Ezekiel 1:7
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And their feet were straight feet; and the under sides of their feet were like the feet of oxen; and they were shining like polished brass.
Webster's Revision
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.
World English Bible
Their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass.
English Revised Version (ERV)
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
Clarke's Ezekiel 1:7 Bible Commentary
Their feet were straight feet - There did not seem to be any flexure at the knee, nor were the legs separated in that way as to indicate progression by walking. I have before me several ancient Egyptian images of Isis, Osiris. Anubis, etc., where the legs are not separated, nor is there any bend at the knees; so that if there was any motion at all, it must have been by gliding, not progressive walking. It is a remark of Adrian, that the gods are never represented as walking, but always gliding; and he gives this as a criterion to discern common angelic appearances from those of the gods: all other spiritual beings walked progressively, rising on one foot, while they stretched out the other; but the deities always glided without gradual progressive motions. And Heliodorus in his Romance of Theogines and Charicha, gives the same reason for the united feet of the gods, etc., and describes the same appearances.
Like the sole of a calf's foot - Before it is stated to be a straight foot; one that did not lay down a flat horizontal sole, like that of the human foot.
And they sparkled like the color of burnished brass - I suppose this refers rather to the hoof of the calf's foot, than to the whole appearance of the leg. There is scarcely any thing that gives a higher lustre than highly polished or burnished brass. Our blessed Lord is represented with legs like burnished brass, Revelation 1:15.
Barnes's Ezekiel 1:7 Bible Commentary
The "foot" seems here to mean the lower part of the leg, including the knee, and this was "straight," i. e. upright like a man's. The "sole" is the "foot" as distinguished from the "leg," the leg terminated in a solid calf's hoof. This was suitable for a being which was to present a front on each of its four sides. Ezekiel was living in a country on the walls of whose temples and palaces were those strange mixed figures, human heads with the bodies of lions and the feet of calves, and the like, which we see in the Babylonian and Assyrian monuments. These combinations were of course symbolic, and the symbolism must have been familiar to Ezekiel. But the prophet is not constructing his cherubim in imitation of these figures, the Spirit of God is revealing forms corresponding to the general rules of eastern symbolism.
Wesley's Ezekiel 1:7 Bible Commentary
1:7 Feet - Their thighs, legs and feet, were of a human shape.Straight - Not bowed to this or that part, which argues weakness.The sole - That which is properly the foot. A calf's - A divided hoof spake the cleanness of the creature. They - Their feet.