Verse 5
"And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth from standing before the Lord of the whole earth."
"The four winds of heaven ..." "Wind is the basic word for spirit";[5] and it is far better to read "spirit" here. After all "winds" do not "stand" before the Lord! The use of the expression, "stand before the Lord" shows clearly what is meant. When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he said, "I am Gabriel who stand in the presence of God" (Luke 1:19); and the expression is repeatedly used in Scripture with regard to the holy angels. Therefore, we find full agreement here with Unger who saw that, "There is every reason to believe that these chariots represent personal beings, that is, angelic messengers."[6]
Understanding the meaning of the word here as "spirits" rather than as "winds" is far superior to the critical fad of emending the text to make it say something more readily understood. Many find the temptation to "emend" the place almost irresistible:
The addition of a single letter in the Hebrew gives the following reading: "These, that is, the chariots and horses, go forth to the four winds of heaven after they have presented themselves before the Lord.[7]
The angelic messengers that stand ready to obey the command of God may be considered almost innumerable, if not actually so. Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, mentioned "twelve legions of angels" as ready to answer any summons from the Father. When it is remembered that a single angel slew 180,000 of Sennacherib's army on a single night, how vast must be the power of the entire angelic host?
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