Some translators may need to know in what way The wheels were made like a chariot wheel. It almost certainly does not refer to their size, since they would have been considerably smaller. The idea is probably that they followed the pattern or design of chariot wheels. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “The structure of the wheels was like the structure of chariot wheels.” In order to avoid misunderstanding, some may have to translate “The wheels were like small chariot wheels.” For chariot see the comments at 1 Kgs 1.5.

Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs, were all cast: Axles, rims, spokes, and hubs are somewhat technical terms in English. New Jerusalem Bible renders these four nouns as “axles, felloes, spokes, and naves.” “Felloes” is another word for rims, and “naves” is a synonym of hubs. Most languages will have terms for these parts of the wheel. Translators should, however, avoid terms that are too technical if most readers will not know them. Rims and hubs, for example, are preferable to “felloes” and “naves” for American readers. In some languages all of these terms will be foreign. To introduce four foreign terms into the translation may be very difficult and distracting for the average reader. If this is the case, then it may be wiser to say simply that “all the parts of the wheels were made of bronze” and give the specific terms in a footnote.

Were all cast means they were all made of cast bronze.

Parole de Vie may provide a useful model for the whole verse:

• They [The wheels] were made like chariot wheels. All the parts of which they were made were in cast bronze.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .