Ezechiel 1:18
The wheels had also a size, and a height, and a dreadful appearance: and the whole body was full of eyes round about all the four.
Open Ezechiel 1:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Statura quoque erat rotis, et altitudo, et horribilis aspectus : et totum corpus oculis plenum in circuitu ipsarum quatuor.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐδ᾽ οἱ νῶτοι αὐτῶν, καὶ ὕψος ἦν αὐτοῖς· καὶ ἴδον αὐτά, καὶ οἱ νῶτοι αὐτῶν πλήρεις ὀφθαλμῶν κυκλόθεν τοῖς τέσσαρσιν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְגַ֨בֵּיהֶ֔ן וְגֹ֥בַהּ לָהֶ֖ם וְיִרְאָ֣ה לָהֶ֑ם וְגַבֹּתָ֗ם מְלֵאֹ֥ת עֵינַ֛יִם סָבִ֖יב לְאַרְבַּעְתָּֽן
Haydock's commentary
Eyes, like Argus, or the tail of a peacock. (Calmet)
The eye is sometimes put for a colour. (Grotius)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Paulinus
9. [In Migne, 8.] You see how, carried away by my love of the scriptures, I have exceeded the limits of a letter yet have not fully accomplished my object. We have heard only what it is that we ought to know and to desire, so that we too may be able to say with the psalmist: “My soul breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it hath alway unto thy judgments.” But the saying of Socrates about himself, “this only I know that I know nothing”, is fulfilled in our case also. The New Testament I will briefly deal with. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the Lord’s team of four, the true cherubim or store of knowledge. With them the whole body is full of eyes, they glitter as sparks, they run and return like lightning, their feet are straight feet, and lifted up, their backs also are winged, ready to fly in all directions. …
St Gregory Nazianzen The Second Theological Oration
XIX. To Elias neither the strong wind, nor the fire, nor the earthquake, as you learn from the story, but a light breeze adumbrated the Presence of God, and not even this His Nature. And who was this Elias? The man whom a chariot of fire took up to heaven, signifying the superhuman excellency of the righteous man. And are you not amazed at Manoah the Judge of yore, and at Peter the disciple in later days; the one being unable to endure the sight even of one in whom was a representation of God; and saying, “We are undone, O wife, we have seen God;” speaking as though even a vision of God could not be grasped by human beings, let alone the Nature of God; and the other unable to endure the Presence of Christ in his boat and therefore bidding Him depart; and this though Peter was more zealous than the others for the knowledge of Christ, and received a blessing for this, and was entrusted wit …
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, How subjects and prelates are to be admonished
Wherefore those who are over others are to be admonished, that through earnestness of circumspection they have eyes watchful within and round about, and strive to become living creatures of heaven ( Ezek. i. 18 ). For the living creatures of heaven are described as full of eyes round about and within ( Revel. iv. 6 ). And so it is meet that those who are over others should have eyes within and round about, so as both in themselves to study to please the inward judge, and also, affording outwardly examples of life, to detect the things that should be corrected in others.