Destroyer

The destroyer in Scripture refers to angelic or divine agents of judgment bringing death. In the Exodus narrative, the destroyer (ha-mashchit) struck down the firstborn of Egypt on the night of Passover, passing over the Israelite houses marked with blood (Exodus 12:23). In the wilderness, the destroying angel (malach ha-mashchit) was the agent of the plague that killed 70,000 Israelites as a result of David's census (2 Samuel 24:15–16; 1 Chronicles 21:15). Paul references the destroyer from the Exodus account when warning the Corinthians against testing God as Israel did (1 Corinthians 10:10). In Hebrews 11:28, keeping the Passover and sprinkling blood is cited as the act by which Moses preserved Israel from the destroyer — and the typological connection to Christ's blood as the ultimate protection from divine judgment is explicit in the broader context.