The picture of fiery agitated motion continues in this verse. There are major difficulties with some of the Hebrew words in the verse, and Revised English Bible, as well as many commentators, have omitted it altogether.

And the living creatures darted to and fro is literally “And the creatures were running and returning,” that is, they “darted back and forth” (Good News Translation). It is a little strange that the creatures should now be darting to and fro like the flames in the previous verse, but it is not impossible in a vision of this sort. New Jerusalem Bible believes that the creatures “kept disappearing and reappearing,” which is also possible.

Like a flash of lightning is literally “like the appearance of the bazaq.” This is the only place in the Bible where the Hebrew word bazaq occurs, and there is no way of knowing for sure what it means. However, it is very similar to the Hebrew word baraq, which was used at the end of the previous verse and means “lightning.” Therefore it is likely that bazaq is a mistake for baraq, and we can understand the verse to be saying that the creatures were darting to and fro like a flash of lightning or “with the speed of lightning” (Good News Translation). Other suggested renderings for this word are “flares” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “bolts of lightning” (New Century Version), “thunderbolts” (Jerusalem Bible), “sparks jumping from a fire” (Contemporary English Version), and “sparks and lightning” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982)).

New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh does not accept the idea of the creatures darting to and fro. Instead, it takes the second part of the verse as the subject, and understands that there was something that was moving back and forth among the creatures. Thus New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh reads “Dashing to and fro [among] the creatures was something that looked like flares.” This is an attractive suggestion, because it maintains the picture in verse 13 of fiery flashes sparking among the creatures. It also avoids the strange picture of the creatures themselves darting about like flashes of lightning. But New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has to insert the word “among,” which is not there in the Hebrew text. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh is the only translation that takes this approach, but the meaning of the verse is so uncertain that it may be as good an interpretation as any other. However, it is probably better for translators to follow the more conservative versions, such as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. A possible model for this verse is:

• And the creatures themselves were moving rapidly back and forth like flashes of lightning.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .