Ezekiel Chapter 1 verse 16 Holy Bible

ASV Ezekiel 1:16

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.
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BBE Ezekiel 1:16

The form of the wheels and their work was like a beryl; the four of them had the same form and design, and they were like a wheel inside a wheel.
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DARBY Ezekiel 1:16

The appearance of the wheels and their work was as the look of a chrysolite; and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
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KJV Ezekiel 1:16

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.
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WBT Ezekiel 1:16


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WEB Ezekiel 1:16

The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.
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YLT Ezekiel 1:16

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.
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 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.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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.