When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn when they went.
Parallel Translations
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When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn when they went.
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When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
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When they went, they went toward their four sides; they turned not when they went.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 1:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 1:9 Their wings were joined to one another. They didn’t turn when they went. Each one went straight forward.
- Ezekiel 1:12 Each one went straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they went. They didn’t turn when they went.
- Isaiah 55:11 so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
- Ezekiel 10:1-11 Then I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, “Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He went in as I watched. Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. Yahweh’s glory mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh’s glory. The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks. It came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” that he went in, and stood beside a wheel. The cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who took it and went out. The form of a man’s hand appeared here in the cherubim under their wings. I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub. The appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone. As for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, like a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn as they went, but to the place where the head looked they followed it. They didn’t turn as they went.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain What he had already explained he now repeats for…
What he had already explained he now repeats for the sake of confirmation, that they went upon their four sides — that is, each living creature proceeded straight forward; the words they turned not refer to their perseverance; not that they exceeded the appointed space, but because they went forward to their object without intermission. I touch but lightly now on what has been already sufficiently explained.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 1:17 When they went, they went upon their…
Eze 1:17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: [and] they turned not when they went.
Ver. 17. When they went, they went upon their four sides.] Or, According to their four sides - i.e., through the four parts of the world, as they were moved by the four living creatures.
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And they returned not when they went.] But kept on straight forward, without stopping or stepping back. A figure of the constant and consonant harmony which is in all the works of God’s providence toward the world, but especially toward his Church. {a}
{a} Diod.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain When they went; the living creatures; indeed the wheels…
When they went; the living creatures; indeed the wheels moved according to the motion of the living creatures, but it will as well agree with the truth, as it better agrees with the grammar of the words, to say this;
they, i.e. the wheels.
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They went upon their four sides; the wheels being supposed spherical or round every way as a globe, by an exact and curious framing of two wheels one in the other, the four semicircles which are in two whole wheels may be well taken for these four sides on which these wheels do move, and such a wheel will readily be turned to all points of the compass, as a ball on a billiard table.
They turned not when they went; they needed not go back to turn, as we see other chariots or coaches must do, putting back somewhat to alter their course; or, returned not till they came to their journey’s end; or, nothing could divert them, or put them out of their course. So firm and sure are the methods, so unalterable and constant the purposes, of God, and so invariable the obedience and observance of holy angels; so subject to the just sovereign will of God are all second causes.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain When they went, they went upon their four sides,....…
When they went, they went upon their four sides,.... On either of their crossing rings, as they were directed by the living creatures, at whose side they stood:
and they returned not when they went; they had no need to turn about when they were to go east, west, north, or south, as wheels usually do; but they turned upon the crossing ring, which was towards either of the four points. This denotes the perseverance of the churches, and the true members thereof, in faith and practice; they do not turn back, nor look back, but go right on, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in all his, ways and ordinances.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain They - The wheels. Four sides - The wheels…
They - The wheels. Four sides - The wheels being supposed round every way as a globe, by an exact framing of two wheels one in the other; the four semi-circles which are in two whole wheels, may be well taken for these four sides on which these wheels move, and such a wheel will readily be turned to all points of the compass. Returned not - They returned not 'till they came to their journey's end; nothing could divert them, or put them out of their course. So firm and sure are the methods, so unalterable and constant the purposes of God, and so invariable the obedience and observance of holy angels. So subject to the sovereign will of God are all second causes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eze 1:17-18. When they went — Namely, the wheels;…
