Introduction: Response to the Plague in Early Modern Italy: What the Primary Sources, Printed and Painted, Reveal
 Franco Mormando 
https://www.francomormando.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Mormando-Response-to-Plague.pdf

“Will you believe such things, oh posterity, when we ourselves who see them can scarcely believe them and would consider them dreams except that we perceive them awake and with our eyes open and that after viewing a city full of funerals we return to our homes only to find them empty of our loved ones?” Francesco Petrarca, Rerum familiarum libri, VIII:7, Letter to His “Socrates” on the Black Death 

Plague and Art: The Subject of this Exhibition

The Role of Art in Times of Disaster
Unlike the chroniclers (medical or otherwise) of the period, early modern painters did not
primarily seek to document the gruesome effects of the contagion, its horror and destruction.

This was deemed alien to the nature and purposes of what we now call “fine art.” Rather, during these times of social crisis, the role of plague-related art – whether commissioned by confraternities, communes, or private citizens – was, above all, to be an instrument of healing and encouragement, a mirror and a channel of society’s search for solace and cure from the heavens, that is, from God and the saints. While inevitably reflecting society’s anxieties and sufferings in the face of the unconquerable scourge, art served to remind the viewer of the necessity, availability, and efficacy of the various “celestial cures” at their disposal, thus offering comfort and hope in times of despair. Furthermore, specifically ex-voto works of plague art (e.g., cats. 7, 29, 36) rendered another form of comfort and hope inasmuch as they represented for the faithful effective oblational offerings to God or the saints. Let us note that even those works commissioned by civic authorities are explicitly religious in nature, the products of a society utterly defined by Roman Catholicism.

Drawing from a wide reading of the abundant primary sources, this essay will look at
early modern Italian beliefs surrounding the nature and cause of the plague and examine the varied, pro-active measures recommended by civil, medical, and ecclesiastical authorities in the face of the plague or threat thereof. In contemporary parlance, these measures were called “rimedi” (remedies) and we find them repeatedly described in the most widely disseminated, influential primary sources in print. Plague rimedi fall into two categories: “temporal” or “human” remedies (rimedi temporali, umani), that is, medical-social-political measures taken to contain the epidemic, and “spiritual remedies” (rimedi spirituali), those enunciated and mandated by the Church. 

Among the latter were special prayer, to Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other heavenly intercessors and protectors against plague; confession and public penitential processions; fasting; almsgiving and other acts of charity (the traditional “corporal works of mercy”); and prayerful meditation upon the inevitability and omnipresence of death and the vanity of this world as well as reward and punishments in the next life. All of these rimedi spirituali, in turn, we find depicted or alluded to in many of the plague-related images produced Hope and Healing in the period for, again, such was the role of art in time of plague, to remind viewers of these efficacious ecclesiastical rimedi at their disposal.

Scholarship on the plague has been largely epidemiological or sociological in nature,
focused primarily on temporal remedies, that is, public health measures (quarantine, sanitation, hospitals, law enforcement, etc.) and political-economic consequences of the pandemics.

This in spite of the fact that there was virtual unanimous agreement among early modern
Italians that the only really effective remedies were spiritual. These spiritual remedies have
received far less attention in modern scholarship than they receive in the primary sources,
printed and painted. This essay – and indeed this catalogue and the exhibition – strives to
correct the balance by focusing on the rimedi spirituali considered central in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

The Apocalypse of Abraham "The Apocalypse of Abraham belongs to a body of Abraham literature flourishing about the time of Christ. "The Book is essentially Jewish," wrote George H. Box, with "features . . . which suggest Essene origin." From the Essenes it passed, he suggested, "to Ebionite circles . . . and thence, in some form, found its way into Gnostic circles," though "Gnostic elements in our Book are not very pronounced." --Dr. Hugh Nibley (Abraham in Egypt)

TRANSLATION #1 Translator unknown

TRANSLATION #2 Translator unknown

http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/pseudepigrapha/Apocalypse_of_Abraham.html

