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We now have to make a note that will appear as a manifest to the reader who
wants to master this information and will read all quoted texts: malakhìms'
presence often strikes fear and terror, it is rarely appeasing; and many of
those who see them believe they will not survive the event.
So we are very far from that poetic vision kindly describing angels as “beings
of light”, always “positive” apparitions, entities that, always and in any case,
protect those who are entrusted to them. By contrast, they often convey
messages of death, and when death is evaded, they are responsible for events
that produce destruction and great suffering. These are figures that men would
be better off not meeting.
In this regard, we will end this chapter by introducing the figure of the
exterminating, or destroying angel.
The angel in Egypt
It is called “destroyer” and “exterminator” for the first time in Exodus 12:23.
This scene is set in Egypt and the Jews are about to leave the country and move
towards the Promised Land.
This “exterminator, destroyer” (maschìt, ) has mandated to hit and
kill all Egyptian firstborns, sparing Jews' homes distinguished by the lamb
blood.
Actually, the text does not allow understanding exactly whether this
exterminator is sent by Yahweh or is Yahweh himself, but the author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews included in the New Testament already recalls the
episode and describes this figure as o olothréuon, “the destroyer” (11:28).
The siege of Sennacherìb
A second intervention of this malàkh is described in the second book of Kings
that tells about the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib: We are in 701 BC and
the Assyrian king is waging his campaign to conquest over the territories of
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