Ezekiel 10:13
in Ezekiel 10I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing the whirling wheels.
KJV
As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel.
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This verse in Ezekiel 10
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
O wheel--rather, "they were called, whirling," that is, they were most rapid in their revolutions [MAURER]; or, better, "It was cried unto them, The whirling" [FAIRBAIRN]. Galgal here used for "wheel," is different from ophan, the simple word for "wheel." Galgal is the whole wheelwork machinery with its whirlwind-like rotation.
This site's exposition
four wheels
on Ezekiel 10:9-13
The prophet counts four wheels, one beside each cherub, colored like beryl, and every wheel appears as a wheel within a wheel, able to move in any of its four directions without turning. Their rims, like the rest of the cherubim, are full of eyes round about, and a voice cries out to them by name, O wheel, as though the machinery of the throne answers to its own address. Keil takes the eyes as a picture of the all seeing providence that directs the throne's movement, nothing escaping the notice of the one it carries. Wesley reads the wheel within a wheel as a sign that God's providence works by means within means, one wheel of second causes turning inside another that only he directs.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Versed 8 and following) And I saw, 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 the gleam of a chrysolite stone, and they all had the same likeness, like a wheel within a wheel. When they moved, they went in the four directions without turning as they went. And the wheels went toward the place where the first wheel went, and they followed in its tracks and did not turn back.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
): As for the wheels, though they moved several ways, yet it was cried to them, O wheel! they were all as one, being guided by one Spirit to one end; for God works all according to the counsel of his own will, which is one, for his own glory, which is one.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
4 Then the glory of the L ORD went 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 the L ORD 's glory. 5 And the sound of the cherubims' wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:94%@v4-5
As for the wheels, it was cried to them in my hearing,.... Or they were called, as the prophet heard in the vision, by the following name: O wheel, or, "the wheel": for though there are several particular churches, yet they make up but one general assembly and Church of the firstborn, written in heaven; and will be all together in their perfect state, signified by the round form of the wheel; See Gill on Eze 1:15.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
As for the wheels, it was cried unto them - O wheel - Never was there a more unfortunate and unmeaning translation. The word הגלגל haggalgal, may signify, simply, the roller, or a chariot, or roll on, or the swift roller. And he clepide ilke wheelis volible, or turninge about. Old MS. Bible. Any of these will do: “and as to the wheels,” לאופנים laophannim, “they were called in my hearing” הגלגל haggalgal, “the chariot.” The gentleman who took for his text “O wheel!” and made God’s decree of eternal predestination out of it, must have borrowed some of Rabbi Ananias’s three hundred barrels of oil! But such working of God’s word cannot be too severely reprehended. As these wheels are supposed to represent Divine Providence, bringing about the designs of the Most thigh, how like is the above הגלגל haggalgal, taken as a verb, “roll on,” to those words of Virgil in his Pollio: - Talia saela, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis, Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae. “The Fates, when they this happy web have spun, Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it swiftly run.”
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
According to the marginal rendering the present verse refers back to Eze 10:2, Eze 10:6, and tells us that the name “galgal, a rolling thing” (compare Isa 17:13), was given to the wheels in the seer’s hearing. But taking Eze 10:14 as a description, and reading Eze 10:15 immediately after Eze 10:13, the meaning is clear. In the hearing Of the seer a voice calls upon the wheels, and, obedient to the call, the cherubim are lifted up and the wheels roll on.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
to them was called hagalgal to my ears I heard that the angel would call the wheel “galgal.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לָא֖וֹפַנִּ֑ים | laofanim | to the wheels | H212 → | 35 times |
| לָהֶ֛ם | lahem | to them | ||
| קוֹרָ֥א | kora' | it was called | H7121 → | 733 times |
| הַגַּלְגַּ֖ל | hagalgal | the wheel | H1534 → | 11 times |
| בְּאָזְנָֽי׃ | beazenai | in ears my | H241 → | 187 times |
לָא֖וֹפַנִּ֑יםto the wheels
laofanimH212 →35 times
לָהֶ֛םto them
lahem
קוֹרָ֥אit was called
kora'H7121 →733 times
הַגַּלְגַּ֖לthe wheel
hagalgalH1534 →11 times
בְּאָזְנָֽי׃in ears my
beazenaiH241 →187 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
On this chapter
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.