Charles Ellicott Commentary Hebrews 1:7

"And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels winds, And his ministers a flame a fire:" — Hebrews 1:7 (ASV)

Spirits: Better, winds. It is very difficult to assign any clear meaning to the ordinary rendering—unless, indeed, we were to adopt the very strange opinion of many of the earlier commentators, that the emphasis is on “maketh” in the sense of “createth.”

The parallelism in these two lines of Hebrew poetry is complete, with “angels” answering to “ministers,” and “winds” to “a flame of fire.” The meaning appears to be that God, employing His messengers for His varied purposes, sends them out in whatever way He pleases, clothing them with the appearance of the resistless wind or the devouring fire. (We may contrast 1 Kings 19:11–12.) The force of the passage lies in the vividness with which it presents the thought of the Most High served by angels who “at His bidding speed,” untiring as the wind, subtle as the fire.

We feel much more distinctly than we can put into words the infinite contrast between such ministers and the Son seated at the right hand of God. The quotation is taken from Psalm 104:4, without any variation in the Greek. Whether this translation faithfully represents the original is a question that has been warmly discussed. There is no doubt that such a rendering of the Hebrew is in itself natural; however, it is often alleged that the context requires an inversion of the words, Who maketh winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers. The point cannot be examined here; we will only express a decided opinion that the translation defended above not only expresses the meaning of the Hebrew but also perfectly accords with the context of the Psalm.