Flame

FLAME [ISBE]

FLAME - flam (lahabh, and other forms from same root; phlox): In Jdg 13:20 bis; Job 41:21; Isa 29:6; Joel 2:5, the word is lahabh. Various other words are translated "flame"; mas'eth, "a lifting or rising up" (Jdg 20:38,40 the King James Version), the Revised Version (British and American) "cloud" (of smoke); kalil, "completeness" (Jdg 20:40b King James Version margin, "a holocaust, or offering wholly consumed by fire"; compare Lev 6:15); shalhebheth (Job 15:30; Song 8:6; the American Standard Revised Version "a very flame of Yahweh," margin "or, a most vehement flame"; Ezek 20:47, the Revised Version (British and American) "the flaming flame"); shabhibh (Job 18:5; the Revised Version, margin); shebhibh, Aramaic (Dan 3:22; 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" (Prov 29:8).

Figuratively: "Flame" is used to denote excitement (Prov 29:8 the Revised Version (British and American)), shame, astonishment, "faces of flame" (Isa 13:8); in Rev 1:14, the glorified Christ is described as having eyes "as a flame of fire," signifying their searching purity (compare 2:18; 19:12). Flame is also a symbol of God's wrath (Ps 83:14; Isa 5:24; 10:17).

See also FIRE.

W. L. Walker