According to the marginal rendering the present verse refers back to Ezekiel 10:2, Ezekiel 10:6, and tells us that the name "galgal, a rolling thing" (compare Isaiah 17:13), was given to the wheels in the seer's hearing. But taking Ezekiel 10:14 as a description, and reading Ezekiel 10:15 immediately after Ezekiel 10:13, the meaning is clear. In the hearing Of the seer a voice calls upon the wheels, and, obedient to the call, the cherubim are lifted up and the wheels roll on. The word "galgal" would be better rendered "chariot" instead of "wheel;" "chariot" representing very well the collection of "wheels."

As for the wheels, it was cried unto them - O wheel - Never was there a more unfortunate and unmeaning translation. The word הגלגל haggalgal, may signify, simply, the roller, or a chariot, or roll on, or the swift roller. And he clepide ilke wheelis volible, or turninge about. Old MS. Bible. Any of these will do: "and as to the wheels," לאופנים laophannim, "they were called in my hearing" הגלגל haggalgal, "the chariot." The gentleman who took for his text "O wheel!" and made God's decree of eternal predestination out of it, must have borrowed some of Rabbi Ananias's three hundred barrels of oil! But such working of God's word cannot be too severely reprehended.

As these wheels are supposed to represent Divine Providence, bringing about the designs of the Most thigh, how like is the above הגלגל haggalgal, taken as a verb, "roll on," to those words of Virgil in his Pollio: -

Talia saela, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis,

Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae.

"The Fates, when they this happy web have spun,

Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it swiftly run."

As for the wheels, it was cried to them in my hearing,.... Or they were called, as the prophet heard in the vision, by the following name:

O wheel, or, "the wheel": for though there are several particular churches, yet they make up but one general assembly and Church of the firstborn, written in heaven; and will be all together in their perfect state, signified by the round form of the wheel; See Gill on Ezekiel 1:15.

As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel.

10:13 The wheels - As to their frame and motion. It was cried - Still there was one who guided, as by vocal direction. Unto them - To each of them.

it was...: or, they were called in my hearing, wheel, or, galgal

13. O wheel-rather, "they were called, whirling," that is, they were most rapid in their revolutions [Maurer]; or, better, "It was cried unto them, The whirling" [Fairbairn]. Galgal here used for "wheel," is different from ophan, the simple word for "wheel." Galgal is the whole wheelwork machinery with its whirlwind-like rotation. Their being so addressed is in order to call them immediately to put themselves in rapid motion.

10:8-22 Ezekiel sees the working of Divine providence in the government of the lower world, and the affairs of it. When God is leaving a people in displeasure, angels above, and all events below, further his departure. The Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, directs all creatures, in heaven and on earth, so as to make them serve the Divine purpose. God removes by degrees from a provoking people; and, when ready to depart, would return to them, if they were a repenting, praying people. Let this warn sinners to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call on him while he is near, and cause us all to walk humbly and watchfully with our God.