John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 1:23

"And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies." — Ezekiel 1:23 (ASV)

There is some obscurity in the words, but it can be easily removed if we note the two ways of covering. For those wings which extended upwards covered the living creatures themselves—that is, their faces; but the other wings, which were joined to their bodies, covered the body itself.

Some think that there is a repetition here, and say that the two wings which cover the face and those which cover the body are the same. But this seems to me absurd.

I have no doubt that what we saw before is repeated: namely, that each living creature was covered with four wings, comprising the two which were raised upwards and the two which were so joined that each living creature was connected with another. That was one form of covering. But another was by letting the wings fall, which covered the whole body. On the whole, the Prophet adds nothing new but emphasizes what he had said before.