Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 1:16
The appearance of the wheels and their work [was] like unto the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work [was] as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
16. the colour of a beryl ] Heb. tarshish-stone, so named from Tartessus in Spain, in which country it was found. It is the chrysolite of the ancients, the topaz of the moderns, a stone of a golden colour. Colour is “glance.” The words “and their work” in first clause, and “and their appearance” in second clause are wanting in LXX.
wheel in the middle of a wheel ] This was their work or construction; each of the four wheels (ch. Eze 10:10) had this appearance. What seems meant is that the wheels had such a construction that they could run not only, say, east and west, as an ordinary wheel, but also (without turning) north and south. This could be in no other way than by each wheel being double, consisting of two wheels cutting one another in planes at right angles. Thus in whatever direction the chariot moved four wheels appeared to be running in that direction.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Eze 1:16
A wheel in the middle of a wheel.
God in human activity
By a wheel within a wheel God governs and makes all things work together for good to those who love Him: all pleasant and all painful things; all that is mean, contemptible, slanderous, all that vexes and annoys. So we may put on gladness, knowing that He overrules each event of life, and while we work, He worketh in us according to His pleasure.
1. The Scriptures affirm this truth. They are as full of evidences of it as the daily press is full of the records of mans workings in individual and national life. Eyes see clearer, washed with tears. Paul could glory in his infirmities, for he saw even in them that the power of Christ was made glorious. In all the pains and penalties, the joys and griefs, the thoughts and imaginations of life, God is busy, out of evil still educing good.
2. History proves this. Never did men meet behind closed doors without God seeing them. Every plot and conspiracy is known to Him. The Jews were persecuted and peeled, they were ever an easy prey to the spoiler, now they are the bankers and traders of the world; many hold seats of power among the nations. The thing you intend to accomplish carries with it a score of things you did not intend to do. Luther and Columbus accomplished more than they ever dreamed of doing, because God was in their movements.
3. The laws of nature illustrate this. The thunderstorm is His scavenger, driving off malaria and noxious vapour. The earthquake is a safety valve by which imprisoned gases are set free. Weeds, thistles, insects, are made to work out some good.
Conclusion–
1. We cannot get along without God. If we choose to rebel against His working, He will curb and overthrow us. If we lead selfish, prayerless, cruel lives, He will thwart and destroy.
2. Nothing happens which does not help him who loves God. Losses, crosses, abuse, and injury lead to the growth of patience, watchfulness, and the silent bearing of sorrow. Burn your own smoke and go on. Trials help to build up character.
3. The love of God is emphasised by the truth before us. He reigns–not sin. (H. M. Gallaher, D. D.)
The symbol of Providence
I. Your troubles, difficulties, losses, whatever they may be and whatever may be the instruments of them, are all from God. Your times are in His hands. Your ways are ordered by Him. Your breath depends upon His will. All your sorrows and all your joys are parts of His one great plan of education for you to make you meet to be His own forever.
II. Succeeding events explain the providence and purposes of God. We learn what He intended to do, by what He has done. If we study the Lords providence, remembering that all its events come from God, and that God alone can teach us what is their meaning and design; if we wait upon God with patient faith in His Divine teaching, to see what He means to do with us, all the flames will unfold themselves in due time. The whirlwind will pass by. The clouds will scatter, and light alone, the purest light, will remain to shine around us, clear as amber.
III. All the providences of God have a fixed purpose, and are wisely arranged in their operation. There is no blind chance in the government of God or in the affairs of men. When one asked Dr. Payson if he could discern any reason for his great personal sufferings, he answered, No; but I am as well satisfied as if I saw ten thousand reasons. The will of God is the perfection of all reason. The ways and thoughts of God are not like ours. He does not give to us a previous account of His plans and purposes. But He knows the thoughts which He thinks concerning us. And He makes us to see and acknowledge at last how wire and how perfect they all were. Thus every providence appears to us with the face of a man, open, intelligent, and clear, having a manifest design, and perfectly adapted to accomplish it. It has also the eye of an eagle, which seeth afar off. It is watchful over the least of the affairs which it includes. The very hairs of our head, the stones in our path, the moments of our unconscious sleep, are all the subjects of its provision and control. These providences are also perfectly steady and uniform in their operation. The Lord is of one mind, and changeth not; the same yesterday, today, and forever.
IV. The same providences are often designed to produce separate and sometimes apparently opposite results. These various results of Providence, and the instruments by which they are completed, are not generally wonderful or strange things. They are perfectly natural and common things, but brought about by ways which we had not anticipated. They are things which occur just as naturally as a wheel revolves, or as wings support in flight. But they come and go in their particular occurrence as God directs, and they bring to pass the designs which God has formed.
