Psalm 84:11

Hebrew Bible

9 O God, take notice of our shield. Show concern for your chosen king. 10 Certainly spending just one day in your temple courts is better than spending a thousand elsewhere. I would rather stand at the entrance to the temple of my God than live in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and a shield26. The Lord bestows favor and honor; he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. 12 O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, how blessed are those who trust in you.

Isaiah 60:2

Hebrew Bible

1Arise! Shine! For your light arrives! The splendor of the Lord shines on you! 2 For, look, darkness covers the earth and deep darkness covers the nations, but the Lord shines on you; his splendor appears over you. 3 Nations come to your light, kings to your bright light. 4 Look all around you! They all gather and come to you—your sons come from far away, and your daughters are escorted by guardians.

 Notes and References

"... The Psalms witness to solar Yahwism as a feature of royal religion during the period of the monarchy. Psalm 91 (circa 400 BCE) demonstrates a transition from Elyon to Yahweh, who is represented as a winged deity. Verse 1 is not yet equated with Yahweh. At verse 4 Yahweh is represented as a winged deity, who at verse 11 is attended by his ministering angels, but in verse 9 the parallelism indicates that they are equated. Psalm 19:1-6 and Psalm 84:11 also reinforce the connection between Deity and sun, and in Psalm 104:1-4, Yahweh has characteristics strongly associated with the sun: wings, fire and flame. Simpson recognizes that these characteristics echo the wording, thought, and sequence of ideas contained in the Aten hymn, which dates to the much earlier period, during the reign of Akhenaten (circa 1400 BCE). Akhenaten emphasized the international supremacy of the sun disk and his own relation to it as a son … Isaiah sees Yahweh as king on his throne in the heavenly temple, with the seraphim above him, constantly intoning praises to God. The seraphim of Isaiah are “fire” and “light” beings, with human characteristics like hands, feet, eyes, and are able to utter the trisagion. However, the Hebrew word designates a serpent, possibly from siru - cuneiform for serpent, but the Septuagint simply transliterates the term “seraphim” as serapin in Isaiah 6:2. If the name is taken from the root “to burn”, then the description of these flaming winged creatures would fit well with the description of the winged allies of El, and the flamelike, fiery messengers of Yam ..."

Evans, Annette Henrietta Margaretha The Development of Jewish Ideas of Angels: Egyptian and Hellenistic Connections (pp. 26-35) University of Stellenbosch, 2007

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