Ezekiel 1:16
New International Version
This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel.

New Living Translation
The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it.

English Standard Version
As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.

Berean Standard Bible
The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel.

King James Bible
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

New King James Version
The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

New American Standard Bible
The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling topaz, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another.

NASB 1995
The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another.

NASB 1977
The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another.

Legacy Standard Bible
The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like the gleam of beryl, and all four of them had the same likeness, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another.

Amplified Bible
Regarding the appearance of the wheels and their construction: they gleamed like chrysolite (beryl, olivine); and the four were made alike. Their appearance and construction were a wheel [set at a right angle] within a wheel.

Christian Standard Bible
The appearance of the wheels and their craftsmanship was like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their appearance and craftsmanship was like a wheel within a wheel.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The appearance of the wheels and their craftsmanship was like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same form. Their appearance and craftsmanship was like a wheel within a wheel.

American Standard Version
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto a beryl: and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And the appearance of the wheels and their work, as the appearance of chrysolite and the appearance was the same for the four of them; and their appearance and their work was like a wheel within a wheel

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And the appearance of the wheels was as the appearance of beryl: and the four had one likeness: and their work was as it were a wheel in a wheel.

Contemporary English Version
shining like chrysolite. Each wheel was exactly the same and had a second wheel that cut through the middle of it,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the appearance of the wheels, and the work of them was like the appearance of the sea: and the four had all one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel.

English Revised Version
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
This is how the wheels looked and how they were made: They looked like beryl. All four wheels looked the same. They looked like a wheel within a wheel.

Good News Translation
All four wheels were alike; each one shone like a precious stone, and each had another wheel intersecting it at right angles,

International Standard Version
Their wheels and their construction details looked like gold-colored beryl. Each wheel was identical in form to the others, and they appeared to have been constructed and designed as if one wheel were within another.

JPS Tanakh 1917
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl; and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.

Literal Standard Version
The appearance of the wheels and their works [is] as the color of beryl, and the four of them had one likeness, and their appearances and their works [are] as it were the wheel in the midst of the wheel.

Majority Standard Bible
The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel.

New American Bible
The wheels and their construction sparkled like yellow topaz, and all four of them looked the same: their construction seemed as though one wheel was inside the other.

NET Bible
The appearance of the wheels and their construction was like gleaming jasper, and all four wheels looked alike. Their structure was like a wheel within a wheel.

New Revised Standard Version
As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl; and the four had the same form, their construction being something like a wheel within a wheel.

New Heart English Bible
And the appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and the four of them had the same likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.

Webster's Bible Translation
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

World English Bible
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl. The four of them had one likeness. Their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.

Young's Literal Translation
The appearance of the wheels and their works is as the colour of beryl, and one likeness is to them four, and their appearances and their works are as it were the wheel in the midst of the wheel.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Four Wheels
15When I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. 16The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel. 17As they moved, they went in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved.…

Cross References
Song of Solomon 5:14
His arms are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is an ivory panel bedecked with sapphires.

Ezekiel 10:9
Then I looked and saw four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub. And the wheels gleamed like a beryl stone.

Daniel 10:6
His body was like beryl, his face like the brilliance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of polished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.


Treasury of Scripture

The appearance of the wheels and their work was like to the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

the colour

Ezekiel 10:9
And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone.

Exodus 39:13
And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were inclosed in ouches of gold in their inclosings.

Daniel 10:6
His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

a wheel

Ezekiel 10:10
And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.

Job 9:10
Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.

Psalm 36:6
Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.

Jump to Previous
Alike Appearance Appearances Appeared Beryl Chrysolite Color Colour Construction Design Form Four Gleaming Inside Likeness Middle Midst Sparkled Sparkling Structure Wheel Wheels Within Work Workmanship
Jump to Next
Alike Appearance Appearances Appeared Beryl Chrysolite Color Colour Construction Design Form Four Gleaming Inside Likeness Middle Midst Sparkled Sparkling Structure Wheel Wheels Within Work Workmanship
Ezekiel 1
1. The time of Ezekiel's prophecy at Chebar.
4. His vision of four cherubim;
15. of the four wheels;
26. and of the glory of God.














