Bible Strands
Ezekiel 1:14
The creatures were darting back and forth as quickly as flashes of lightning.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel records a visionary encounter while addressing the exiles, capturing a moment of intense supernatural activity surrounding the living creatures.
The words — The Hebrew רָצ֣וֹא (ra.Tzo') and וָ/שׁ֑וֹב (va./Shov) literally render "they were running" and "they were returning," describing the creatures' instantaneous, bidirectional motion.
The thread — This motif of divine swiftness echoes in Psalms 147:15 where God's word runs swiftly, Zechariah 4:10 where the Lord's eyes scan the earth, and Matthew 24:27 where lightning's sudden flash parallels the Son of Man's coming.
Why it lands — It demands recognition that divine manifestation operates with irreversible speed, requiring immediate attention rather than prolonged analysis.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
Cross-references
- Zechariah 4:10 For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”
- Matthew 24:27 For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
- Psalms 147:15 He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs swiftly.
- Daniel 9:21 while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
- Matthew 24:31 And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
- Mark 13:27 And He will send out the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
- Luke 17:24 For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day.
- Zechariah 2:3 Then the angel who was speaking with me went forth, and another angel came forward to meet him