The Seraphim were terrifying Biblical monsters, even if contemporary Christianity imagines them as more benign angelic creatures. They appear in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) in several places, and although English translations of the Hebrew “Seraphim” (singular “Seraph”) often appear only in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, in fact they are mentioned elsewhere in the original Hebrew.
They always are connected with reinforcing God’s will on earth — but with the threat of violence. The Hebrew word “saraph,” means “to burn,” and the word Seraphim meant that these beasts would burn their prey. Also, they have wings, as you can see from this ancient seal from Israel.
In the Book of Numbers, these flying snakes wreaked divine vengeance upon the Israelites when they were wandering in the wasteland deserts after fleeing Egypt and had started to complain about God. So, as it says in the Book of Numbers (21:6): “And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died.”
Too late for many in the story, God had Moses create a staff with a Seraph-head that cured the people who looked at it.
Seraphim-creatures did populate many legends from Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures. Sometimes the flying snakes were used in protective imagery — apotropaic magic designed to look like the thing you might need protection against. You can see this in the uraeus from Egyptian mythology.
Sources: See pp 13-39 of _God’s Monsters_ by Esther J. Hamori, Broadleaf Books, 2023. For the image, see https://www.transpositions.co.uk/seraphim-eyes-isaiah/
