Meaning
In Jud 13:20 bis; Job 41:21, Isa 29:6, Joe 2:5, the word is lahabh. Various other words are translated "flame"; mas'eth, "a lifting or rising up" (Jdg 20:38, Jdg 20:40 the King James Version), the Revised Version (British and American) "cloud" (of smoke); kalil, "completeness" (Jud 20:40 b King James Version margin, "a holocaust, or offering wholly consumed by fire"; compare Le 6:15); shalhebheth (Job 15:30, Son 8:6; the American Standard Revised Version "a very flame of Yahweh," margin "or, a most vehement flame"; Eze 20:47, the Revised Version (British and American) "the flaming flame"); shabhibh (Job 18:5; the Revised Version, margin); shebhibh, Aramaic (Dan 3:22, Dan 7:9). In Ps 104:4 the American Standard Revised Version has "maketh .... flames of fire his ministers"; the Revised Version (British and American) "flame" for "snare" (Pr 29:8).
Figuratively: "Flame" is used to denote excitement (Pr 29:8 the Revised Version (British and American)), shame, astonishment, "faces of flame" (Isa 13:8); in Re 1:14, the glorified Christ is described as having eyes "as a flame of fire," signifying their searching purity (compare Rev 2:18, Rev 19:12). Flame is also a symbol of God's wrath (Psa 83:14, Isa 5:24, Isa 10:17).
See also FIRE.
W. L. Walker