Chapter 29
1. And I said, "Eternal, Mighty One! How long a time is an hour of the age?"	54. And I said, "0 Eternal One! How long are the hours of the age?" And He said, "Twelve hours have I ordained for this present age of ungodliness to rule among the nations and within your seed, and until the end of the times it shall be even as you saw. And now reckon and understand and look again into the picture.
2. And he said, "I decreed to keep twelve periods of the impious age among the heathens and among your seed, and what you have seen will be until the end of
3.(4.) time. Count (it) up, and you will understand. Look down at the picture."
And I looked and saw a man going out from the left, the heathen side. From the side of the heathen went outmen and women and children, a great crowd, and they	55. And I looked and saw a Man going out from the left side of the nations and there went out men and women and children, from the side of nations, many hosts, and worshipped Him. And while I still looked, there came many from the right side, and some of these insulted Him, and some of them even struck Him, but others however worshipped Him. And as I watched, I saw Azazel approach Him and he kissed Him on the face and then stood behind Him.
5. worshipped him. And while I was still looking, those on the right side came out,
6. and some insulted this man, and some struck him and others worshiped him. And I saw that as they worshiped him Azazel ran and worshiped and, kissing his face,
7. he turned and stood behind him.
And I said, "Eternal, Mighty One! Who is this	56. And I said, "0 Eternal One! Who is the Man insulted and beaten, who is worshipped by the nations and kissed by Azazel?" And He answered and said, "Hear Abraham! The Man you saw insulted and beaten and yet worshipped by many, He is the 'Relief' granted by the nations to the people who proceed from you, in the last days, in the twelfth hour of the age of ungodliness. But in the twelfth hour of my final age will I set up this Man from your generation, whom you saw issue from among my people, and all who follow will become like this Man, and such as are called by me will join the others, even those who will to change within themselves. And as for those who emerge from the left side of the picture, the meaning is this - there shall be many from the nations who shall set their hopes upon Him, but as for those whom you saw from your seed on the right of the picture who insulted Him and struck Him, many shall be offended in Him, but some shall worship Him. And He shall test those of your seed who have worshipped Him in the twelfth hour at the end, with a view to shortening the age of ungodliness.
8. man insulted and beaten by the heathen, with Azazel worshiped?" And he answered and said, "Hear, Abraham, the man whom you say insulted and beaten and again worshiped is the liberation from the heathen for the people who will
9. be (born) from you. In the last days, in this twelfth period of the age of my fulfillment, I will set up this man from your tribe, the one
10. whom you have seen from my people. All will imitate him,,,(you) consider
11. him as one called by me...(they) are changed in their counsels. And those you saw coming out from the left side of the picture and worshipping him, this
12. (means that) many of the heathen will trust in him. And those of your seed you saw on the right side, some insulting him, some beating him, and others worshiping
13. him, many of them shall be offended because of him. It is he who will test those of your seed who have worshiped him in the fulfillment of the twelfth hour, in the
14. curtailing of the age of impiety.
Before the age of justice starts to grow, my judgment will come upon the heathen who have acted wickedly through the people	57. Before the age of the righteous begins to grow, my judgment shall come upon the lawless peoples through the-people of your seed who have been separated unto me. And in those -days I will bring upon all creatures of the earth ten plagues, through misfortune and disease and the sighing of their grief. And this shall be brought upon the generations of men on account of the provocation and the corruption of mankind, whereby they provoke me. And then shall righteous men of your seed survive in the number which is kept secret by me, and will hasten the coming of the glory of My Name to that place prepared beforehand for them, which you saw devastated in the picture. And they shall live and be established by sacrifices of righteousness in the age of the righteous, and they shall rejoice in me continually, and receive those who return to me in repentance, for great shall be the inner torment of those who have despitefully used them in this world, as they observe the honour placed upon my own in the day of glory.
15. of your seed who have been set apart for me. In those days I will bring upon all earthly creation ten plagues through evil and disease and the groaning of the
16. bitterness of their souls. Such will I bring upon the generations of those who are on it, out of anger and corruption of their creations with which they provoke me.
17. And then from your seed will be left the righteous men in their number, protected by me, who strive in the glory of my name toward the place prepared beforehand
18. for them which you saw deserted in the picture. And they will live, being affirmed
19. by the sacrifices and the gifts of justice and truth in the age of justice. And they will rejoice forever in me, and they will destroy those who have destroyed them, they will rebuke those who have rebuked them through their mockery, and they
20. will spit in their faces. Those rebuked by me when they are to see me rejoicing
21. with my people for those who rejoice and receive and truly return to me."
See, Abraham, what you have seen, hear what you have heard, know what you have known,. Go to your inheritance! And behold I an with you forever."	58. See, Abraham, what you have seen and hear what you have heard, and take knowledge of all that you have come to know. Go to your heritage, and behold, I am with you unto the age."
Chapter 30
1. And while he was still speaking, I found myself on the earth, and I said, "Eternal, Mighty One, I am no longer in the glory in which I was above, and all	59. But while He was still speaking to me, I found myself once again upon the earth, and I said, "0 Eternal One! I am no longer in the glory which is on high, and there is one matter which my soul longed to know and understand which has not been revealed to me.
2. that my soul desired to understand in my heart I do not understand."
And he said to me, "I will explain to you the things you desired in your heart, for you have sought to know the ten plagues which I prepared against the heathen, and I	60. And He said to me, "What your heart desired I will tell you, because you have sought to see the ten plagues which I have prepared for the godless nations, and which have been pre-determined at the passing over of the twelfth hour of the age of the earth. Hear therefore what I divulge, and so shall it come to pass. The first is the distressing pain of sickness; the second, conflagration of many cities; the third, the destruction and pestilence of animals; the fourth, hunger of the whole world and its people; the fifth, by destruction among its rulers, by earthquake and the sword; the sixth, the multiplication of hail and snow; the seventh, wild bests will be their grave; the eighth, hunger and pestilence will alternate with destruction; the ninth, punishment by the sword and flight in distress; the tenth, thunder and voices and destructive earthquake.
3. prepared them beforehand in the passing of the twelve hours on earth. Hear what
4. I tell you, it will be thus. The first: sorrow from much need. The second: fiery
5. conflagrations for the cities. The third: destruction by pestilence among the cattle.
6. The fourth: famine of the world, of their generation. The fifth: among the rulers, destruction by earthquake and the sword. The sixth: increase of hail and snow.
7. The seventh: wild beasts will be their grave. The eighth: pestilence and hunger
8. will change their destruction. The ninth: execution by the sword and flight in distress. The tenth: thunder, voices, and destroying earthquakes.
Chapter 31
1. "And then I will sound the trumpet out of the air, and I will send my chosen one, having in him one measure of all my power, and he will summon my people,	61. And then I will sound the trumpet out of the air, and will send my Elect One, having in Him all my power in one measure, and He shall summon my despised people from all nations, and I will send fire upon those who have insulted them and who have ruled over them in this age. And I will give those who have covered me with mockery to the scorn of the coming age, and I have prepared them to be food for the fires of Hades, and perpetual flight through the air in the underworld, for they shall see the righteousness of the Creator, and those whom He now honours, and they shall he ashamed, for I had hoped that they would come to me in repentance, rather than loving strange gods, but they forsook the Mighty Lord, and went the way that they willed to go.
2. humiliated by the heathen. And I will burn with fire those who mocked them and ruled over them in this age and I will deliver those who have covered me with
3. mockery over to the scorn of the coming age. Because I have prepared them (to be) food for the fire of Hades, and (to be) ceaseless soaring in the air of the underworld (regions) of the uttermost depths, (to be) the contents of a wormy
4. belly. For the makers will see in them justice, (the makers) who have chosen my desire and manifestly kept my commandments, and they will rejoice with merrymaking over the downfall of the men who remain and who followed after the
5. idols and after their murders. For they shall putrefy in the belly of the crafty
6. worm Azazel, and be burned by the fire of Azazel’s tongue. For I waited so they
7. might come to me, and they did not deign to. And they glorified an alien (god).
8. And they joined one to whom they had not been allotted, and they abandoned the Lord who gave them strength.

