“Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.”
— WEB
Cited in 1 topic on this site.
Translations sourced from the public-domain WEB, KJV, and ASV. See all sources.
“Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.”
— WEB
“Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.”
— KJV
“Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.”
— ASV
stood--not necessarily the posture of standing; rather, were in attendance on Him [MAURER], hovering on expanded wings. the--not in the Hebrew. seraphim--nowhere else applied to God's attendant angels; but to the fiery flying (not winged, but rapidly moving) serpents, which bit the Israelites (Num 21:6), called so from the poisonous inflammation caused by their bites. Seraph is to burn; implying the burning zeal, dazzling brightness (Kg2 2:11; Kg2 6:17; Eze 1:13; Mat 28:3) and serpent-like rapidity of the seraphim in God's service. Perhaps Satan's form as a serpent (nachash) in his appearance to man has some connection with his original form as a seraph of light. The head of the serpent was the symbol of wisdom in Egypt (compare Num 21:8; Kg2 18:4). The seraphim, with six wings and one face, can hardly be identified with the cherubim, which had four wings (in the temple only two) and four faces (Eze 1:5-12). (But compare Rev 4:8). The "face" and "feet" imply a human form; something of a serpentine form (perhaps a basilisk's head, as in the temples of Thebes) may have been mixed with it: so the cherub was compounded of various animal forms. However, seraph may come from a root meaning "princely," applied in Dan 10:13 to Michael [MAURER]; just as cherub comes from a root (changing m into b), meaning "noble.
— Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (public domain)
Newsletter
A short reflection, a single passage, three articles to read. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.