Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 1:18

"As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and they four had their rims full of eyes round about." — Ezekiel 1:18 (ASV)

Their rings. The same word is used twice in this verse and means what we call the felloes. They were both high and terrible, that is, they had both these characteristics, but not, as seems to be implied in our translation, that one was the cause of the other. The height might be inferred from the fact that the wheel was upon the earth, and yet was by the living creatures (Ezekiel 1:15) who were seen in the cloud (Ezekiel 1:5). The terribleness was in keeping with all other parts of the vision, and its reason is explained in the circumstances that follow.

Full of eyes. In Ezekiel 10:12 it is said of the living creatures, their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about. It was the same vision in either case (Ezekiel 10:20–22); only, in the effort to describe it, which the prophet evidently finds impossible to do adequately, he mentions one particular now and another then. In the corresponding vision in the Apocalypse, the four living creatures are represented as full of eyes within (Revelation 4:8).

In both places alike, the symbolism sets forth God’s perfect knowledge of all His works: here as showing the absolute wisdom of all His doings (compare 2 Chronicles 16:9), there as resulting in perfect and harmonious praise from all His works. The Hebrew seers always looked through all secondary causes directly to the ultimate force which originates and controls all nature, and which they represent as intelligent and self-conscious. To do this more effectively, they often use in their visions such concrete imagery as this.