The Apocalypse of Abraham.  Translation by Alexander Kulik.  

The translation is based on new readings developed in Alexander Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2004 and Leiden: Brill, 2005). Reviews: Andrei Orlov, Review of Biblical Literature 5 (2005); Jaime Vazquez Allegue, Review of Biblical Literature 5 (2005); Basil Lourié, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 15.3 (2006); Darrell Hannah, Journal for the Study of the New Testament 28.5 (2006).

      Words added in order to clarify a literal translation are put in square brackets. Although the translation is not accompanied by an apparatus, the elements of the text which do not occur in the version of the Codex Sylvester are enclosed in triangular brackets; this is justified by the significant divergence of this oldest manuscript from other versions. Semitic proper names are presented in their reconstructed original forms: this holds for common biblical names, such as Abraham, Terah, or Michael, as well as for the names which are unique to this document, such as Mar-Umath(a) (CS Marumafa and Marumat, Gk Marumatha or Marumat), Bar-Eshath(a) (CS and Middle Gk Varisat), or rare Azazel (CS and Middle Gk Azazil) and Ya(h)oel (CS and Middle Gk Iaoil). We follow the chapter division established by Bonwetsch and the verse division of the Rubinkiewicz (OTP), with exceptions conditioned by new syntactic divisions.

ii.i.iii. Journey to Horeb (12)

12:1 And we went, the two of us alone together, forty days and nights. 
12:2 And I ate no bread and drank no water, because [my] food was to see the angel who was with me, and his speech with me was my drink. 
12:3 And we came to the glorious God’s mountains—Horeb. 
12:4 And I said to the angel, “Singer of the Eternal One, behold, I have no sacrifice with me, nor do I know a place for an altar on the mountain, so how shall I make the sacrifice?”
 12:5 And he said, “Look behind you.” 
12:6 And I looked behind me. And behold, all the prescribed sacrifices were following us: the calf, the she-goat, the ram, the turtledove, and the pigeon. 
12:7 And the angel said to me, “Abraham!” And I said, “Here am I!” 
12:8 And he said to me, “Slaughter and cut all this, putting together the two halves, one against the other. But do not cut the birds. 
12:9 And give them [halves] to the two men whom I shall show you standing beside you, since they are the altar on the mountain, to offer sacrifice to the Eternal One. 
12:10 The turtledove and the pigeon you will give me, and I shall ascend in order to show to you [the inhabited world] on the wings of two birds, in heaven and on the earth: the sea, and the abysses, and the depths, and the garden of Eden, and its rivers and the fullness of the inhabited world and round about it you will see everything.”

ii.i.iv. Azazel (13–14)

13:1 And I did everything according to the angel’s command. And I gave to the angels who had come to us the divided parts of the animals. And the angel took the two birds. 
13:2 And I waited for [the time of] the evening offering. 
13:3 And an impure bird flew down on the carcasses, and I drove it away. 
13:4 And the impure bird spoke to me and said, “What are you doing, Abraham, on the holy heights, where no one eats or drinks, nor is there upon them food of men. But these will all be consumed by fire and they will burn you up.
 13:5 Leave the man who is with you and flee! Since if you ascend to the height, they will destroy you.” 
13:6 And it came to pass when I saw the bird speaking I said to the angel, “What is this, my lord?” And he said, “This is iniquity, this is Azazel!” 
13:7 And he said to him,  “Reproach is on you, Azazel! Since Abraham’s portion is in heaven, and yours is on earth, 
13:8 Since you have chosen it and desired it to be the dwelling place of your impurity. Therefore the Eternal Lord, the Mighty One, has made you a dweller on earth. 
13:9 And because of you [there is] the wholly-evil spirit of the lie, and because of you [there are] wrath and trials on the generations of impious men. 
13:10 Since the Eternal Mighty God did not send the righteous, in their bodies, to be in your hand, in order to affirm through them the righteous life and the destruction of impiety. 13:11 Hear, adviser! Be shamed by me, since you have been appointed to tempt not to all the righteous! 
13:12 Depart from this man! 
13:13 You cannot deceive him, because he is the enemy of you and of those who follow you and who love what you desire. 
13:14 For behold, the garment which in heaven was formerly yours has been set aside for him, and the corruption which was on him has gone over to you.” 

