Texts in Conversation
2 Samuel 24 describes an angel stopping a plague but does not call it the “angel of God.” The Greek Septuagint does call it the “angel of God,” suggesting it is based on an older version that was later changed in the Masoretic tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Samuel 24:16
Hebrew Bible
15 So the Lord sent a plague through Israel from the morning until the completion of the appointed time, and 70,000 people died from Dan to Beer Sheba. 16 When the angel extended his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented from his judgment. He told the angel who was killing the people, “That’s enough! Stop now!” (Now the angel of the Lord was near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.) 17 When he saw the angel who was destroying the people, David said to the Lord, “Look, it is I who have sinned and done this evil thing! As for these sheep—what have they done? Attack me and my family.”
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX 2 Samuel 24:16
Septuagint
15 And they were the days of wheat harvest; and the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from morning till noon, and the plague began among the people; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 16 And the angel of God stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy it, and the Lord repented of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough now, withhold your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 And David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel striking the people, and he said, Look, it is I that have done wrong, and I the shepherd have done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, Please, be upon me, and upon my father's house.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In other cases, the Masoretic text and Targum tempered difficulties in the text, which textually survived only in the Septuagint. In 1 Samuel 15:2, the Septuagint offers ἐκδικήσω (“I will avenge”) whereas the Masoretic text offers “I have taken account”, and Targum Jonathan offers “I remember”. In this case, the Septuagint offers an old reading which is tempered in the Hebrew traditions. In 2 Samuel 24:16, LXX Ra offers the original reading ὁ ἄγγελος τοῦ θεοῦ whereas the Masoretic Text, LXX A.L. and the Targum omit the mention of “God” in order to reduce the notion of God’s cruelty. In Rabbinical tradition, this reading also is known, but there we find an explicit debate on God’s cruelty ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 76.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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