(16) Their work was like unto the colour of a beryl.--"Work" is used in the sense of workmanship or construction; and "beryl" here, and in Ezekiel 10:9, is not the precious stone of a green colour which we know by that name, but the "chrysolite" of the ancients, the modern topaz, having the lustre of gold, and in harmony with the frequent mention throughout the vision of fire and brilliant light.

A wheel in the middle of a wheel.--We are to conceive of the wheels as double, and one part at right angles to the other, like the equator and a meridian circle upon the globe, so that they could go, without being turned, equally well in any direction. Of course, such a wheel would be impossible of mechanical construction; it is only seen in vision and as a symbol; it was never intended to be actually made.

Verse 16. - Like unto the colour of a beryl. The Hebrew for "beryl" (tarshish) suggests that the stone was called, like the turquoise, from the region which produced it. Here and in Daniel 10:6 the LXX. leaves it untranslated. In Exodus 28:20 we find χρυσόλιθος; in Ezekiel 10:9 and Ezekiel 28:13 ἄνθραξ, i.e. carbuncle. It is obvious, from this variety of renderings, that the stone was not easily identified. Probably it was of a red or golden color, suggesting the thought of fire rather than the pale green of the aquamarine or beryl (see especially Daniel 10:6). They four had one likeness, etc. A closer gaze led the prophet to see that there was a plurality in the unity. For the one "wheel" we have four; perhaps, as some have thought, two wheels intersecting at right angles, perhaps, one, probably seen behind, perhaps also below, each of the living creatures. They are not said actually to rest upon it, and the word "chariot" is not used as it is in 1 Chronicles 28:18. They would seem rather to have hovered over the wheels, moving simultaneously and in full accord with them. The "wheels" obviously represent the forces and laws that sustain the manifold forms of life represented by the "living creatures" and the "Spirit." In each case the number four is, as elsewhere, the symbol of completeness. A wheel in the midst of (within, Revised Version) a wheel; i.e. with an inner and outer circumference, the space between the two forming the "ring" or felloe of ver. 18.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
The workmanship
וּמַעֲשֵׂיהֶם֙ (ū·ma·‘ă·śê·hem)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 4639: An action, a transaction, activity, a product, property

of the wheels
הָאוֹפַנִּ֤ים (hā·’ō·w·p̄an·nîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 212: A wheel

looked like
מַרְאֵ֨ה (mar·’êh)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4758: Sight, appearance, vision

the gleam
כְּעֵ֣ין (kə·‘ên)
Preposition-k | Noun - common singular construct
Strong's 5869: An eye, a fountain

of beryl,
תַּרְשִׁ֔ישׁ (tar·šîš)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 8658: (a precious stone) perhaps yellow jasper

and all four
לְאַרְבַּעְתָּ֑ן (lə·’ar·ba‘·tān)
Preposition-l | Number - masculine singular construct | third person feminine plural
Strong's 702: Four

had the same
אֶחָ֖ד (’e·ḥāḏ)
Number - masculine singular
Strong's 259: United, one, first

likeness.
וּדְמ֥וּת (ū·ḏə·mūṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1823: Resemblance, model, shape, like

Their workmanship
וּמַ֣עֲשֵׂיהֶ֔ם (ū·ma·‘ă·śê·hem)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 4639: An action, a transaction, activity, a product, property

looked
וּמַרְאֵיהֶם֙ (ū·mar·’ê·hem)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 4758: Sight, appearance, vision

like
כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר (ka·’ă·šer)
Preposition-k | Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

a wheel
הָאוֹפַ֖ן (hā·’ō·w·p̄an)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 212: A wheel

within
בְּת֥וֹךְ (bə·ṯō·wḵ)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 8432: A bisection, the centre

a wheel.
הָאוֹפָֽן׃ (hā·’ō·w·p̄ān)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 212: A wheel


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
Ezekiel 1:15
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