14:1 And the angel said to me, “Abraham!” And I said, “Here am I, your servant.” 
14:2 And he said, “Know by this that the Eternal One whom you have loved has chosen you. 14:3 Be bold and have power, as I order you, over him who reviles justice, 
14:4 or else I shall not be able to revile him who scattered about the earth the secrets of heaven and who conspired against the Mighty One. 
14:5 Say to him,  ‘May you be the fire brand of the furnace of the earth! Go, Azazel, into the untrodden parts of the earth. 
14:6 Since your inheritance are those who are with you, with men born with the stars and clouds. And their portion is you, and they come into being through your being.
 14:7 And justice is your enmity. Therefore through your own destruction vanish from before me!’” 
14:8 And I said the words as the angel had taught me. 
14:9 And he said, “Abraham!” And I said, “Here am I, your servant!” 
14:10 And the angel said to me, “Answer him not!” 
14:11 And he spoke to me a second time. 
14:12 And the angel said, “Now, whatever he says to you, answer him not, lest his will affect you. 
14:13 Since God gave him the gravity and the will against those who answer him. Answer him not.”
 14:14 And I did what the angel had commanded me. And whatever he said to me about the descent, I answered him not.

DEMONOLOGY AND DEVIL-LORE, CONWAY 1879

Copyright, 1879,
by
MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY.[v]

[Contents]

Preface.

Three Friars, says a legend, hid themselves near the Witch Sabbath orgies that they might count the devils; but the Chief of these, discovering the friars, said—‘Reverend Brothers, our army is such that if all the Alps, their rocks and glaciers, were equally divided among us, none would have a pound’s weight.’ This was in one Alpine valley. Any one who has caught but a glimpse of the world’s Walpurgis Night, as revealed in Mythology and Folklore, must agree that this courteous devil did not overstate the case. Any attempt to catalogue the evil spectres which have haunted mankind were like trying to count the shadows cast upon the earth by the rising sun. This conviction has grown upon the author of this work at every step in his studies of the subject.

In 1859 I contributed, as one of the American ‘Tracts for the Times,’ a pamphlet entitled ‘The Natural History of the Devil.’ Probably the chief value of that essay was to myself, and this in that its preparation had revealed to me how pregnant with interest and importance was the subject selected. Subsequent researches in the same direction, after I had come to reside in Europe, revealed how slight had been my conception of the vastness of the domain upon which that early venture was made. In 1872, while preparing a series of lectures for the Royal [vi]Institution on Demonology, it appeared to me that the best I could do was to print those lectures with some notes and additions; but after they were delivered there still remained with me unused the greater part of materials collected in many countries, and the phantasmal creatures which I had evoked would not permit me to rest from my labours until I had dealt with them more thoroughly.
The fable of Thor’s attempt to drink up a small spring, and his failure because it was fed by the ocean, seems aimed at such efforts as mine. But there is another aspect of the case which has yielded me more encouragement. These phantom hosts, however unmanageable as to number, when closely examined, present comparatively few types; they coalesce by hundreds; from being at first overwhelmed by their multiplicity, the classifier finds himself at length beating bushes to start a new variety. Around some single form—the physiognomy, it may be, of Hunger or Disease, of Lust or Cruelty—ignorant imagination has broken up nature into innumerable bits which, like mirrors of various surface, reflect the same in endless sizes and distortions; but they vanish if that central fact be withdrawn.
In trying to conquer, as it were, these imaginary monsters, they have sometimes swarmed and gibbered around me in a mad comedy which travestied their tragic sway over those who believed in their reality. Gargoyles extended their grin over the finest architecture, cornices coiled to serpents, the very words of speakers started out of their conventional sense into images that tripped my attention. Only as what I believed right solutions were given to their problems were my sphinxes laid; but through this psychological experience it [vii]appeared that when one was so laid his or her legion disappeared also. Long ago such phantasms ceased to haunt my nerves, because I discovered their unreality; I am now venturing to believe that their mythologic forms cease to haunt my studies, because I have found out their reality.
Why slay the slain? Such may be the question that will arise in the minds of many who see this book. A Scotch song says, ‘The Devil is dead, and buried at Kirkcaldy;’ if so, he did not die until he had created a world in his image. The natural world is overlaid by an unnatural religion, breeding bitterness around simplest thoughts, obstructions to science, estrangements not more reasonable than if they resulted from varying notions of lunar figures,—all derived from the Devil-bequeathed dogma that certain beliefs and disbeliefs are of infernal instigation. Dogmas moulded in a fossil demonology make the foundation of institutions which divert wealth, learning, enterprise, to fictitious ends. It has not, therefore, been mere intellectual curiosity which has kept me working at this subject these many years, but an increasing conviction that the sequelæ of such superstitions are exercising a still formidable influence. When Father Delaporte lately published his book on the Devil, his Bishop wrote—‘Reverend Father, if every one busied himself with the Devil as you do, the kingdom of God would gain by it.’ Identifying the kingdom here spoken of as that of Truth, it has been with a certain concurrence in the Bishop’s sentiment that I have busied myself with the work now given to the public.


https://www.gutenberg.org/files/40686/40686-h/40686-h.htm

‘A phantom plague’: Evangelicals who defied social distancing guidelines are dying of coronavirus in frightening numbers

PASSOVER IS ABOUT PLAGUE, PESTILENCE AND THE RETURN OF THE  ANGEL OF DEATH; AZAZEL

April 29, 2020 By Alex Henderson, AlterNet]

Countless non-fundamentalist churches in the United States, from Catholic to Lutheran and Episcopalian, have embraced social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic and temporarily moved their activities online. But many Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals have been irresponsibly downplaying the dangers of COVID-19 and doing so with deadly results: journalist Alex Woodward, in the U.K.-based Independent, reports that the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 30 pastors in the Bible Belt.

“Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines,” Woodward reports. “As many as 30 church leaders from the nation’s largest African-American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.”

Within Christianity, there are major differences between non-fundamentalist Mainline Protestant denominations such as the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and fundamentalist Pentecostals. And Woodward, in The Independent, discusses the Pentecostals who have openly defied social distancing.
“The virus has had a wildly disproportionate impact among black congregations, many of which have relied on group worship,” Woodward explains. “Yet despite the climbing death toll, many US church leaders throughout the Bible Belt have not only continued to hold services, but have urged worshippers to continue paying tithes — including recent stimulus checks — to support their mission.”

One of the fundamentalists who defied social distancing, according to Woodward, was Bishop Gerald Glenn, founder of the New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Chesterfield, Virginia. While other pastors were moving their sermons online, Glenn preached at a March 15 service that was attended by almost 200 people — and on April 14, CNN reported that Glenn had died of coronavirus.

Woodward points out that according to a recent poll by Religion News Service, 90% of congregations have suspended their in-person gatherings. But Woodward also notes that the survey “found that evangelicals were more likely to report worshipping in person.”

One of the far-right evangelical extremists who has encouraged worshippers to defy social distancing is Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, a Pentecostal fundamentalist in Florida. Howard-Browne has irresponsibly described coronavirus as a “phantom plague” and was arrested for his blatant defiance of social distancing rules.

The Passover

https://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/inside/goldhaggadahstories/passover/thepassover.html

Enlarge

The heartless Pharaoh still refused to free the Israelite slaves. So God, brought about one last plague, which was so terrible that it was certain to persuade Pharaoh to let his slaves go.

That night, God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. God told Moses to order the Israelite families to sacrifice a lamb and smear the blood on the door of their houses. In this way the angel would know to 'pass over' the houses of the Israelites. This is why the festival commemorating the escape from Egypt is known as Passover.

This image shows several scenes from Passover. On the right in a domed room, the angel of death is swinging his sword at a man in bed. On the left the Pharaoh and Queen are mourning the death of their first born son. Below is a funeral scene with six men carrying a firstborn's coffin.

Death angel” or “destroyer” or “destruction” in Exodus 12:23?“

In Exo. 12:12-13, it is written,

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahveh. 13 And the blood shall be your sign upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, then I will [וּפָסַחְתִּי] over you, and the destroyer’s plague shall not be among you when I smite the land of Egypt.

יב וְעָבַרְתִּי בְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה וְהִכֵּיתִי כָל בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מֵאָדָם וְעַד בְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל אֱלֹהֵי מִצְרַיִם אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים אֲנִי יַהְוֶה יג וְהָיָה הַדָּם לָכֶם לְאֹת עַל הַבָּתִּים אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם שָׁם וְרָאִיתִי אֶת הַדָּם וּפָסַחְתִּי עֲלֵכֶם וְלֹא יִהְיֶה בָכֶם נֶגֶף לְמַשְׁחִית בְּהַכֹּתִי בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם

The narrative is a bit complex; however, the general idea is as follows. The Israelites sacrifice the Pesach offering.1 The blood of this Pesach offering is caught in a basin, and a bunch of hyssop is used to apply the blood to the lintel and two side-posts of the Israelite homes.2 Yahveh via Moses tells the Israelites that the blood applied to their door-posts in the specified manner will be “your sign” [לָכֶם לְאֹת].3 Yahveh sees this sign and does not allow the destroyer [מַשְׁחִית] to come unto their houses to plague the Israelites.4 The destroyer [הַמַשְׁחִית] is an entity that is to plague [לִנְגֹּף]5 with a plague [נֶגֶף]6 every firstborn in Egypt where Yahveh does not see the sign of the blood upon the door-posts. In fact, the plague is referred to as “the destroyer’s plague” [נֶגֶף לְמַשְׁחִית].7

Since it is written that Yahveh Himself will “pass through” (note: this is the verb עָבַר) the land of Egypt and smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but this is actually accomplished via “the destroyer” which plagues the firstborn of Egypt with a plague, we can reasonably conclude that the destroyer is Yahveh’s agent of destruction. Yonatan ben Uzziel suspects as much, as he interpreted the Hebrew into Aramaic as מלאכא מחבלא (“the destroying angel”) in his targum.8

Therefore, we have Yahveh, and Yahveh’s destroyer. These are two separate entities. The latter is Yahveh’s agent which executes judgment upon Egypt and plagues the firstborn with the plague of death. A similar entity encountered in 1 Chr. 21:15 is referred to as “the destroying9 angel” [לַמַּלְאָךְ הַמַּשְׁחִית] and executes judgment and destruction at God’s behest.

