Topic
Wheel
19 passages cited, from 3 classic reference works.
These works date from 1896–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Psalms 83:13Easton · ISBE
O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
- Proverbs 20:26ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.
- Ecclesiastes 12:6ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
- Jeremiah 18:3ISBE · Nave Potter' s
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
- Exodus 14:25ISBE
And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
- Judges 5:28ISBE
The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?
- Isaiah 5:28ISBE
Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
- Isaiah 17:13Easton
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
- Isaiah 28:27ISBE
For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
- Isaiah 28:28ISBE
Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
- Ezekiel 1:15–21Nave SYMBOLICAL
¶ Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and…
- Ezekiel 3:13Nave SYMBOLICAL
I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.
Show 7 more
- Ezekiel 10:2 ISBE
- Ezekiel 10:6 ISBE
- Ezekiel 10:9–19 Nave SYMBOLICAL
- Ezekiel 10:13 ISBE
- Ezekiel 11:22 Nave SYMBOLICAL
- Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 33:5 ISBE
- James 3:6 ISBE
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 2 references
(Heb. galgal; rendered “wheel” in Ps. 83:13, and “a rolling thing” in Isa. 17:13; R.V. in both, “whirling dust”). This word has been supposed to mean the wild artichoke, which assumes the form of a globe, and in autumn breaks away from its roots, and is rolled about by the wind in some places in great numbers.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 14 references
hwel:
(1) 'ophan, is the usual word (Ex 14:25, etc.). In Pr 20:26; Isa 28:27 the rollers of a threshing wagon are meant (see AGRICULTURE).
(2) galgal, "rolling thing," generally in the sense of "wheel" (Isa 5:28, etc.), but the Revised Version (British and American) in Eze 10:2,6,13 has "whirling wheels," an advantageous change. The "wheel .... broken at the cistern" in Ec 12:6 is the windlass for drawing the water, and by the figure the breakdown of the old man's breathing apparatus is probably meant. In Ps 83:13, the King James Version has "wheel," but this translation (that of the Septuagint) is quite impossible; the Revised Version (British and American) "whirling dust" (sucked up by a miniature whirlwind) is perhaps right, but the translations proposed are end-less.
(3) gilgal, Isa 28:28, the roller of a threshing wagon.
(4) 'obhnayim, Jer 18:3. See POTTER.
(5) pa`am, Jud 5:28, literally, "step" (so the Revised Version margin), and the sound of horses' hoofs is intended.
(6) trochos, Sirach 33:5; Jas 3:6 (the King James Version "course"). In the former passage, "The heart of a fool is as a cart-wheel," the changeableness of a light disposition is satirized. In James the figure is of a wheel in rotation, so that a flame starting at any point is quickly communicated to the whole. Just so an apparently insignificant sin of the tongue produces an incalculably destructive effect.
The phrase "wheel of nature" (trochos tes geneseos) is used here for "the world in progress." It is not a very natural figure and has given rise to much discussion. the King James Version accents trochos ("course") instead of trochos (" wheel"). but the language throughout is metaphorical and "course" is not a sufficiently metaphorical word. The translation "birth" for geneseos (so the Revised Version margin). i.e. "a wheel set in motion by birth." is out of the question. as the argument turns on results wider than any individual's existence. "Wheel of nature" is certainly right. But a comparison of life to a wheel in some sense or other (chiefly that of "Fortune's wheel") is common enough in Greek and Latin writers, and, indeed the exact combination trochos geneseos is found in at least one (Orphic) writer (full references in the commentaries of Mayor and W. Bauer). It would seem, then, that James had heard the phrase, and he used it as a striking figure, with entire indifference to any technical significance it might have. This supposition is preferable to that of an awkward translation from the Aramaic.
See COURSE.
Burton Scott Easton
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.