He mounted ¹  a winged angel ²  and flew; he glided ³  on the wings of the wind. ⁴ 

biblegateway 2Sa 22:11

"And He rode on a cherub and flew; And He appeared on the wings of the wind.

He rode on a cherub and flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.

He rode on one of the angels as he flew, and he soared on the wings of the wind.

biblegateway 2Sa 22:11

He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen on the wings of the wind.

bibleoremus 2Sa 22:11

He rode on a cherub, and flew; he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

He flew on the back of a cherub; he swooped on the wings of the wind.

biblegateway 2Sa 22:11

He rode upon a cherub, and flew; And He was seen upon the wings of the wind.

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

biblegateway 2Sa 22:11

He mounted ¹  a winged angel ²  and flew; he glided ³  on the wings of the wind. ⁴ 

¹ tn Or “rode upon.”

² tn Heb “a cherub” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “the cherubim” (plural); TEV “his winged creature”; CEV “flying creatures.”

² sn A winged angel. Cherubs, as depicted in the Old Testament, possess both human and animal (lion, ox, and eagle) characteristics (see Ezek 1:10; 10:14, 21; 41:18). They are pictured as winged creatures (Exod 25:20; 37:9; 1 Kgs 6:24-27; Ezek 10:8, 19) and serve as the very throne of God when the ark of the covenant is in view (Pss 80:1; 99:1; see Num 7:89; 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kgs 19:15). The picture of the Lord seated on the cherubs suggests they might be used by him as a vehicle, a function they carry out in Ezek 1:22-28 (the “living creatures” mentioned here are identified as cherubs in Ezek 10:20). In Ps 18:10 the image of a cherub serves to personify the wind (see the next line).

³ tc The translation follows very many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וַיֵּדֶא (vayyÿde’, “and he glided”; cf. NIV “soared”; NCV “raced”) rather than MT וַיֵּרָא (vayyera’, “and he appeared,” so NASB, CEV). See as well the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, Vulgate, and the parallel version in Ps 18:10, which preserves the original reading (see the note there).

⁴ sn The wings of the wind. Verse 10 may depict the Lord mounting a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that two different vehicles (a cherub and the wind) are envisioned. A third option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. For a discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in v. 10, see M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.