merkabah（梅爾卡巴）或merkavah（梅爾卡瓦）為希伯來文拉丁化名詞，英譯：“thing to ride in, cart（駕乘之物，大車）”，中文可以引申為：駕乘著大車。源自輔音詞根（英语：Triliteral）רכב r-k-b，其一般涵義為：“駕乘（to ride）”；“梅爾卡巴”一般皆作為“戰車”之意。而“戰車（chariot）”這詞在馬所拉文本（Masoretic Text）的希伯來聖經中出現44次──其多數指的是世間普通戰車，[3]儘管梅爾卡巴概念與以西結的異象有關（1:4–26 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）），但這詞在〈以西結書·第一章（英语：Ezekiel 1）〉內容中並無明確出現。[4]
根據〈以西結書〉的經文及其附註所述，他見到的異象是由許多天界生命體所結合的戰車，且由“人的形象（Likeness of a Man）”來驅動。戰車的基本結構組成主要為四個生命體。這些生命體被統稱為“活物”（living creatures，希伯來文：חיות，拉丁化：hayyot或khayyot）。活物身體“如同人類（like that of a human being）”，但祂們每一個都有四張臉孔，各自對應戰車能行進的四個方向（東、南、北與西）。這些臉孔分別是人、獅子、牛（後來在〈以西結書·10:14〉中變成了智天使 ）還有老鷹。由於有四位天使，而每位天使又各有四張臉孔，所有總共有十六張臉孔。同時每一位活物天使也有兩對翅膀。
註釋
^From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic, p. 224, Andrei A. Orlov (2007). However, as Gruenwald notes, the main corpus of the merkavah literature was composed in Israel in the period 200–700 CE. Some references to this tradition can be found also in the literature of German Hasidim (twelfth to thirteenth century).
^Jacob Neusner (2005). Neusner on Judaism: Literature, p. 74: "When Eleazar finished the Works of the Chariot, Yohanan stood and kissed him on his head and said, Blessed is the Lord, God of Abraham. Jacob who gave to Abraham a son wise and knowing how to expound the glory of our father in heaven."
Scholem, Gershom G. Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition
Dennis, Geoffrey. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2007)
Dennis, Geoffrey, "Water as a Medium for Altered States of Consciousness in Early Jewish Mysticism", Anthropology of Consciousness Vol. 19, No. 1, (2008).
「以西结的第一个异象」重定向至此。關於早期猶太教神秘主義，請見「梅爾卡巴 (消歧義)」。
