man beings other than the
_Mal'akh Yahweh_ or _Elohim_. There are the cherubim who guard Eden.
In Gen. xviii., xix. (J) the appearance of Yahweh to Abraham and
Lot is connected with three, afterwards two, men or messengers; but
possibly in the original form of the story Yahweh appeared alone.[11]
At Bethel, Jacob sees the angels of God on the ladder,[12] and later
on they appear to him at Mahanaim.[13] In all these cases the
angels, like the _Mal'akh Yahweh_, are connected with or represent a
theophany. Similarly the "man" who wrestles with Jacob at Peniel is
identified with God.[14] In Isaiah vi. the seraphim, superhuman
beings with six wings, appear as the attendants of Yahweh. Thus the
pre-exilic literature, as we now have it, has little to say about
angels or about superhuman beings other than Yahweh and manifestations
of Yahweh; the pre-exilic prophets hardly mention angels.[15]
Nevertheless we may well suppose that the popular religion of ancient
Israel had much to say of superhuman beings other than Yahweh, but
that the inspired writers have mostly suppressed references to them as
unedifying. Moreover such beings were not strictly angels.

The doctrine of monotheism was formally expressed in the period
immediately before and during the Exile, in Deuteronomy[16] and
Isaiah;[17] and at the same time we find angels prominent in Ezekiel
who, as a prophet of the Exile, may have been influenced by the
hierarchy of supernatural beings in the Babylonian religion, and
perhaps even by the angelology of Zoroastrianism.[18] Ezekiel gives
elaborate descriptions of cherubim;[19] and in one of his visions he
sees seven angels execute the judgment of God upon Jerusalem.[20] As
in Genesis they are styled "men," _mal'akh_ for "angel" does not occur
in Ezekiel. Somewhat later, in the visions of Zechariah, angels play
a great part; they are sometimes spoken of as "men," sometimes as
_mal'akh_, and the _Mal'akh Yahweh_ seems to hold a certain primacy
among them.[21] Satan also appears to prosecute (so to speak) the
High Priest before the divine tribunal.[22] Similarly in Job the _bne
Elohim_, sons of God, appear as attendants of God, and amongst them
Satan, still in his role of public prosecutor, the defendant being
Job.[23] Occasional references to "angels" occur in the Psalter;[24]
they appear as ministers of God.

In Ps. lxxviii. 49 the "evil angels" of A.V. conveys a false
impression; it should be "angels of evil," as R.V., _i.