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Heb_1:7. Πρός ] with regard to, as Luk_20:19; Act_12:21; Rom_10:21, and frequently. Comp. Matthiae, p. 1181; Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 378.
μέν ] corresponds to the δέ of Heb_1:8, thus places Heb_1:7 in express opposition to Heb_1:8.
λέγει ] namely, God, in the Scripture.
The citation is from Psa_104:4, according to the LXX. (Cod. Alex., whereas Cod. Vatican, has πῦρ φλέγον instead of πυρὸς φλόγα ). The psalm praises Jehovah as the Creator and Sustainer of all nature. In the Hebrew the words cited read: òÉùÒÆä îÇìÀàÈëÈéå øåÌçåÉú îÀùÑÈøÀúÈéå àÅùÑ ìÉäÅè , and, having respect to their connection with what precedes and that which follows, no doubt can obtain on the point that they are to be rendered,—what is objected thereto by Hofmann (Schriftbew. I. p. 325 f., 2 Aufl.), Delitzsch, and Alford is untenable,—“God makes winds His messengers, and flames of fire (lightnings) His servants,” in such wise that the thought is expressed: as the whole of nature, so are also winds and lightnings servants of God the Lord.[37] Otherwise have the LXX. apprehended the sense of the words, as is shown by the addition of the article before ἀγγέλους and λειτουργούς , and they are followed by our author. [So the Targum also.] They have taken τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ and τοὺς λειτουργοὺς αὐτοῦ as the objects, ̔ νεύματα and πυρὸς φλόγα , on the other hand, as the predicates to ποιῶν , thus have found the meaning of the words: “He makes His angels winds, and His servants a flame of fire.” If we now observe the scope of the thought of those declarations of Scripture concerning the Son which follow, Heb_1:8-12, placed as they are in antithetical relation to the one before us, it is evident that the author must have discovered the inferiority of the angels compared with the Son, as attested in Scripture, in a twofold respect—(1) that the angels are servants, whereas the Son is ruler; (2) that the angels are mutable and perishable, whereas the Son abides the same for ever.
The conception of such a subjection on the part of the angels, that they must submit even to be changed into elements, is, moreover, not uncommon among the Rabbins. Comp. e.g. Shemoth rabba, sec. 25, fol. 123. 3 : “aliquando ipsos (angelos) facit ventos, q. d. qui facis angelos tuos ventos, aliquando ignem, q. d. ministros tuos flammam ignis.” Jalkut Simeoni, part II. fol. 11. 3 : “Angelus dixit ad Manoah: nescio ad cujus imaginem ego factus sim; nam Deus singulis horis nos immutat; cur ergo nomen meum interrogas? Nonnunquam facit nosi ignem, alias ventum, interdum viros, alias denique angelos.” See in general, Schöttgen and Wetstein ad loc.
πνεύματα ] not: spirits (Luther, Erasmus, Paraphrase; Clarius, Piscator, Owen, Seb. Schmidt, Brochmann, Bengel, Böhme), but: winds.
λειτουργούς ] only another name for ἀγγέλους .
[37] Comp., as to the thought, Xenophon, Memorabilia, iv. 3. 14, where quite similarly lightning and winds ( κεραυνός and ἄνεμοι ) are called ὑπηρέται τῶν θεῶν .