Isaiah 6:2

214. Stood the seraphim. Here he sets out the office of the ministers. And first, he describes the order of the ministers; second, their praise, and they cried one to another, and said: holy (Isa 6:3). Concerning the first, he sets out three things. First, …

"Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, with two they hovered aloft." There are two Seraphim established in us through faith. Our intellect enlightened by faith is made to resemble …

Stood - As ministers attending upon their Lord. Seraphim - An order of holy angels, thus called from fire and burning, which this word properly signifies; to represent either their nature, which is bright and glorious, subtile, and pure; or their property, of fervent zeal for God's service and glory.

Above it stood the seraphims,....

They burn in love to God, and zeal for his glory and against sin, and he makes use of them as instruments of his wrath when he is a consuming fire to his enemies. Whether they were only two or four, or (as I rather think) an innumerable company of angels, that Isaiah saw, is uncertain; see Dan. vii.

Above it stood the seraphim - שרפים seraphim, from שרף seraph, to burn. He saw says Kimchi, the angels as flames of fire, that the depravity of that generation might be exhibited, which was worthy of being totally burnt up. He covered his feet “He covereth his feet” - By the feet the Hebrews mean all the lower parts of the body.

Seraph is to burn; implying the burning zeal, dazzling brightness (2Ki 2:11; Mt 28:3) and serpent-like rapidity of the seraphim in God's service. Perhaps Satan's form as a serpent (nachash) in his appearance to man has some connection with his original form as a seraph of light.

Above it - Either above the throne, or above him. The Septuagint renders it, ‘Round about him’ - κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ kuklō autou. The Chaldee, ‘The holy ministers stood on high in his presence.’ The seraphims - The verb שׂרף s'âraph, from which this word is derived, is uniformly translated “to burn,” and is used frequently; see “Taylor.” The noun שׂרף s'ârâph denotes, according to Bochart, the “chersydros,” a serpent that lives in lakes and moist places; but when those places are dried up, it becomes a land serpent, and then its bite is very fierce, and is attended with a most dreadful inflammation all over the body. Rabbi Solomon says, that ‘serpents are called seraphim because they burn people with the poison of their teeth,’ perhaps because the idea of “heat and poison” were connected. The word is applied to the fiery flying serpents which bit the children of Israel, and in imitation of which a brass serpent was erected on a pole by Moses. It is translated ‘a fiery serpent’ in Num 21:8; Isa 14:29; Isa 30:6. In Deut; Deu 8:15; Num 21:6, it is rendered ‘fiery,’ and in the passage before us, “seraphims.” The word שׂרפה s'erêphâh often occurs in the sense of “burning;” Deu 29:23; 2Ch 16:14; 2Ch 21:19, ... The Septuagint renders it “seraphim,” σεραφὶμ serafim; so the Vulgate and the Syriac. The Chaldee, ‘his holy ministers.’ Probably it is now impossible to tell why this name was given to the representations that appeared to Isaiah. Perhaps it may have been from their “burning” ardor and zeal in the service of God; perhaps from the “rapidity” of their motion in his service - derived from the rapid motion of the serpent. Gesenius supposes that the name was derived from a signification of the word denoting “noble or excellent,” and that it was on this account applied to princes, and to celestial beings. […]