Meredith G. Kline wrote,10



With that being said, it’s a bit easier to understand what is occurring during the final plague. As the destroyer is passing through Egypt, it is plaguing the firstborns with the plague of death, thus killing them. However, the destroyer is impeded from entering the houses of the Israelites only because Yahveh Himself sees the sign of the blood on their door-posts. When Yahveh sees this sign, He does not “pass over” the Israelites’ houses. If Yahveh were to simply pass over their houses, it would not impede the destroyer who could enter the houses after Yahveh passed over. (Therefore, the verb פָּסַח does not really mean “pass over” when translated into English.) Yahveh, upon seeing the sign of the blood upon the door-posts, then covers (or protects) these houses. When Yahveh covers the houses of the Israelites, the destroyer is not allowed to come unto the houses to plague the Israelites. Yahveh Himself is providing divine protection over these houses until all the firstborns of Egypt without divine protection have been plagued and killed by the destroyer.
References

Keil, Carl Friedrich. Commentary on the Old Testament. 1900. Reprint. Trans. Martin, James. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986.

Kline, Meredith G. "The Feast of Cover-Over." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 37/4 (1994): 497-510.
Footnotes

1 Exo. 12:28 cp. Exo. 12:6, 12:21

2 Exo. 12:28 cp. Exo. 12:7, 12:22

3 Exo. 12:23 cp. Exo. 12:13

4 Exo. 12:23 cp. Exo. 12:13

5 Exo. 12:23

6 Exo. 12:13

7 Exo. 12:13. Granted, Carl Friedrich Keil (p. 19) commented, "...there is no article with למשׁחית." He understands נֶגֶף לְמַשְׁחִית as meaning "plague to destroy." However, the article would be indicated by a dagesh (small dot) within the מ, like so מּ, and such [Masoretic] vowel pointing would not have been part of the original manuscript.

8 Targum of Yonatan ben Uzziel, Exo. 12:23

9 or "destroyer"

10 p. 499
https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/22444/death-angel-or-destroyer-or-destruction-in-exodus-1223

JEWISH VIRTUAL LIBRARY DEMONS AND DEMONOLOGY

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/demons-and-demonology

MAVET (Mawet), the ordinary Hebrew word for death, is also the proper name of a Canaanite underworld god (Mot), the enemy of Baal in a Ugaritic epic. The proper name, not the common noun, should probably be understood in Isaiah 28:15, 18: "We have made a covenant with Death," and Jeremiah 9:20 [Eng. 9:21]: "For Death is come up into our windows" (cf. Hos. 13:14; Job 18:13, "the firstborn of Death"; 28:22).

RESHEPH is another major god of the Canaanite religion who becomes a demonic figure in biblical literature. Resheph is known as the god of plague over much of the ancient Near East, in texts and artistic representations spanning more than a millennium from 1850 B.C.E. to 350 B.C.E. In Habakkuk 3:5, YHWH on the warpath is said to be preceded and followed by respectively Dever and Resheph. (This is similar to the picture of two divine attendants who escort major gods in ancient myths.) Just as some other names of deities are used as common nouns in biblical Hebrew (Dagon (dagon, "grain"); Ashtaroth (ashtarot, "increase [of the flock]"), etc.) so Reshef (reshef) has come to mean simply "plague" (Deut. 33:29; Ps. 78:48), and the fiery darts of the bow (Ps. 76:4 [Eng. 76:3]; Song 8:6), apparently from the common association of plagueand arrows.

DEVER ("Pestilence") is the other demonic herald who marches with YHWH to battle (Hab. 3:5). Dever is also mentioned in Psalms 91:5–6: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the Terror (Paḥad) by night; Nor for the Arrow (Ḥeẓ) that flieth by day; Nor for the Pestilence (Dever) that walketh in the darkness; Nor for the Destruction (Ketev) that wasteth at noonday." Not only Dever but also the other words italicized above have been plausibly identified as names of demons. The "Arrow" is a familiar symbol in folklore, for disease or sudden pain, and Ketev (Qetev; cf. Deut. 32:24; Isa. 28:2; Hos. 13:14) is in this instance the personification of overpowering noonday heat, known also to Greek and Roman demonology.

AZAZEL (ʿAzʾazel) occurs in the ritual for the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:8, 10, 26). Aaron casts lots over two goats, and the one "for ʿAzʾazel" is presented alive before the Lord, and then released into the wilderness. The ancient Greek and Latin versions understood ʿAzʾazel as "goat that departs," hence "the scapegoat" of some English versions. Most of the rabbinic commentators and some moderns take Azazel as the name of the place to which the goat is driven. The great majority of moderns regard Azazel as the personal name of a demon thought to live in the wilderness.

Aaron Seized the Angel of Death

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

http://www.mesora.org/korach-aaron-angel.html

As the Jews were now second guessing their accusation, but not completely abandoning this false view of Aaron and Moses, the plague stopped, but only temporarily, reflecting their temporal suspension of their accusation. We may interpret Aaron as “seizing the angel of death” as his correction the Jews’ error that Moses and Aaron were murderers. “Seizing the Angel of Death” means Aaron removed the cause of death in the remaining Jews; he corrected their false notions.

When they saw Aaron standing between the living and the dead with incense halting the plague, the Jews were confused. Aaron is Moses’ messenger, but the plague was clearly from God. So, how could Aaron and Moses overpower God? This is what Rashi means when metaphorically the Angel of Death tells Aaron, “I am the messenger of God, and you are (only) the messenger of Moses.” The Angel in this metaphor personifies the false opinions of the people, which caused death. But with a corrected opinion, God will not kill. So, the Angel talking in this metaphor represents the Jewish people’s corrupt opinion, which in fact causes death. (Sometimes, false views can be so wrong that the follower of such a view deserves death.)

