* "And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire." (Ezekiel 1:4)

The depiction of a great cloud, combined with the whirlwind, would mean that this is a great object that is flying, spinning, and moving toward him from the North. The "fire infolding itself" and "brightness" descriptions obviously mean it was glowing brightly. The "out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire" characterization is the most important, yet, the least mentioned and most misunderstood aspect of Ezekiel's entire description of this vehicle.

A Large, Flying, Spinning, Glowing, Metallic Vehicle

The word “colour” is taken from the Hebrew word `ayin, pronounced ah'-yin, meaning; an eye (literally or figuratively); by analogy, a fountain (as the eye of the landscape). In other words, “appearance”. The word "amber" is the key to the composition of this vehicle and comes from the word chashmal, pronounced khash-mal', meaning; probably bronze or polished spectrum metal. Ezekiel is saying that through the glow, he could see the vehicle was made of polished metal.

Combine whirlwind, great cloud, a fire infolding itself, and the colour of amber, and convert them to modern language, and you are describing a large, flying, spinning, glowing, metallic vehicle. Ezekiel then goes on to describe, in great detail, what he calls "the likeness of four living creatures" in the first encounter in Ezekiel 1 and "cherub" in the Ezekiel 10 encounter. The description of what can only be described as mechanical devices, is the main focus of almost all speculation about this vehicle; especially the "wheel in the middle of a wheel" aspect.

Modern Landing Gear from an Ancient Perspective

Ezekiel spends over two-thirds of his writing on the first encounter describing four "creatures" that came out of the middle of this great metallic vehicle. He says they have faces and wings and feet like a calf and that they "sparkled like the colour of burnished brass". Again, we see this vehicle is metallic and he describes their movements as being mechanically synchronized. He states that they had an appearance "like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning." (Ezekiel 1:13-14).

Ezekiel is describing four "things", that are very animated, which appear from the middle of this vehicle. He is using words based on known realities in a period 600 years before the birth of Jesus; in other words, primitive. In perspective, there was no technology, no artificial lights, and only the most basic type of mechanics. With this in mind, we will examine what the prime original Hebrew words meant, which make up Ezekiel's first recounting of his perception of how these "living creatures" appear:

* The word "sparkled" comes from natsats, pronounced naw-tsats'; meaning: to glare, i.e. be bright-colored:

* The word "coals" comes from gechel, pronounced geh'-khel; meaning: to glow or kindle; an ember:

* The word "lamps" comes from lappiyd, pronounced lap-peed'; meaning: to shine; a flambeau, lamp or flame:

* The word "bright" comes from nogahh, pronounced no'-gahbright; meaning: brilliancy (literally or figuratively):

* The word "lightning" comes from baraq, pronounced baw-rawk'; meaning lightning; by analogy, a gleam; concretely, a flashing sword:

Putting this all together, we find that each of the "creatures" was made from some type of glaring or brightly colored, highly-polished metal. They were glowing and had very bright lights running up and down on them and Ezekiel is seeing gleams or sparks coming from the "creatures" After reading the next part of Ezekiel’s encounter it is not hard to perceive that the “creatures” could be landing gear or something associated with the main body of a larger craft.