here is 16-17;
Hebrews 2:16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek: ou gar depou aggelon epilambanetai, (3SPMI) alla spermatos Abraam epilambanetai. (3SPMI)
Amplified: For, as we all know, He [Christ] did not take hold of angels the fallen angels, to give them a helping and delivering hand], but He did take hold of the fallen] descendants of Abraham [to reach out to them a helping and delivering hand]. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Analyzed Literal: For surely He does not take hold of [fig., give aid to] angels, _but_ He takes hold of [fig., gives aid to] [the] seed of Abraham.
Barclay: For I presume that it is not angels that helps; but it is the seed of Abraham that he helps. (Westminster Press)
NLT: We all know that Jesus came to help the descendants of Abraham, not to help the angels (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: It is plain that for this purpose he did not become an angel; he became a man, in actual fact a descendant of Abraham. (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: For, as is well known, He does not take hold of angels for the purpose of helping them, but of the seed of Abraham He takes hold, with a view to succoring them. (Eerdmans)
Young's Literal: for, doubtless, of messengers it doth not lay hold, but of seed of Abraham it layeth hold,
Give help (1949) (epilambanomai from epí = upon + lambáno = to take) means take hold of or grasp, with focus upon the goal of motion. To seize for help, injury, attainment or any other purpose. The idea is literally, to help by taking one by the hand or to draw one to one's self to help. The present tense implies continuous activity of Jesus our Mediatorial High Priest.
The old word "succor" would be a good rendering of epilambanomai for succor means specifically to give help or assistance especially in time of hardship, distress or difficulty. A archaic but still picturesque meaning of succor is reinforcements of troops (ponder this thought as it applies to this passage in Hebrews!) See notes on the related idea of "come to the aid of" in Hebrews 2:18 (and also Hebrews 4:16) on for more on this picture of our Great High Priest coming to our rescue in our time of testing and need.
While epilambanomai in this verse does not have the idea of violent grasping which it carries elsewhere, the ideas of help and deliverance are clearly conveyed. One gets the picture of a person drowning in quicksand, ready to go under, but able to hold their hand above the surface. The Deliverer grasps the hand of the one in need and lifts it up.
Wuest has a helpful note on the meaning writing that epilambanomai - By a metaphor drawn from laying hold of another to rescue him from peril, the word came to mean “to lay hold of for the purpose of helping or succoring.” It is used in this latter sense here. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
It is not angels that He is helping but it is the seed of Abraham that He is helping. As Spurgeon says "Angels were passed by and men redeemed. Wondrous sovereignty this!"
Jesus, who pass'd the angels by,
Assumed our flesh to bleed and die;
And still He makes it His abode;
As man, He fills the throne of God.
Our next of Kin, our Brother now,
Is He to Whom the angels bow;
They join with us to praise His name,
But we the nearest interest claim.
Spurgeon writes that...
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when He came from heaven to die, did not take upon Himself the nature of angels. It would have been a stoop, more immense than if a seraph should have changed himself into an emmet, for the Almighty Son of God to have been clothed in the garb of even the archangel Gabriel, but His condescension dictated to Him, that if He did stoop, He would descend to the very lowest degree; that if He did become a creature, He would become, not the noblest creature, but one of the most ignoble of rational beings, that is to say, man; therefore, He did not stoop to the intermediate step of angelship, but He stooped right down and became a man.
If Christ had taken upon himself the nature of angels, He could never have made an atonement for man. Setting aside the thought that if He came to save man it would have seemed improper if He had come in the garb of angels, you must allow, that if He had done so, he could not have seen death. How could angels die? We can suppose that their spirit may become extinct, if God should will it; we can suppose the entire annihilation of that to which God Alone supplies immortality; but since angels have no bodies, we cannot suppose them capable of death, for death is the separation of the body and the soul; therefore, it behooved Christ that He should take upon Himself the form of a man, that He might become obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Had angels been standing by, they would have said, “Oh! mighty Master, take our radiant robes. Oh! take not the poor every-day garb of humanity, take our glittering garments all bedight with pearls.” And Gabriel would have said, “Come, take my wings, thou mighty Maker, and I shall count myself too honored to have lost them for thy sake. There, take this crown and this mantle of azure, wherewith to clothe thyself, thou Son of God, put my silver sandals on thy feet; become not man, but an angel, if thou wilt stoop.” “But, no,” he would have said, “Gabriel, if I were in thy dress I could not fight with death, I could not sleep in the tomb, I could not feel the pangs and agony of dissolution, therefore, I must, I will, become a man.” “He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.”
Had our Savior become an angel, we must note, in the next place, that he would never have been a fitting example for us. I cannot imitate an angelic example in all points, it may be very good, so far as I can imitate, but it cannot, in all points, be my pattern. If you would give me something to imitate, give me a man like myself; then I may attempt to follow him. An angel could not have set us the same holy and pious example that our Savior did. Had He descended from on high in the garb of one of those bright spirits, He might have been a fine example for those brilliant cherubs who surround his throne, but we, poor mortal men, condemned to drag the chain of mortality along this earthly existence, would have turned aside and said, “Ah! such a thing is too high for us, we cannot attain unto it;” and we, therefore, should have stopped short. If I am to carve marble, give me a marble statue which I am to copy, and if this mortal clay is to be cut out into the very model of perfection, as it is to be by God’s Spirit, then give me Man for my example, for a man I am, and as a man, I am to be made perfect. Not only could not Christ have been a Redeemer, but He could not have been our Exemplar, if He had taken upon Himself the nature of angels.
