Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Sang Youl Cho on the Destroyer(s) being an Angel of Yahweh

  

(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?