Exodus 14:19

14:19 The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar 1  of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.

Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger 2  went out and killed 185,000 troops 3  in the Assyrian camp. When they 4  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! 5 

Acts 12:23

12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord 6  struck 7  Herod 8  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. 9 

Hebrews 11:28

11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, 10  so that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

1 sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 400-401) makes a good case that there may have been only one pillar, one cloud; it would have been a dark cloud behind it, but in front of it, shining the way, a pillar of fire. He compares the manifestation on Sinai, when the mountain was on fire but veiled by a dark cloud (Deut 4:11; 5:22). See also Exod 13:21; Num 14:14; Deut 1:33; Neh 9:12, 19; Josh 24:7; Pss 78:14; 105:39.

2 tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

3 tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

4 tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

5 tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

6 tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

7 sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

8 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

9 sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).

10 tn Grk “the pouring out of the blood.”