Bible Dictionary
Destroyer
The Destroyer is a supernatural agent associated with carrying out divine judgment. Scripture uses the term for the agent who struck Egypt’s firstborn and for an angel connected with other judgments and plagues.
Definition
The Destroyer is a supernatural agent who executes divine judgment and brings destruction or death. Scripture uses the term for the agent connected with the death of Egypt’s firstborn and with other judgments and plagues.
Biblical Usage
The Destroyer smote the firstborn in Egypt and is associated with the destroying angel in other judgments. Paul attributes the plague in the wilderness to a destroyer. The term may also describe agents ready to take away life during severe illness.
Historical Background
In the passages supplied, the Destroyer is presented as an emissary subject to God’s will. Later Jewish theology identified the destroyer or angel of death with Sammael, but that later conception distinguished him more sharply from the divine messenger of earlier usage.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(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 (ISBE)
<p>de-stroi'-er: In several passages the word designates a supernatural agent of destruction, or destroying angel, executing Divine judgment.</p><p>(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").</p><p>(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).</p><p>(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).</p><p>(4) In 1Co 10:10, "the destroyer" is the angelic agent to whose instrumentality Paul attributes the plague of Nu 16:46-49.</p><p>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.</p><p>D. Miall Edwards</p>