CHERUBIM are winged creatures associated in the Old Testament with the deity. The name, plural of the Hebrew kerub, has no Hebrew etymology, and was taken over, with the conception, from older sources. Similar creatures are found in other oriental religions. The cherubim who guard Paradise (Gen. iii. 24) are introduced, without description, as well-known figures. The cherub appears also in Ezek. xxviii. 13-16, behind which pas sage lies another version of the Paradise story, but the text is too obscure to throw much light on his character. More illuminating is the vision of Ezekiel, ch. i., where the four "living creatures" at tendant upon the divine chariot are undoubtedly cherubim, for they are expressly so named in Ezek. x. These have each four wings, and four faces—those of a man, a lion, an ox, an eagle. The two seraphim of Isa. vi. belong to the same category, though these have six wings and, presumably, human faces. In Ezekiel and Isaiah these beings are connected with the divine throne. It is thus natural that we should find two gold cherubim covering the "mercy-seat" (Exod. xxxvii. 6-9, xxv. 18-22). Representations of cherubim are found also in the hangings of the shrine (Exod. xxvi. I, 31), and figures of two cherubim, overlaid with gold, in Solomon's temple (1 Ki. vi. 23-28, viii. 6 seq.), others carved on the walls (vi. 29-32), and about the bases of the "molten sea" (vii. 29). So the temple of Ezekiel has carved decorations of cherubim, these with two faces, a man's and a lion's (xl. 18 seq.) . The description of Yahweh riding "upon a cherub," Ps. xviii. io, has for its parallel "upon the wings of the wind" ; this, although in Babylonian myth the south wind has wings that can be broken, suggests that a mythological conception is used merely for poeti cal effect, a conclusion confirmed by the similar passage Ps. civ. 3, in which the cherub is replaced by clouds.
To sum up, the cherubim are hybrid creatures, with wings of birds, human or animal faces, regarded as attendants upon the divine throne, or guardians of specially sacred places. The four "living creatures" of Rev. iv. 6 are lineal descendants of those in Ezekiel's vision. In Jewish literature the cherubim appear as a class of angels. Representations of figures similar to the Old Testament cherubim have been discovered in many places, a pair from Dendera showing striking resemblance to those described in Exodus.