Psalms 104:4

104:4 He makes the winds his messengers,

and the flaming fire his attendant. ¹ 

Ezekiel 1:4

1:4 As I watched, I noticed ²  a windstorm ³  coming from the north – an enormous cloud, with lightning flashing, ⁴  such that bright light ⁵  rimmed it and came from ⁶  it like glowing amber ⁷  from the middle of a fire.

Hebrews 1:7

1:7 And he says ⁸  of the angels, “He makes ⁹  his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” ¹⁰ 

[104:4]  ¹ tc Heb “and his attendants a flaming fire.” The lack of agreement between the singular “fire” and plural “attendants” has prompted various emendations. Some read “fire and flame.” The present translation assumes an emendation to “his attendant” (יו in the Hebrew text being virtually dittographic).

[1:4]  ² tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[1:4]  ³ sn Storms are often associated with appearances of God (see Nah 1:3; Ps 18:12). In some passages, the “storm” (סְעָרָה, sÿ’arah) may be a whirlwind (Job 38:1, 2 Kgs 2:1).

[1:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “fire taking hold of itself,” perhaps repeatedly. The phrase occurs elsewhere only in Exod 9:24 in association with a hailstorm. The LXX interprets the phrase as fire flashing like lightning, but it is possibly a self-sustaining blaze of divine origin. The LXX also reverses the order of the descriptors, i.e., “light went around it and fire flashed like lightning within it.”

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Or “radiance.” The term also occurs in 1:27b.

[1:4]  ⁶ tc Or “was in it”; cf. LXX ἐν τῷ μέσῳ αὐτοῦ (en tw mesw autou, “in its midst”).

[1:4]  ⁷ tn The LXX translates חַשְׁמַל (khashmal) with the word ἤλεκτρον (hlektron, “electrum”; so NAB), an alloy of silver and gold, perhaps envisioning a comparison to the glow of molten metal.

[1:7]  ⁸ sn The Greek correlative conjunctions μέν and δέ (men and de) emphasize the contrastive parallelism of vs. 7 (what God says about the angels) over against vv. 8-9 and vv. 10-12 (what God says about the son).

[1:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “He who makes.”

[1:7]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from Ps 104:4.