(משׁחתים) משׁחית “Destroyer(s)”
The משׁחית appears in Exod 12.23:
ופסח יהוה על הפתה ולא ותן המשחיה לבא אל בתיכם לננף
Yahweh will pass over the door and will now allow the destroyer to come
into your houses to smite (you).
The משׁחית may refer to a destroyer deity of Yahweh, who is to be sent to
smite the Egyptians. It may be related to the destroyer deity described
elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Thus, it is mentioned in Jer 51.1, 25. It also
occurs in 2 Kgs 23.13, where the reference to הר המשׁחית implies a mythological
imagery of a mountain. In 2 Sam 24.16-7, the destroyer (המשׁחית) is identified
with the messenger (המלאך) of Yahweh 9cf. 2 Kgs 19.35). Thus the משחית is
regarded as the agent of Yahweh. (Sang Youl Cho, Lesser Deities in the
Ugaritic Texts and the Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Study of their Nature and
Roles [Deities and Angels of the Ancient World 2; Piscataway, New Jersey:
Gorgias Press, 2007], 235-36)
On the implications of this for D&C 61 and the
Destroyer being an agent/angel of God, not Satan, see:
Seth N. Hord, Beings
Divine or Devilish: Which is the Destroyer Riding upon the Waters?