Returning to the Rashi, Aaron replies to the Angel one last time, “Moses says nothing on his own accord, rather, (he says matters only) through God. If you do not believe me, behold Moses and God are at the Tent of Meeting, come with me and ask.” At this point, the plague was temporarily stopped, as the Jews were entertaining the idea that Moses and Aaron were not murderers, as Aaron was trying to keep them alive. Their perplexity about whether Aaron and Moses were following God had to be removed if they were to live permanently. This is what is meant that when Aaron returned to the tent of meeting (Num. 17:15) and the plague was terminated completely. As the Jews witnessed Aaron, Moses, and God “together” they now understood that Moses and Aaron were in fact followers of God. The metaphor depicts Aaron as “seizing” the corrupt views of the people which demanded their death, allegorized by seizing the “Angel of Death.”

This Rashi is yet another of literally thousands of examples where the Rabbis wrote in riddles, as King Solomon taught in Proverbs 1:6. We learn from King Solomon, to whom God gave knowledge miraculously (Kings I, 3:12) that riddles are a means of education. We must continue to look for the hidden meanings in the Rabbis’ words, which at first seem bizarre. We must not take amazing stories literally. There are no demons roaming the Earth, no angels of death, no powers of segulas that protect. God is the only power, and He created the Earth and heavens and all they behold, with distinct, limited physical properties and laws. Physical creation cannot exceed its design: a string dyed red does not suddenly get transformed into a device which wards off God’s punishments. It is unfortunate that we have become so idolatrous with red bendels.

What is worse, is that children are taught to accept superstitions. They become prime candidates for missionaries. Superstitious rearing teaches children that Christianity is no different.

This new mystical, pop-kabbalistic Judaism blurs the lines between true Torah principles and all other religions. When Jews fail to see the difference between a superstitious Judaism and other religions, they more easily convert. And they are accurate in this equation: there is no difference between a Judaism that preaches segulas, or that parts of God are “inside man,” and between Christianity that makes identical claims.

THE DESTROYING ANGEL

JEWISH BIBLE STUDIES
Vol. 42, No. 4, 2014 

https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/424/jbq_424_bardestroyingangel.pdf

THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT
 The destroying angel seems to be alluded to in the Bible's description of the
slaying of the firstborn, where he is called ha-mashhit: for the Lord will pass
over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home
(Ex. 12:23). While is stated explicitly that the Lord passed through Egypt to
smite the firstborn (Ex. 12:12–13), and the text of the Passover Haggadah
expounds this to mean, "I and not an angel," verse 23 attests that the Lord
was accompanied by the destroying angel, whose nature is to strike down all
whom he encounters, unless – as here – the Lord restrains him. This seems to
be the intention of the Mekhilta's comment on verse 22, None of you shall go
outside the door of his house until morning: "This indicates that when the
destroying angel is given permission to do harm, he does not distinguish between the            righteous and the wicked."
The Psalmist's account of the plagues of Egypt (Ps. 78:49) indicates that the plagues           were inflicted by mishlahat malakhei ra'im – a band of deadly [lit. evil] angels. The             talmudic sages used the term mishlahat to describe a band of destructive creatures, specifically a wolf pack.
Kraus believes that this "band of evil angels" does not refer to the 
l"destroying angel" (mashhit) associated with the last plague (Ex. 12:23), but
to the demonic powers that the Lord dispatches with every affliction.
 It seems, then, that we must distinguish the "destroying angel," ha-mashhit,
from the messengers of death who come to punish individuals only. By contrast, the              Destroyer is sent by the Lord to kill multitudes through a plague.
Unlike the deadly messengers, who bring both natural and premature death,
the Destroyer inflicts only a premature, painful death. Still, this mashhit is

controlled by God.

PDF 

A Dictionary of Angels, including the fallen angels - Masada ...

https://masada.world › assets › angels

Angels bewailing the death of Jesus, a detail from a fresco by Giotto in the Arena Chapel, Padua. ... In Leviticus, he is Azazel, the "goat of the sin offering. ... plagues, fed hermits, helped plowmen, converted heathens. An angel ... damned, opened the door to a return of Satan to his archangelic perch in the Heavenly purlieus.

IN A GADA DA VIDA

BECAUSE IT IS A DAMN FINE EXAMPLE OF ROCK AND ROLL DRUMMING 
MAKING THE SONG  PSYCHEDELIC WITH GUITAR EFFECTS SOUNDS ITS DAMN LONG ONE OF THE LONGEST OF ITS DAY 
THOUGH CONTEMPORARIES THE VANILLA FUDGE CAME CLOSE 

CALL IT DEPARTMENT FOR EMPLOYERS

Trump Labor Department says it may actively defend meatpacking companies over workers in Covid-19 lawsuits

 April 29, 2020 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

“We have a president forcing hazardous meat plants to reopen, threatening workers’ health. We have a Labor Department siding with corporations over workers’ safety. Disgusting.”

The stated mission of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is to protect workers, but the agency is signaling that it may actively defend meatpacking corporations against workplace safety lawsuits filed by employees who contract Covid-19 on the job if the companies show they made a “good faith” effort to comply with federal health guidelines.

“We all need to stop for a second to think about how crazy this is. OSHA is the agency that is supposed to protect people at work. Under this administration, it is now deciding it will defend bad employers in court because the employer ‘tried.'”
—Nate Ring, labor attorney

In a statement Tuesday shortly after President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to keep meat processing plants open amid the coronavirus pandemic, Solicitor of Labor Kate O’Scannlain and OSHA principal deputy secretary Loren Sweatt urged meatpacking employers to comply with the agency’s non-binding safety guidelines.

