en. He does not say here that he took them
for angels or any other kind of supernatural beings.

_6. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings._

This short verse is very clear, yet you wonder how a creature with
four faces and four wings could possibly be taken for a man, even by
you or me.

Although he does not say so, we can imply that these creatures must
have advanced much closer to him after they got out of the fire and
cloud, for him to be able to see so much detail.

Imagine the courage it took for him to stay put in order to observe
these creatures. Notice also how objective he is, never mentioning his
own feelings.

_7. 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 colour of
burnished brass._

Each verse of the description covers one or two parts of the
creatures. When Ezekiel mentions more than one part it becomes
confusing, so that one verse seems to contradict another. These can
usually be sorted out however. Nowhere will you find a direct
contradiction.

Here he is describing the feet only. The word "straight" can be taken
several ways. Does he mean _regular feet_, or feet that point straight
forward, or feet that are straight up and down, like an elephant's?
Probably he means regular, forward-pointing feet because he does not
dwell on the point. In other places he leans heavily on simile to
describe some unusual feature of the beings.

The sole of the foot sounds as if it was heavily cleated. What then
has he described in this verse? For a person living in a warm climate
who had never seen any footwear more complicated than a sandal, he has
described a highly polished leather, plastic or metal boot very well.

_8. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four
sides; and they four had their faces and their wings._

Notice carefully that he is _not_ saying that each creature had four
man-like hands, one on each of four sides. He is saying that each has
the normal number of hands and they are located _below_ their wings.
Remember that he was a careful observer and he had probably noticed
that birds have wings _instead_ of arms. These had both. In addition,
he has given us another bit of information about the distribution of
the wings. They do not appear to be arranged like a biplane, but each
wing is at a ninety-degree angle from its neighboring wing like a
helicopter.

Ezeki