CHERUBIM (plural of cherub) were “celestial genii,·’ and, in Μ. de Saulcy’s opinion, little else can be positively affirmed (Histoire de l ’ art judaïque, p. 24). Fresh light has, however, recently been thrown upon them from the cuneiform inscriptions, and we are no longer reduced to admit that “le vaste champ des hypothèses restera toujours ouvert.” According to the Old Testament, the cherub united the functions of bearer and guardian of deity; or rather, perhaps, there was a divergence in the popular beliefs on this subject. In Ps. xviii. 10, 2 Sam. xxii. 11 Yahweh (the so called Jehovah) is described as “riding upon a cherub,” and in the parallel line as “swooping,” the word applied in Deut. xxviii. 49 and elsewhere to the flight of the eagle. Putting the two phrases together, we may conclude that, according to one version of the myth— whether fully believed in or not by the Psalmist need not here be discussed—the cherub was either an eagle or a quadruped with eagle’s wings. This result would seem to justify connecting the word with the Assyrian kurubu, a synonym of kurukku or karakkυ. the “circling” bird, i.e., according to Friedrich Delitzsch, the vulture. On the other hand, the prophet Ezekiel xxviii. 13-16, though agreeing with the Psalmist in mentioning but one cherub, describes him as “walking in the midst of stones of fire” (i.e., thunderbolts), and as extending his wings over “the holy mountain of Elohim,” in other words, as the attendant and guard rather than as the bearer of deity. And in the fuller account of Paradise in Genesis “the cherubim” (i.e., the entire band of cherubs) are stationed “with (or near) the blade of the turning sword” (this, like the “tree of life,” has a Babylonian analogue, and ...