V. In this gracious and wonderful scheme all providences have a secret purpose of blessing for those who love God. This is a very precious lesson. The plans of Divine providence are always subservient to the plans of Divine grace. They are designed as blessings for the chosen people of God. Whom He loves, He protects and prospers. There can be no one to harm those who are followers after that which is good. However God may try His people on the way, and however dark, unintelligible, and hard to bear these trials may appear, the triumphant and happy result is always the same, perfectly sure, and entirely compensating. He refines His chosen ones like gold and silver, and they glorify Him in the fires.
VI. All the providences of God are under the control of the great Redeemer and Saviour of the people of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The government of the world is on His shoulder, and He upholdeth all things by the word of His power. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
The whole universe is ruled by God
1. He rules in the world of physical nature. The whirlwind which the prophet saw was under the throne. All forces of nature, however strange and irresistible they may appear, are subject to God. What science reveals as laws, are no more than means and methods of Divine operation. God was seen in Jacobs dream above the ladder; so above all secondary causes is the great First Cause who originated them, and who still inspires them with energy and guides their courses.
2. He rules in the world of spirit. The cherubim which the prophet saw, with their mysterious forms and motions, were also under the throne. Freedom appears inseparable from spirit, but all creaturely freedom moves and acts within the will of God. He doth according to His will in the army of heaven (Dan 4:35). Holy beings ever obey lovingly. His will is not only their law, but the ground and means of their blessedness. Devils are compelled to obey. This is the cause of their constant rage and misery. Inspired by hatred to God and goodness, they are obliged to see that not only are their plots defeated, but they are eventually made to promote the very ends they sought to destroy. It is so also with men in this way: the renewed are workers together with God; the unrenewed, though unwilling and rebellious, must subserve Divine purposes (Rom 9:17).
3. He rules in the order of history. The wheels the prophet saw symbolised the government of the world in its entirety. There was an appearance as of a wheel within a wheel–the multiform agencies and complications employed by Providence. The wheels went straight on–the direct course of Providence, which never halts, and is never turned aside from its purposes. The rings were high and dreadful–the vastness of the Divine purposes, awful in their sweep and grandeur. The rings were full of eyes–the omniscience of God, so appalling to the wicked, so comforting to saints. The noise of the moving wheels and of the accompanying cherubim was as the voice of the Almighty–all nature, and life, and the course of history, a revelation of the living, omnipotent Deity. (Christian Age.)
The mysteries of Providence
I. God carries on all things by a secret and an invisible virtue, that though you see the hand without, yet you see not the spring within.
II. Mens spirits are many times raised unto an extraordinary pitch beyond the spirits of men. Drawn out to higher resolutions, they pitch upon higher thoughts and purposes than ever the times require: why now, mark, here is a mystery in this, that at one time a man should rise higher than at another time, and their resolutions and courages rise higher, and they should dare to encounter with those difficulties that even formerly they did tremble to think of. What is the reason of it? Oh, here is the mystery of Providence (Zec 12:8).
III. God puts impressions and apprehensions upon men many times, that they run to their own ruins.
1. Sometimes impressions of discouragement (Jdg 7:13-14).
2. Sometimes impressions of encouragements (2Ki 3:22-23).
IV. God many times raiseth up instruments, and He qualifies them for His work. Girding up their loins and strengthening their hands, that they shall go through that at one time that you would have thought ten thousand instruments could not have done it at another (Isa 45:1-2). God lays the same instrument aside again at another time. Many times the Lord will make a combination, and there shall be a conjunction of instruments, and afterwards the Lord will make use of these, even to destroy one another. Abimelech and the men of Shechem.
V. God many times destroys men by those means by which in all human judgment they think they shall be preserved. The people of Israel, when they were in any necessity, then by and by unto King Jareb, which some expound to be a helping king: sometimes in the way of Assyria, sometimes in the way of Egypt; yet, notwithstanding, they were destroyed by those that they brought in to their help. They bound Paul that he should not preach: My bonds tend to the furtherance of the Gospel. They banished the Church out of Jerusalem, on purpose that so they might have destroyed it: but that is the Churchs preservation, when Jerusalem is destroyed. These are the strange actings of Providence.
VI. When things are brought to the lowest ebb, the means weakest, and the confidence of the enemy and their expectations highest, then many times God is pleased to destroy the power of the mighty. When Gideon hath but three hundred men, he is fit to fight Gods battles; yea, Sisera must fall by the hand of a woman. Uses–
1. In all actings of Providence subscribe to His wisdom.
2. In all actings of Providence submit to His will. (W. Strong.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The appearance; the form in which these wheels were seen.
