to fly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy,…
Ezekiel 1:11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodie…
Psalms 103:20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Psalms 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
1 Kings 6:24 And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto t…
Psalms 18:10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
Isaiah 6:6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Zechariah 3:4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 6:1-4
The vision which Isaiah saw when he was, as is said of Samuel, established to be a prophet of the Lord (Sa1 3:20), was intended, 1. To confirm his faith, that he might himself be abundantly satisfied of the truth of those things which should afterwards be made known to him. This God opened the communications of himself to him; but such visions needed not to be afterwards repeated upon every revelation. Thus God appeared at first as a God of glory to Abraham (Act 7:2), and to Moses, Exo 3:2. Ezekiel's prophecies and St. John's, begin with visions of the divine glory. 2. To work upon his affections, that he might be possessed with such a reverence of God as would both quicken him and fix him t…
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…
Above it stood the seraphims,.... Not above the temple, nor above the throne, much less above him that sat upon it, but either "by him", on the right hand and on the left, as Aben Ezra; or "near him", as Kimchi and Ben Melech; or "before him", as the Targum; or "round about him", as the Septuagint; all which denote the ministering form in which they stood; by whom are meant, not the Son and Spirit, as some of the ancients thought, who imagined the Father to be the Person sitting on the throne; nor the two Testaments, as Jerom; nor angels, which is the common interpretation; but ministers of the Gospel, the same with the four beasts in Revelation 4:6 and the four living creatures in Ezekiel 1…
The Church Fathers
Some think there are two seraphim, but I, based on the idea expounded by the sacred Scripture, which says, "the seraphim stood round about him," think there are many, and they are bodyguards, as it were, like a crown from all sides, surrounding his throne with light and enlivened by him.
Let us bring our discourse back to our earlier proposition and let us show that God, even by the accommodation of condescension, cannot be seen by the powers above. Tell me this. Why do the seraphim stretch forth their wings? There is no other reason than the statement made by the apostle: "Who dwells in unapproachable light." And these heavenly virtues, who are showing this by their very actions, are not the only ones. There are powers higher than the seraphim, namely, the cherubim. The seraphim stood near; the cherubim are the throne of God. They are not called this because God has need of a throne but so that you may learn how great is the dignity of these very powers.
And thus also is it in respect of the spiritual natures and orders of celestial beings, and it is faith which maketh it possible to receive every word which is spoken concerning them; for otherwise there must necessarily be unbelief, since the Book calleth them "absolute spiritual beings" [in one place], and in another it speaketh of them as "compacted bodies," to which it attributeth forms which are different from each other. Concerning the Seraphim we are told by the word of the Book [that they have] wings and faces, and concerning the Cherubim [we are told that they have] other forms which are different from each other; which of these statements are we to accept as true? for according to the outward hearing of the word each contradicts the other. The statement that they are spirits we believe, the statement that they are compacted bodies we hold to be true, the statement that their construction consisteth of forms of different kinds we accept; and we receive them all by faith.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Angels — By the word “angels” (i.e. “messengers” of God) we ordinarily understand a race of spiritual beings of a nature exalted far above that of man, although infinitely removed from that of God—whose…
Dress — (1.) Materials used. The earliest and simplest an apron of fig-leaves sewed together (Gen. 3:7); then skins of animals (3:21). Elijah’s dress was probably the skin of a sheep (2 Kings 1:8). The…
Seraphim — Mentioned in Isa. 6:2, 3, 6, 7. This word means fiery ones, in allusion, as is supposed, to their burning love. They are represented as “standing” above the King as he sat upon his throne, ready at…
Vine — One of the most important products of Palestine. The first mention of it is in the history of Noah (Gen. 9:20). It is afterwards frequently noticed both in the Old and New Testaments, and in the…
Angel (A Spirit) · .Of different or — .Of different or
Angels · Are of different orders — Are of different orders
Christ Is God · As Jehovah of Hosts — As Jehovah of Hosts
Excellency And Glory Of Christ, The · As King — As King
Visions · Mentioned in scripture: To Isaiah — Mentioned in scripture: To Isaiah
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Isaiah 6:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
And the seraphim stood upon it. Having declared that God appeared to him full of majesty and of glory, he adds, that God was attended by angels, whom the Prophet calls seraphim on account of their fervor. Though the etymology of this word is well known, yet various reasons are adduced. Some think that they are called seraphim because they burn with the love of God; others, because they are swift like fire; others, because they are bright. However that may be, this description holds out to us, as in sunbeams, the brightness of God's infinite majesty, that we may learn by it to behold and adore his wonderful and overwhelming glory.
Many think that there were two seraphim, as there were two ch…
"Above it stood seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly." We must not render לו ממּעל "near him;" for although על or מעל is applied to a person standing near or over against another who is sitting down (Exo 18:13; Jer 36:21; compared Ch2 26:19, where the latter is used to signify "over against" the altar of incense), and is used in this sense to denote the attitude of spirits (Job 1:16; Kg1 22:19; Zac 6:5), and even of men (Zac 4:14), in relation to God when seated on His throne, in which case it cannot possibly be employed in the sense of "towering above;" yet לו ממּעל, the strongest expression for supra, cann…
The mighty seraphim are heavenly beings not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture (but see also Rev 4:6-9; 15:8). The Hebrew term might suggest an association with fire. They covered their faces so as not to look on God.
Rashi on Isaiah 6:2
Seraphim stood above in heaven.
for Him i.e., to serve him, and so does Jonathan render: Holy servants are on high before Him.
with two he would cover his face so as not to look toward the Shechinah.
and with two he would cover his feet for modesty, so as not to bare his entire body before his Creator. And in Tanhuma (Emor 8), I saw that the feet were covered because they are like the sole of the foot of a calf, in order not to remind Israel of the sin of the golden calf.
and with two he would fly And with two he would serve [from Targum Jonathan].
