– Angels who perform various tasks are thus called. The first is to guard the way to the tree of life against the couple Adam and Eve, who had been expelled from Eden:
Gen 3 23-24: At the east of the Garden of Eden he placed cherubim armed with a flaming sword.
– God tells Moses to build two cherubim of gold, forming a single piece with the lid of the ark of the Covenant:
Ex 25,18-22 : You will make two cherubim of gold; and thou shalt make them of beaten gold, on the two ends of the cover.
1Kings 6:23 : He made two cherubim in the sanctuary of olive wood, ten cubits high.
1 Kings 8 :6 : The priests carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place […] under the wings of the cherubim.
– From above his wings, God spoke to Moses:
Num 7,89 : When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice that spoke to him.
– On the two images sat the Lord:
1Sm 4,4-5 : So the people sent to Shiloh to fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which sits on cherubim.
– Such a description influenced the psalmist:
Ps 17:11 : He rode on a cherubim and flew, gliding on the wings of the wind.
Ps 79,3 : You who sit above the cherubim, show your splendor.
Ps 98,1 : The Lord reigns, the peoples tremble; his throne is over the cherubim: the earth totters.
– And to Ezequiel:
Ez 9,3 : The glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherub, where he rested, to the threshold of the temple.
