Bible Strands
Ezekiel 1:15
When I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Ezekiel addresses exiled Israelites while recounting a visionary encounter with divine beings. The vision occurs immediately after the creatures darted back and forth like flashes of lightning.
The words — The Hebrew אוֹפַן ('o.Fan) translates literally to "wheel," and אֵצֶל ('E.tzel) means "beside," anchoring the object's position next to the living creatures. The phrase וְ/הִנֵּה (ve./hi.Neh) marks a sudden visual disclosure as Ezekiel shifts his gaze to the ground level.
The thread — This spatial arrangement repeats in Ezekiel 10:9, where four wheels are again positioned beside each cherub. The vision's throne-room imagery parallels the setting described in Daniel 7:9.
Why it lands — The text explicitly records the prophet's observation of a single wheel placed on the ground next to each four-faced creature. Readers must note the precise physical layout of the vision before drawing conclusions about its symbolic function.
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
Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
Cross-references
- 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 7:9 As I continued to watch, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.
- Ezekiel 1:6 but each had four faces and four wings.
- Ezekiel 1:19 So as the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose.
- Revelation 4:7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight.
- Ezekiel 10:13 I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.”