Their work; all that was wrought, whether engraved or otherwise, was of one colour.
The colour of a beryl, Heb. tharshish, a sea-green; some say this colour here was of a carbuncle, or chrysolite, or hyacinth, but it is better rendered a sea-green colour, which if it note the instability and changeableness of sublunary affairs, and of the outward concerns of the church, it may note also the inherent rigour and beauty of the church, and the frame of earthly things, when they are in a calm course, not disturbed first with sin, and then with punishment of sin.
They four, by this it appears what was the number of the wheels,
had one likeness; were exactly of the same make for dimensions, colour, frame, and motion, so that who sees and knows one sees and knows all, hereby noting the harmony and likeness which is in Gods works, which are all framed, managed, and governed by the same wisdom, and consequently the same uncertainty in all things under the sun.
Their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel: it is somewhat difficult to unfold this. It is probable the wheels were framed so as to be an exact sphere or globe, which is easily rolled to any side or quarter, since it toucheth the earth or basis on which it stands in a point, and is exactly orbicular. It is fitter we note,
1. The unsearchableness of Divine methods.
2. The curious frame of them.
3. The connexion of one part with other,
4. The seeming interfering and real harmony; what would seem to hinder shall further Gods work.
5. How easily God can change affairs, and move for or against a people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. appearance . . . worktheirform and the material of their work.
berylrather, “theglancing appearance of the Tarshish stone”; the chrysolite ortopaz, brought from Tarshish or Tartessus in Spain. It was one of thegems in the breastplate of the high priest (Exo 28:20;Son 5:14; Dan 10:6).
four had one likenessThesimilarity of the wheels to one another implies that there is noinequality in all God’s works, that all have a beautiful analogy andproportion.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The appearance of the wheels, and their work, [was] like unto the colour of a beryl,…. Which is a precious stone; see
Ex 28:20; the Syriac version renders it a chrysolite; the Arabic, a jasper; and so may denote the preciousness, glory, and excellency of the churches, and the true members of them, which are as jewels and pearls of great price in the esteem of Christ; and the colour of this stone being a sea green, from whence it has here the name of “tarshish”, a word sometimes used for the sea, may signify the fluctuating and uncertain state of the churches in this world, and in their present circumstances:
and they four had one likeness: this shows that there were four wheels, and that they were all alike, as the true churches of Christ are; they are alike gathered out of the world, and consist of the same sort of persons, true believers in Christ; they profess the same faith; they have the same officers and ordinances; keep up the same discipline, and are under the same form of government, and have all the same power and authority:
and their appearance and work [was] as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel; not as if one wheel was comprehended and included in another; for then one must be lesser than another; whereas all the wheels were alike, as for form, so for size; but the work or make of them was in a transverse way, or cross way; just as two hoops may be put together cross ways, and so form four semicircles, and these a globe or sphere; hence this wheel is called , “an orb” or “globe”, in
Eze 10:13; and it was on those four semicircles that the four faces of the ox, the man, the lion, and eagle, were engraved; the reason of their being wrought in this form was, for the motion of them; as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Now the Prophet uses the plural number, and says, there were four wheels. He says, the color was like a precious stone. Jerome translates it “sea,” because the sea which looks towards Cilicia with respect to Judea is called Tharsis. But I know not why the color of the sea or the sky took his fancy. But granting that, the word is not found simply for a bluish-green color, for tharsis is a precious stone, as we learn from Exodus, Exo 28:20, and many other places. The Greeks translated it chrysolite, but I know not whether correctly, nor does it much matter. We need only hold it to be a precious stone, whose color was so exquisite that it attracted all eyes to itself. And so God wished, under the figure of wheels, to place before his Prophet something earthly; but, at the same time, to raise his mind by its color, because he would ascertain from this that they were not either common wheels, or wooden, or of any earthly material, but heavenly ones. The color, then, was intended to draw off the Prophet’s mind, so that he might ascertain that heavenly secrets were laid open to him.
