Topic
Destroyer
16 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.
These works date from 1897–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Exodus 12:23Easton · ISBE
For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
- 2 Samuel 24:16Easton · ISBE
And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah…
- 2 Kings 19:35Easton · ISBE
¶ And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
- Psalms 78:49Easton · ISBE
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
- Numbers 16:46–49ISBE
¶ And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as…
- 2 Samuel 24:15Easton
¶ So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.
- 2 Samuel 24:17ISBE
And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.
- 1 Chronicles 21:15ISBE
And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor…
- 1 Chronicles 21:16ISBE
And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
- 2 Chronicles 32:21ISBE
¶ And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came…
- Job 33:22ISBE
Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.
- Isaiah 37:36ISBE
Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
Show 4 more
- Wisdom of Solomon 18:22–25 ISBE
- Acts 12:23 Easton
- 1 Corinthians 10:10 ISBE
- Hebrews 11:28 ISBE
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 6 references
(Ex. 12:23), the agent employed in the killing of the first-born; the destroying angel or messenger of God. (Comp. 2 Kings 19:35; 2 Sam. 24:15, 16; Ps. 78:49; Acts 12:23.)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 14 references
de-stroi'-er: In several passages the word designates a supernatural agent of destruction, or destroying angel, executing Divine judgment.
(1) In Ex 12:23, of the "destroyer" who smote the first-born in Egypt, again referred to under the same title in Heb 11:28 the Revised Version (British and American) (the King James Version "he that destroyed").
(2) In Job 33:22, "the destroyers" (literally, "they that cause to die") = the angels of death that are ready to take away a man's life during severe illness. No exact parallel to this is found in the Old Testament. The nearest approach is "the angel that destroyed the people" by pestilence (2Sa 24:16,17 parallel 1Ch 21:15,16); the angel that smote the Assyrians (2Ki 19:35 = Isa 37:36 parallel 2Ch 32:21); "angels of evil" (Ps 78:49).
(3) In the Apocrypha, "the destroyer" is once referred to as "the minister of punishment" (Revised Version; literally, "him who was punishing"), who brought death into the world (The Wisdom of Solomon 18:22-25).
(4) In 1Co 10:10, "the destroyer" is the angelic agent to whose instrumentality Paul attributes the plague of Nu 16:46-49.
In later Jewish theology (the Targums and Midrash), the "destroyer" or "angel of death" appears under the name Sammael (i.e. the poison of God), who was once an arch-angel before the throne of God, and who caused the serpent to tempt Eve. According to Weber, he is not to be distinguished from Satan. The chief distinction between the "destroyer" of early thought and the Sammael of later Judaism is that the former was regarded as the emissary of Yahweh, and subservient to His will, and sometimes was not clearly distinguished from Yahweh Himself, whereas the latter was regarded as a perfectly distinct individuality, acting in independence or semi-independence, and from purely malicious and evil motives. The change was largely due to the influence of Persian dualism, which made good and evil to be independent powers.
D. Miall Edwards
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.