Ezekiel 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. In the New King James Version, this chapter is sub-titled "Ezekiel’s Vision of God", and in the New International Version, "Ezekiel’s Inaugural Vision". In the text, the first verse refers to "visions" (plural).
Merkabah (Hebrew: מֶרְכָּבָה, romanized: merkāḇā, lit. 'chariot') or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism (c. 100 BCE–1000 CE), centered on visions such as those found in Ezekiel 1 or in the hekhalot literature ("palaces" literature), concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God.
The main corpus of the Merkabah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Hasidim of Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages. A major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkabah (Hebrew: מַעֲשֵׂה מֶרְכָּבָה, romanized: maʿăśē merkāḇā, lit. 'Work of the Chariot').