Like the appearance of a precious stone, he says: afterwards, and they four had one likeness This may, indeed, be referred to the living creatures as some have conjectured, but I have no doubt that the Prophet here teaches, that the wheels were so equal that there was no difference between them. Therefore their proportion and equality shows that in all God’s work there is the greatest arrangement — not that this lies on the surface, (for we should rather think that all things are involved in hurried confusion,) but if we raise our senses above the world, it will doubtless be given us to acknowledge what the Prophet here describes, viz.: that in all God’s works the arrangement is so complete that no line could be better directed. God therefore, whilst he turns round the world, preserves an even course with respect to himself, so that what we call changes or revolutions have no inequality with respect to himself, but each is in harmony with all the others. At length he adds, their aspect and workmanship, or form, was as if each wheel were in the midst of a wheel, so that the bending of one wheel is across that of another. For he does not mean to say, that one wheel was greater and another less, but that two wheels were so united that they were at right angles to each other. Now, we may see why the wheels were double; I touched on it briefly yesterday — viz., because God does not seem to hold on a direct course, but to have various changes, and, as it were, in contrary directions, as if the motion by which each creature is inspired with vigor was drawn in different ways. Therefore it is said, one wheel was in the middle, of another Finally, here God represents to us to the life what experience teaches. For first, the world is carried, along just as the wheels run round, and that, too, not simply but with such great variety that God seems to send forth his impelling force, now to the right hand and now to the left. This, then, is as if two wheels were entangled together. But I cannot proceed further now, and must leave the rest till to-morrow.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) Their work was like unto the colour of a beryl.Work is used in the sense of workmanship or construction; and beryl here, and in Eze. 10:9, is not the precious stone of a green colour which we know by that name, but the chrysolite of the ancients, the modern topaz, having the lustre of gold, and in harmony with the frequent mention throughout the vision of fire and brilliant light.
A wheel in the middle of a wheel.We are to conceive of the wheels as double, and one part at right angles to the other, like the equator and a meridian circle upon the globe, so that they could go, without being turned, equally well in any direction. Of course, such a wheel would be impossible of mechanical construction; it is only seen in vision and as a symbol; it was never intended to be actually made.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. One wheel was beside each living creature. Each wheel flashed like a precious stone.
A wheel in the middle of a wheel Each wheel seemed to be composed of two wheels cutting each other at right angles. Thus each wheel was always facing every point of the compass, and in whatever direction the chariot moved four wheels were running. They, like the chariot, could, without turning, revolve in any direction the spirit indicated.
Wesley conceived these wheels as globes or spheres of light, having tires of exceptional brightness. Wheels fitly symbolize “the height, unsearchableness, wisdom, and vigilance of the divine power.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
Eze 1:16
Pro 25:11, “Apples of gold in imagery of silver, Is the word spoken at its fit times .” (Young’s Literal Translation)
Comments – The ISBE and Smith say the color “beryl” perhaps refers to a chrysolite, a yellow jasper, or some other yellow or green-coloured stone. [13] This was one of the precious stones sewn in the breastplate of the priest (Exo 28:20), and therefore, Ezekiel the priest would have easily compared the color of the wheels to something that he was already familiar with.
[13] Lazarus Fletcher, “Stones, Precious,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
Exo 28:20, “And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings.”
Eze 1:16 “and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel” Comments – The inner wheel represents time, as man is able to measure it. Note how Ezekiel is measuring time by days, months and years throughout his prophecies. The outer wheel represents eternity. Man lives in the realm of time, but God lives in eternity, where time does not exist (Isa 57:15).
Isa 57:15, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity , whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
Note a comment from Frances J. Roberts, which illustrates this symbolism of the wheel within a wheel found in the vision of Ezekiel:
“My ageless purposes are set in Eternity. Time is as a little wheel set within the big wheel of Eternity. The little wheel turneth swiftly and shall one day cease. The big wheel turneth not, but goeth straight forward. Time is thy responsibility Eternity is Mine! Ye shall move into thy place in the big wheel when the little wheel is left behind. See that now ye redeem the time, making use of it for the purposes of My eternal kingdom, thus investing it with something of the quality of the big wheel. As ye do this, thy days shall not be part of that which turneth and dieth, but of that which goeth straight forward and becometh one with My great universe. Fill thy days with light and love and testimony. Glorify and honor My Name. Praise and delight thyself in the Lord. So shall eternity inhabit thy heart and thou shalt deliver thy soul from the bondages of time.” [14]
[14] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 31-2.
If we realize that man’s days, months and years are determined by the rotation of the earth, moon and planets, we can easily see how the word “rotate” can denote time, as well as “wheel.” As we reach out further into the universe, which represents eternity, we see that the planets rotate within their solar system. Man has recently discovered that these solar systems rotate around each other and around their galaxies. The Sun is located within the Milky Way Galaxy, which contains between 200 to 400 billion other stars. The diameter of the Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light years across. These stars are rotating around the galactic center of the Milky Way, while several smaller galaxies are rotating around the Milky Way in billions of years. Scientists estimate that there are about 10 billion large galaxies within the universe, with a grand total of 2,000 billion billion stars contained in these galaxies. Scientists believe that the entire mass of the universe is either rotating or in motion in some manner. [15] At some point, man may see that all of the universe, or eternity, is in rotation. This type of rotation is beyond man’s comprehension, and thus, dwells in the realm of the divine, where God inhabits eternity. The outer wheel represents this eternal rotation.
