Angels-ANGEL OF DEATH

The notion of an angel who extracts the soul from the body at death
seems to have developed from earlier ideas about divinities of death.
Such figures are widespread in world culture. In Hinduism, for example,
Yama is the god of the dead. In the earliest Vedic texts, Yama ruled
an afterlife realm not unlike the Norse Valhalla in which the deceased
enjoyed carnal pleasures. As Hinduism was transformed in the post-
Vedic period, Yama became a rather grim demigod who snared the
souls of the departed and conducted them to the otherworld.
The angel of death concept was most fully developed in rabbinical
Judaism. As did Yama, the Jewish angel of death (malakh ha-mavet)
metamorphosed across time. At first these biblical emissaries of death
were clearly under the direct command of God, as for example in Second
Samuel:
Then the angel stretched out his arm towards Jerusalem to
destroy it; but the Lord repented of the evil and said to the
angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Stay your
hand.” (2 Sam. 24:16)Although no biblical reference identifies a particular angel or
group of angels as having the specialized task of meting out death,
many references do make allusions to “destroying angels” (Exod.
12:23, 2 Sam. 24:16, and Isa. 37:36); a fatal “reaper” (Jer. 9:20), and
“messengers of death” (Prov. 16:14).
Only in postbiblical literature does the idea of the angel of death
as such emerge. This “angel” gradually develops into a demonic figure
acting on his own initiative. According to the Talmud, the angel of
death was identified with Satan, and the notion of the angel of death
as evil was reflected in many folktales and in many folk practices associated
with death, burial, and mourning. For instance, one commonly
known bit of folklore is that it is impossible to die in the midst of
studying the Torah.
The many folktales associated with the angel of death fall into
roughly three categories. In the first group, which may be called tales
of horror and magic, the stubborn and cruel angel of death is a kind of
antihero, somewhat like Dracula in many vampire stories. In the second
category the angel of death can be defeated, especially by human
deception. In these tales he is portrayed as being rather stupid. In the
final group the angel of death is moved by compassion to spare someone’s
life or otherwise act benevolently. In many of these narratives
the confrontation with the angel of death occurs on a wedding night,
during which one of the two betrothed is fated to die.