Ezechiel 1:7
Their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their foot was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like the appearance of glowing brass.
Open Ezechiel 1:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Pedes eorum, pedes recti, et planta pedis eorum quasi planta pedis vituli : et scintillæ quasi aspectus æris candentis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ τὰ σκέλη αὐτῶν ὀρθά, καὶ πτερωτοὶ οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν, καὶ σπινθῆρες ὡς ἐξαστράπτων χαλκός· καὶ ἐλαφραὶ αἱ πτέρυγες αὐτῶν,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְרַגְלֵיהֶ֖ם רֶ֣גֶל יְשָׁרָ֑ה וְכַ֣ף רַגְלֵיהֶ֗ם כְּכַף֙ רֶ֣גֶל עֵ֔גֶל וְנֹ֣צְצִ֔ים כְּעֵ֖ין נְחֹ֥שֶׁת קָלָֽל
Haydock's commentary
Straight. Hebrew, "a straight foot." Protestants prefer "feet." (Haydock)
Of a calf. Aquila reads to the same import hagol, "round," instead of hegel, (Haydock) "a calf." Symmachus has "winged feet," like Mercury. (Calmet)
Septuagint omit this, says St. Jerome, though we have his version of Symmachus as if it belonged to the Septuagint; and it occurs in Grabe as genuine.
Brass. Septuagint add, "and their feathers were very light." (Haydock)
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 …