1 Chronicles 21:15-16

21:15 God sent an angel ¹  to ravage ²  Jerusalem. As he was doing so, ³  the Lord watched ⁴  and relented from ⁵  his judgment. ⁶  He told the angel who was destroying, “That’s enough! ⁷  Stop now!” ⁸ 

Now the Lord’s angel was standing near the threshing floor of Ornan ⁹  the Jebusite. 21:16 David looked up and saw the Lord’s messenger standing between the earth and sky with his sword drawn and in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. David and the leaders, covered with sackcloth, threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. ¹⁰ 

Exodus 12:23

12:23 For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees ¹¹  the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer ¹²  to enter your houses to strike you. ¹³ 

Exodus 12:2

12:2 “This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year. ¹⁴ 

Exodus 19:1

Israel at Sinai

19:1 ¹⁵ In the third month after the Israelites went out ¹⁶  from the land of Egypt, on the very day, ¹⁷  they came to the Desert of Sinai.

Matthew 13:49-50

13:49 It will be this way at the end of the age. Angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous 13:50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, ¹⁸  where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Acts 12:23

12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ¹⁹  struck ²⁰  Herod ²¹  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ²² 

Revelation 7:1-3

The Sealing of the 144,000

7:1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so no wind could blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. 7:2 Then ²³  I saw another angel ascending from the east, ²⁴  who had ²⁵  the seal ²⁶  of the living God. He ²⁷  shouted out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given permission ²⁸  to damage the earth and the sea: ²⁹  7:3 “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees until we have put a seal on the foreheads of the servants ³⁰  of our God.”

[21:15]  ¹ tn The parallel text of 2 Sam 24:15 reports that God sent a plague, while 24:16-17 attributes this to the instrumentality of an angel.

[21:15]  ² tn Or “destroy.”

[21:15]  ³ tn Heb “while he was destroying.”

[21:15]  ⁴ tn Or “saw.”

[21:15]  ⁵ tn Or “was grieved because of.”

[21:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “concerning the calamity.”

[21:15]  ⁷ tn For this nuance of the Hebrew word רַב (rav), see BDB 913 s.v. 1.f.

[21:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “Now, drop your hand.”

[21:15]  ⁹ tn In the parallel text in 2 Sam 24:16 this individual is called אֲרַוְנָא (’aravna’, “Aravna”), traditionally “Araunah.” The form of the name found here also occurs in vv. 18-28.

[21:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.”

[12:23]  ¹¹ tn The first of the two clauses begun with perfects and vav consecutives may be subordinated to form a temporal clause: “and he will see…and he will pass over,” becomes “when he sees…he will pass over.”

[12:23]  ¹² tn Here the form is the Hiphil participle with the definite article. Gesenius says this is now to be explained as “the destroyer” although some take it to mean “destruction” (GKC 406 §126.m, n. 1).

[12:23]  ¹³ tn “you” has been supplied.

[12:2]  ¹⁴ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 294-95) shows that the intent of the passage was not to make this month in the spring the New Year – that was in the autumn. Rather, when counting months this was supposed to be remembered first, for it was the great festival of freedom from Egypt. He observes how some scholars have unnecessarily tried to date one New Year earlier than the other.

[19:1]  ¹⁵ sn This chapter is essentially about mediation. The people are getting ready to meet with God, receive the Law from him, and enter into a covenant with him. All of this required mediation and preparation. Through it all, Israel will become God’s unique possession, a kingdom of priests on earth – if they comply with his Law. The chapter can be divided as follows: vv. 1-8 tell how God, Israel’s great deliverer promised to make them a kingdom of priests; this is followed by God’s declaration that Moses would be the mediator (v. 9); vv. 10-22 record instructions for Israel to prepare themselves to worship Yahweh and an account of the manifestation of Yahweh with all the phenomena; and the chapter closes with the mediation of Moses on behalf of the people (vv. 23-25). Having been redeemed from Egypt, the people will now be granted a covenant with God. See also R. E. Bee, “A Statistical Study of the Sinai Pericope,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 135 (1972): 406-21.

[19:1]  ¹⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive to form a temporal clause.

[19:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “on this day.”

[13:50]  ¹⁸ sn An allusion to Dan 3:6.

[12:23]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ²⁰ 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.

[12:23]  ²¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ²² 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).

[7:2]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[7:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “from the rising of the sun.” BDAG 74 s.v. ἀνατολή 2.a takes this as a geographical direction: “ἀπὸ ἀ. ἡλίου…from the east Rv 7:2; 16:12…simply ἀπὸ ἀ. …21:13.”

[7:2]  ²⁵ tn Grk “having,” but v. 3 makes it clear that the angel’s purpose is to seal others with the seal he carries.

[7:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “signet” (L&N 6.54).

[7:2]  ²⁷ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[7:2]  ²⁸ tn The word “permission” is implied; Grk “to whom it was given to them to damage the earth.”

[7:2]  ²⁹ tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[7:3]  ³⁰ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.