Lewis Elton is mistaken (Letters, THES , August 10). "Chariot of fire" is in the Bible as well as in Blake. It is to be found in 2 Kings ii: 11 and the context is the taking up into heaven of the Prophet Elijah "in the whirlwind".
It is found in William Tyndale's translation of the 1530s (the first into English from the Hebrew) and is used in subsequent translations such as Authorised Version (1611) and New Revised Standard Version (Anglicised edition 1995).
Strong's lexicon gives the Hebrew as rekeb (chariot) and 'esh (fire).
A. F. Jeans
District secretary
United Reformed Church
Gloucester District