In the Bible death is viewed under form of an angel sent from God, a being deprived of all voluntary power. The “angel of the Lord” smites 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp (2 Kings 19:35). “The destroyer” (“ha-mashḥit”) kills the first-born of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:23), and the “destroying angel” (“mal'ak ha-mashḥit”) rages among the people in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 24:15). In 1 Chronicles 21:15 the “angel of the Lord” is seen by David standing “between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.” Job (33:22) uses the general term “destroyer” (“memitim”), which tradition has identified with “destroying angels” (“mal'ake ḥabbalah”) (Bacher, “Ag. Pal. Amor.” 3:279, note 9), and Proverbs 16:14 uses the term the “angels of death” (“mal'ake ha-mawet”). See Demonology.
The Rabbis found the angel of death mentioned in Psalms 89:45 (A. V. 48), where the Targum translates: “There is no man who lives and, seeing the angel of death, can deliver his soul from his hand” (compare also Targ. to Job 18:13; Psalms 91:5; Habakkuk 3:5). Ecclesiastes 8:4 is thus explained in Midr. R. to the passage: “One may not escape the angel of death, nor say to him, ‘Wait until I put my affairs in order,’ or ‘There is my son, my slave: take him in my stead.’”
The angel of death occurs very frequently in rabbinical literature.
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Author: Jewish Encyclopedia
Keywords: Angel of death, Yetzer hara, Yetser hara, Yetzer ha ra, Yetser ha ra, Evil inclination, Death angel, Firstborn killed, first born killed, Death
Source: Isidore Singer (editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia (12 Volumes), (1906).
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