chariot-figures of the divine glory itself. The Chebar-vision four-living-creatures are described in their wing-and-face configuration in chapter 1 (Eze 1:5-14); when the prophet sees them again in the temple he names them: "this is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim" (Eze 10:20). Their four-fold face-set in the temple-vision is given as cherub, man, lion, and eagle (Eze 10:14).

The temple-vision is choreographed around the cherub-throne. The glory of the God of Israel lifts off its inner-sanctuary mounting: "the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, on which it was, to the threshold of the house" (Eze 9:3). Above the cherubim there appears "as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne" (Eze 10:1). One cherub serves as fire-handler — "the cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took [of it], and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen" (Eze 10:7) — passing the holy fire to the man commissioned to scatter coals over the city. The wing-sound is given a divine-speech timbre: "the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks" (Eze 10:5).

The departure unfolds in stages. The glory rises off the cherub, stands at the threshold, then returns over the cherub-quartet (Eze 10:4, 18). The cherubim mount up with the wheels alongside (Eze 10:15-16, 19) and finally lift their wings over the city: "Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above" (Eze 11:22). The cherubim are exhibited here as the wing-equipped, wheel-attended, glory-bearing chariot-throne in active departure-motion — the same throne-figures Ezekiel had recognized at Chebar, now carrying the glory out of the doomed temple.

In the Temple-Vision Walls

When Ezekiel's later vision rebuilds the house, the cherub-and-palm-tree motif of Solomon's walls returns but with a face-pair detail not given in 1 Kings: "it was made with cherubim and palm-trees; and a palm-tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces; so that there was the face of man toward the palm-tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm-tree on the other side" (Eze 41:18-19). The relief runs from ground to door, "thus was the wall of the temple" (Eze 41:20), and the same paired motif is set on the doors of the temple as on the walls (Eze 41:25). The cherubim are exhibited here as the palm-tree-flanking, two-faced wall-figures of the visionary house — recognizably the Solomonic carved-cherubim program reorchestrated under prophetic measurement.

A Note on the Other "Cherub"

The post-exilic registers list a place or person bearing the name "Cherub" among those who could not show their fathers' houses (Ezr 2:59; Ne 7:61). This is a distinct lexical entry — a toponym or personal name — and does not bear on the angelic-figure register treated above.