SERAPHS

Spirit creatures stationed about Jehovah’s throne in the heavens. (Isa 6:2, 6) The Hebrew word sera·phimʹ is a plural noun derived from the verb sa·raphʹ, meaning “burn.” (Le 4:12) Thus the Hebrew term sera·phimʹ literally means “burning ones.” Elsewhere the noun occurs in singular (Heb., sa·raphʹ) or plural and refers to earthly creatures. In this usage the meaning is variously “poisonous,” “fiery (inflammation-causing),” and “fiery snake.”​—Nu 21:6, 8, ftns.

Seraphs were standing above him. Each one had six wings. With two he kept his face covered, and with two he kept his feet covered, and with two he would fly about.

Isa 6:1-7.

The seraphs’ “standing” may mean “hovering,” by means of one of their sets of wings, just as the cloud was ‘standing’ or hovering by the entrance of Jehovah’s tent in the wilderness. (De 31:15) Professor Franz Delitzsch comments on the position of the seraphs: “The seraphim would not indeed tower above the head of Him that sat upon the throne, but they hovered above the robe belonging to Him with which the hall was filled.” (Commentary on the Old Testament, 1973, Vol. VII, Part 1, p. 191) The Latin Vulgate, instead of saying “seraphs were standing above him,” says they were standing above “it.”​—Isa 6:1, 2.

Of High Rank. These mighty heavenly creatures are angels, evidently of very high position in God’s arrangement, since they are shown in attendance at God’s throne. The cherubs seen in Ezekiel’s vision corresponded to runners that accompanied the celestial chariot of God. (Eze 10:9-13) This idea of positions of rank or authority in the heavens is in harmony with Colossians 1:16, which speaks of things “in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities.”

With humility and modesty in the presence of the Supreme One, they covered their faces with one of their three sets of wings, and being in a holy location, they covered their feet with another set, in due respect for the heavenly King.​—Isa 6:2,

Their Visionary Form. The description of the seraphs as having feet, wings, and so forth, must be understood to be symbolic, their likeness to the form of earthly creatures being only representative of abilities they have or of functions they perform, just as God often speaks symbolically of himself as having eyes, ears, and other human features.