Eze 1:17-18. When they went — Namely, the wheels; they went upon their four sides — The wheels being supposed spherical as a globe, by an exact framing of two wheels one in the other, the four semicircles, which were in two whole wheels, may well be taken for these four sides on which these wheels moved, and such a wheel will readily be turned to all points of the compass. An expressive emblem this of that divine providence which extends alike easily to every part and thing; and, like a wheel or globe, has no beginning, ending, or separation, but is a circumference including the whole of things, and equally acts more or less in every place and part. And they turned, or returned, not when they went — That is, they never returned, or went backward, till they came to the end of their course; but proceeded on in one straight course and unbent line of direction. So firm and sure are the methods, so unalterable and constant the purposes of God, and so invariable the obedience and observance of holy angels. So subject to the will of God are all second causes, and so surely does the Divine Providence always accomplish its ends. Thus God speaks of his word and decree, Isa 55:11 : It shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please. To return by the way that he went, is a proverbial speech, signifying a man’s missing his aim, or not accomplishing his designs: see 1Ki 13:9; 2Ki 19:33. As for their rings, or felloes — Namely, the circumference of the wheels; they were so high that they were dreadful — Their circuit was so vast as to impress a fear on the beholder. This implied the vast compass of providence, which, as we read, Wis 8:1, reacheth from one end to another mightily, or, as St. Paul expresses it, the height and depth both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments are, and his ways past finding out, Rom 11:33. And their wings were full of eyes round about them four — That is, every one of the four wheels; and so were also the living creatures themselves: see Eze 10:12, to signify the great wisdom and foresight which direct all the dispensations of Divine Providence. How fitly do the wheels, their motion, their height, their eyes, and the form, appearance, motions, wings, and eyes of the living creatures express the height and depth, the unsearchableness, wisdom, and vigilance of the Divine Providence!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Upon their four sides - i. e. straight in…
Upon their four sides - i. e. straight in the direction toward which their faces looked. Since the four quarters express all directions, the construction of the living creatures was such that they could move in each direction alike.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Parts. When they went, they went by their four…
Parts. When they went, they went by their four parts. That is, indifferently to any of their sides, either forward or backward, to the right or to the left. (Challoner) --- Their motion was connected with the chariot, ver. 20. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain went upon their four sides--Those faces or sides of…
went upon their four sides--Those faces or sides of the four wheels moved which answered to the direction in which the cherubim desired to move; while the transverse circles in each of the four composite wheels remained suspended from the ground, so as not to impede the movements of the others.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 17. They turned not when they went — Of…
17. They turned not when they went — Of course they revolved, but as each wheel had a double tire, cutting each other transversely, they never needed to turn around when they wished to go at right angles with their present course. Probably these revolving wheels looked like globes of fire, the tires, however, being distinguished by sparkling eyes.
Upon — Rather, toward.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17. they turned not when they went] Of course…
17. they turned not when they went] Of course they ran round on their axle, but each wheel was of such a kind that it had a rim facing all four directions, and could run in any direction. On their four sides should rather be, toward.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (17) Upon their four sides—i.e., forwards or backwards upon…
(17) Upon their four sides—i.e., forwards or backwards upon the one wheel, and to the right or the left upon the other. Four directions are considered throughout the vision as representing all directions, just as elsewhere the four winds represent all winds, and the four corners of the earth the whole earth.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain When they went, etc. The meaning seems to be…
When they went, etc. The meaning seems to be that the relative position of the wheels and the living creatures was not altered by motion. On "they turned not," see note on ver. 9. All suggests the idea of orderly and harmonious working.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And they turned not when they went.
Eze_1:17
And they turned not when they went.
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Concentrated lives
It is a grand thing to see a man thoroughly possessed with one master passion. Such a man is sure to be strong, and if the master principle be excellent, he is sure to be excellent too. The man of one object is a man indeed. Lives with many aims are like water trickling through innumerable streams, none of which is wide enough or deep enough to float the merest cockleshell of a boat; but a life with one object is like a mighty river flowing between its banks, bearing to the ocean a multitude of ships, and spreading fertility on either side. Give me a man not only with a great object in his soul, but thoroughly possessed by it, his powers all concentrated, and himself on fire with vehement zeal for his supreme object, and you have put before me one of the greatest sources of power which the world can produce. Give me a man engrossed with holy love as to his heart, and filled with some masterly celestial thought as to his brain, and such a man will be known wherever his lot may be cast, and I will venture to prophesy that his name will be remembered long after the place of his sepulchre shall be forgotten. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Ezekiel continues to describe his vision.
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they went in any of their four directions
Possible meanings are 1) "their" refers to the creatures. AT: "they would go straight in any one of the four directions that the creatures looked towards" or 2) "their" refers to the wheels.
As for their rims
"This is what the rims of the wheels looked like"
they were high and fearsome
"the rims were very tall and awe-inspiring" or "the rims where tall and frightening"
for the rims were full of eyes round about
"because the rims had very many eyes around all four of the wheels"
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.