Destroying angel (Bible)
The Hebrew Bible, and then Christian and later Jewish sources, make frequent mention of one or more destroying angels, which in Proverbs 16:14 are termed the "angels of death" (malake ha-mawet) and also archangels of death - "The wrath of a king [is as] messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it."
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible includes the Destroyer named Mashḥit (pron. mash-heet(h) or -kheet(h)) (Mashchit(h), מַשְׁחִית and Ha-Mashchit(h)/Ha-Mashḥit, הַמַשְׁחִית) who, on the Passover in Exodus, killed all the firstborn of Egypt. Afterwards, a "destroying angel" (מַלְאָך הַמַשְׁחִית, malak ha-mashḥit or מַשְׁחִיתִים, mashchitim/mashchithim/mashḥitim - "spoilers", "ravagers") kills many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 24:15. While in the parallel passage in I Chronicles 21:15, the same "angel of the Lord" is seen by David to stand "between the earth and the heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out against Jerusalem." Later, the angel of the Lord kills 185,000 men of Sennacherib's Assyrian army, thereby saving Hezekiah's Jerusalem in II Kings 19:35. A different term for "destroyer" (מְמִיתִים, memitim - "executioners", "slayers") is found in Job 33:22.[1]
Mashchith was also used as an alternate name for one of the seven compartments of Gehenna.[2]
References
- ↑ Jewish Encyclopedia Angel of Death
- ↑ (edit.) Boustan, Ra'anan S. Reed, Annette Yoshiko. Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
