Psalms Chapter 104 verse 4 Holy Bible
Who maketh winds his messengers; Flames of fire his ministers;
read chapter 104 in ASV
He makes winds his angels, and flames of fire his servants.
read chapter 104 in BBE
Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flame of fire.
read chapter 104 in DARBY
Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
read chapter 104 in KJV
read chapter 104 in WBT
He makes his messengers{or, angels} winds; His servants flames of fire.
read chapter 104 in WEB
Making His messengers -- the winds, His ministers -- the flaming fire.
read chapter 104 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - Who maketh his angels spirits. Professor Cheyne renders, "Who maketh his messengers of winds;" and so (in substance) Jarchi, Aben. Ezra, Rosenmuller, Professor Alexander, and even Hengstenberg. The difficulty in adopting this rendering is that furnished by the application of the passage in Hebrews 1:7; but the arguments of Hengstenberg go far to meet that difficulty. It is to be noted that our Revisers, while admitting either rendering, have preferred that of Professor Cheyne. And his ministers a flaming fire; or, "his ministers of flame and fire."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) Who maketh . . .--Rather,Who maketh winds His messengerA flaming fire His ministers.Or, keeping the order of the Hebrew,Who maketh His messengers of winds,And His ministers of flaming fire.This is plainly the meaning required by the context, which deals with the use made by the Divine King of the various forms and forces of Nature. Just as He makes the clouds serve as a chariot and the sky as a tent, so he employs the winds as messengers and the lightnings as servants.Taken quite alone, the construction and arrangement of the verse favours the interpretation of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 1:7, Note, New Testament Commentary). This was the traditional Jewish interpretation, and on it were founded various theories of angelic agency.But not only do the exigencies of the context set aside this interpretation, but Hebrew literature offers enough instances to show that the order in which a poet arranged his words was comparatively immaterial. Indeed, Dean Perowne has adduced two instances (Isaiah 37:26; Isaiah 60:18) of precisely similar inversion of the natural order of immediate object and predicate. (See Expositor, December, 1878.) And no difficulty need be made about the change of number in flame of fire and ministers, since even if the former were not synonymous with lightnings, its predicate might be plural. (See Proverbs 16:14, "The wrath of a king is messengers of death.") . . .
