Ezekiel 1:18 - Exposition

As for their rings, etc. The "rings" or "felloes" of the wheels impressed the prophet's mind with a sense of awe, partly from their size, partly from their being "full of eyes." These were obviously, as again in Ezekiel 10:12 , and in the analogues of the "stone with seven eyes" in Zechariah 3:9 ; Zechariah 4:10 , and the "four beasts [ i.e. 'living creatures'] full of eyes," in Revelation 4:6 , symbols of the omniscience of God working through the forces of nature and of history. These were not, as men have sometimes thought, blind forces, but were guided as by a supreme insight.