What Does Ezekiel 1:7 Mean in the King James?
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 the colour of burnished brass.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The straightness carries a shade of what is right, and even these beings’ point of contact with the ground gleams.
THE MEANING
As you meet the vision, the beings’ footing appears both animal-like and radiant: straight legs, calf-like soles, and a sheen like burnished brass. The word יְשָׁרָה (yesharah, “straight, upright”) carries both physical straightness and the shade of what is right, while the image remains firmly embodied.
THE ROOT
יְשָׁרָה
yesharah
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or right.
The same root describes a straight line and what is upright or right. The vision’s bodily stance therefore carries a shade of alignment without ceasing to be a physical image.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight; upright; right.
יָשָׁר
This branch preserves the physical sense of the beings’ straight legs while also carrying the shade of uprightness.
yosher: Uprightness; integrity.
יֹשֶׁר
The same root extends from a straight form to uprightness, giving the vision’s stance an additional depth.
רַגְלֵיהֶם
ragleihém
GROWS FROM
ר־ג־ל
r-g-l
Foot; movement on foot.
The verse repeats the foot-word for the beings’ legs and their soles, making their footing a central part of the image. A verbal branch connects this root with going about on foot, so the feet hold both stance and movement.
ALSO GROWS
regel: Foot; leg; step.
רֶגֶל
The verse repeats this word family for the beings’ legs and the sole of each foot, fixing attention on their footing.
ragal: To go about; to scout or spy out.
רָגַל
This verbal branch links the foot with movement over ground, giving the straight stance a sense of poised motion.
THE PATTERN
In visions of heavenly presence, the feet or ground beneath it become a place where splendor is made visible.
And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.THE THREAD
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!Both verses use רֶגֶל (regel, “foot”), the Hebrew word for foot. Ezekiel’s feet are the gleaming base of a vision; Isaiah’s feet belong to the messenger who arrives, linking footing with movement and arrival.
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