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230 The celestial craft that was seen by Ezekiel was described by him, in the opening chapter and thereafter, as the God’s Kavod (“That which is heavy”)—the very same term used in Exodus to describe the divine vehicle that had landed on Mount Sinai. The craft’s description rendered by Ezekiel has inspired generations of scholars and artists; the resulting de- pictions have changed with time, as our own technology of flight vehicles has advanced. Ancient texts refer both to spacecraft and aircraft, and describe Enlil, Enki, Ninurta, Marduk, Thoth, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar, to name the most prominent, as gods who possessed aircraft and could roam Earth’s skies—or engage in aerial battles, as between Horus and Seth or Ninurta and Anzu (not to mention the Indo-Eu- ropean gods). Of all the varied textual descriptions and pic- torial depictions of the “celestial boats” of the gods, the most appropriate to Ezekiel’s vision of a Whirlwind appears to be the “whirlwind chariot” depicted at a site in Jordan (Fig. 103) from which the Prophet Elijah was taken up to heaven. Helicopterlike, it had to serve just as a shuttlecraft to where full-fledged spacecraft were stationed. Ezekiel’s mission was to prophesy and warn his exiled compatriots of the coming Day of Judgment for all the na- tions’ injustices and abominations. Then, a year later, the same “semblance of a man” appeared again, put out a hand, grabbed him, and carried him all the way to Jerusalem, to prophecy there. The city, it will be remembered, went through SSD, Sees THE END OF DAYS FIGURE 103