Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation state in footnotes that the meaning of this verse is uncertain. Neither translation should be trusted as a base for this verse. The verse contains difficulties, but it is by no means impossible to understand. The Hebrew text reads literally “And their rims, there were both height and fear to them, and their rims were full of eyes surrounding the four of them.” New Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew closely with “Their rims were tall and awesome, for the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.” This model forms the base for the following comments.

“Their rims were tall” indicates that the wheels were large, and the top curve of their rims was high above the ground. They also were “awesome,” that is, they caused astonishment and inspired fear in those who saw them, perhaps because they were so large. Compare New Jerusalem Bible, which begins this verse with “Their circumference was of awe-inspiring size.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible is similar with “The height of their rims caused fear.” Another reason why they caused fear may be because “the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.” The “eyes” may actually have been the heads of nails or other fasteners in the rims of the wheels. But translators should not say “nails” or “heads of nails.” It is better to follow the text with “eyes” since this is how Ezekiel perceived them. The photo below of two chariot wheels gives a vivid picture of what these may have looked like. But to Ezekiel they looked like eyes. These eyes were all around the rims of all four wheels, that is, each of the wheels had these “eyes” right around its rim.

Some translations do not include any reference to “fear” in this verse; for example, International Children’s Bible begins with “I saw the rims of the wheels” (similarly Revised English Bible), Jerusalem Bible has “Their rims seemed enormous when I looked at them,” and New English Bible says “each hub had a projection which had the power of sight.” The reason for this difference is that the Hebrew word for “fear” (yirʾah) has the same basic letters as the word for “see” (raʾah). Even as early as the Septuagint, translators have either misread the words and mistaken one for the other, or they have felt that “see” fits the sense better than “fear.” As the comments above show, this change is unnecessary. We recommend following New Revised Standard Version for this verse.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .