Dictionary entry

Flame

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

flam (lahabh, and other forms from same root; phlox):

InJud 13:20bis;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" (Jud 20:38,40the King James Version), the Revised Version (British and American) "cloud" (of smoke); kalil, "completeness" (Jud 20:40b King James Version margin, "a holocaust, or offering wholly consumed by fire"; compareLe 6:15); shalhebheth (Job 15:30;So 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 (Da 3:22;7:9). InPs 104:4the 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 29:8the Revised Version (British and American)), shame, astonishment, "faces of flame" (Isa 13:8); inRe 1:14, the glorified Christ is described as having eyes "as a flame of fire," signifying their searching purity (compareRe 2:18;19:12). Flame is also a symbol of God's wrath (Ps 83:14;Isa 5:24;10:17).

See alsoFIRE.

W. L. Walker