[15] Hartmut Frommert and Christine Kronberg, “The Milky Way Galaxy,” [on-line]; accessed 1 September 2009; available from http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~powersr/New/notes/3rd%20%20year%20misc/3013%20galaxies/The%20Milky%20Way%20Galaxy.htm; Internet.
Thus, the little wheel represents the rotation that determines man’s time measured by days, months and years, while the outer wheel represents time on a much greater scale, in which only God can see and understand. The eyes on the outer wheel symbolize the fact that only God knows the eternal realm of time. The fact that these two wheels spin together symbolizes the fact that God, who dwells in eternity, is working through man, who lives in the realm of time, to bring about His divine plan of redemption. The fact that the inner wheel of time is spinning within the outer wheel of God’s eternity symbolize the fact that man’s plans are carried out within the greater plan of Almighty God and that God’s plans will determine the outcome of man’s plans. These angels have been sent forth from eternity to invade mortal man’s world of time in order to set in motion his redemption. Thus, they move between the inner and outer wheels, between time and eternity to fulfill their ministries.
So, we can say that as believers, we walk by God’s time frame and not by man’s time frame. Paul said this a different way in 2Co 5:7, by saying, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” We as believers look towards the eternal things, while the world looks at the temporal things of this earth. Paul said the same thing several times in his epistles.
2Co 4:18, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Col 3:2, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
This is the secret to how great men of God endured suffering, because they were looking for eternal things.
1. Abraham’s suffering involved living in a tent all of his life. Therefore, he looked for a heavenly city:
Heb 11:10, “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
2. Job’s revelation of God in Job 38-41 helped him to focus on heavenly things and to look beyond his suffering. With this mindset, he stopped praying for the deliverance of himself and was able to prayer for the deliverance of his friends, thus receiving deliverance for himself:
Job 42:1-3, “Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.”
3. Paul the apostle was looking for a crown, so he ran his race as if to win:
2Ti 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
4. Even Jesus Christ Himself endured the Cross because He was focused on the eternal things of God. Jesus accepted shame in this life because He knew His Father would reward Him with glory and honor at His right hand:
Heb 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Eze 1:18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
Eze 1:18
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Eze 1:16. Berylwheel in the middle of a wheel Chrysolitewheel put cross within another wheel.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work [was] like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work [was] as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
Ver. 16. The appearance of the wheels was like unto the colour of a beryl.] Heb., As the eye or colour of Tarshish – i.e., the sea, or beryl, which is of a sea colour, even sea-green; whereby is represented the flux and fluctuating constitution of things here below.
And they four had one likeness.
Their appearance and their work were as it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel.
a Dr Preston.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The. Some codices, with one early printed edition, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “And the”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the colour: Eze 10:9, Exo 39:13, Dan 10:6
a wheel: Eze 10:10, Job 9:10, Psa 36:6, Psa 40:5, Rom 11:33, Eph 3:10
Reciprocal: Exo 28:20 – a beryl 1Ki 7:33 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 1:16. It is evident the wheel that Ezekiel saw was no ordinary one, either in its construction or size. Instead, It was composed of two parts or wheels and one was nested inside the other. Middle is from tavek and the definition of Strong defines it, From an unused root meaning to sever; a bisection, i.e. (by implication) the center.” Let us suppose two large hoops so nearly the same size that one will just slip inside the other. Now give this last one a quarter turn which will present an object whose four sections will resemble the four quarters of a globe; turning the hoop so that its plane will stand at right angles with the plane of the other. This will give what Ezekiel saw; a wheel in the middle of a wheel. And with an object thus constructed it would be prepared to roll in any one of the four directions without turning, just as the creatures with their four faces could do.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work [was] like the colour of a {k} beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work [was] as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
(k) The Hebrew word is tarshish meaning that the colour was like the Cilician Sea, or a precious stone so called.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
These wheels appeared to have been skillfully made of some valuable material, the exact identity of which is unknown today. They all looked alike, and each wheel appeared to have another wheel, which seems to have been the same size, within it (attached to it). Another interpretation is that the wheels’ rims were concentric, a smaller one within a larger one. Evidently the axis of these wheels was the same and was vertical, forming a somewhat globe-like structure. [Note: Allen, pp. 33-34.] Chariot wheels seem to be what Ezekiel saw with other equally large chariot wheels intersecting the main wheels. These second wheels would have enabled the previously mentioned wheels to rotate left and right as well as forward and backward, as modern spherical casters do.