Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 1:7

"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." — Ezekiel 1:7 (ASV)

The “foot” seems here to mean the lower part of the leg, including the knee, and this was “straight,” that is, 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.