But O’Scannlain and Sweatt said companies will have leeway to flout standards that they determine are not “feasible in the context of specific plants and circumstances,” provided that they “document why that is the case.”

“Where a meat, pork, or poultry processing employer operating pursuant to the president’s invocation of the DPA has demonstrated good faith attempts to comply with the Joint Meat Processing Guidance and is sued for alleged workplace exposures,” said O’Scannlain and Sweatt, “the Department of Labor will consider a request to participate in that litigation in support of the employer’s compliance program.”

We all need to stop for a second to think about how crazy this is. #OSHA is the agency that is supposed to protect people at work. Under this Administration, it is incredibly understaffed and is now deciding it will defend bad employers in court because the employer “tried.” https://t.co/72weCeuUuP— Nate Ring (@NVUnionLawyer) April 29, 2020

Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary at OSHA, said Wednesday that the Labor Department’s statement constitutes “a free pass to meat and poultry processors.”

In an interview on MSNBC Tuesday night, former OSHA senior policy adviser Debbie Berkowitz slammed her former agency for abdicating its responsibility to safeguard workers.

“The agency has essentially abandoned its responsibility to ensure that employers keep workers safe from Covid-19.”
—Debbie Berkowitz, National Employment Law Project

“OSHA… has chosen—this is a choice—not to enforce any requirements in the meat industry to protect workers,” said Berkowitz, who is currently the director of the worker health and safety program at the National Employment Law Project. “The [meatpacking] industry looked at these recommendations—they’re voluntary—and in the end didn’t implement them.”

“There’s a real price to pay for this kind of, I would call it government malfeasance,” Berkowitz added.

Meatpacking plants across the country have become coronavirus hot spots in April. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), the largest meatpacking union in the U.S., said in a statement Tuesday that at least 20 meatpacking workers have died of Covid-19 and more than 5,000 “have been hospitalized or are showing symptoms.”

“The reality is that these workers are putting their lives on the line every day to keep our country fed during this deadly outbreak,” said UFCW president Marc Perrone. “For the sake of all our families, we must prioritize the safety and security of these workers.”

Critics warned that Trump’s executive order mandating meatpacking plants remain open amid the pandemic could lead to another surge in Covid-19 infections and deaths among workers in the industry. According to the Washington Post, at least 20 meatpacking plants have closed in recent weeks due to coronavirus outbreaks at the facilities.

“We have a president forcing hazardous meat plants to reopen, threatening workers’ health,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Wednesday. We have a Labor Department siding with corporations over workers’ safety. Disgusting.”

“Maybe this is too ‘radical,'” Sanders added, “but we need a White House that protects public health during a pandemic.”

We have a president forcing hazardous meat plants to reopen, threatening workers’ health.

We have a Labor Department siding with corporations over workers’ safety.

Disgusting. Maybe this is too “radical,” but we need a White House that protects public health during a pandemic. https://t.co/g3DnKcETqf
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 29, 2020

Between January and early April, OSHA was flooded with thousands of worker complaints accusing employers of violating federal coronavirus guidelines and endangering employee safety by failing to provide adequate protective equipment.

But the agency, overseen by Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, has thus far refused to use its authority to force employers to comply with Covid-19 safety guidelines. OSHA is also massively understaffed with vacancies at 42% of its top career leadership positions, including such crucial spots as director of enforcement and director of whistleblower protection.

“OSHA’s mission to protect workers in the most dangerous jobs has been seriously compromised under the Trump administration,” Berkowitz said in a statement Tuesday. “The agency has essentially abandoned its responsibility to ensure that employers keep workers safe from Covid-19.”

TOPSY TURVEY TRUMP WORLD
Trump appointees at Consumer Protection Agency manipulated data to benefit Trump-donating payday lenders says ex-staffer


April 29, 2020 By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement


Trump appointees at federal consumer watchdog agency manipulated data to benefit the very rich and powerful payday lending industry, a former staffer who worked at the agency for seven years as an economist says. Payday lending is a $40 – $90 billion industry that has donated heavily to Donald Trump. Multiple reports detail the millions of dollars the industry has showered on President Trump and the GOP.

“Last summer, on his final day of work at the nation’s consumer finance watchdog agency, a career economist sent colleagues a blunt memo” The New York Times reports. “He claimed that President Trump’s appointees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had manipulated the agency’s research process to justify altering a 2017 rule that would have sharply curtailed high-interest payday loans.”

In his 14-page memo the economist, Jonathan Lanning, accused Trump loyalists installed in the agency of engaging in maneuvers, The Times says, “that he considered legally risky and scientifically indefensible, including pressuring staff economists to water down their findings on payday loans and use statistical gimmicks to downplay the harm consumers would suffer if the payday restrictions were repealed.”

The Times notes Trump’s efforts “to dismantle the payday regulation began with the arrival of Mick Mulvaney, the Trump administration budget chief, who was appointed the C.F.P.B.’s acting director in late 2017. Among his priorities was to delay, and eventually undo, the Obama-era payday lending restrictions, which were scheduled to take effect in summer 2019, according to two former senior bureau officials who discussed the issue with him.”

A 2018 International Business Times article, “Trump And Lawmakers Got Cash From Payday Lenders, Then Weakened Lending Rules,” explained what some might say sounds like a quid pro quo process.

“Less than two months after President Donald Trump tapped his budget director to run the independent federal agency tasked with protecting U.S. consumers from harmful and predatory financial practices, the agency has moved to undo a rule intended to prevent payday lenders from preying on low-income Americans,” IBT reported.

Since 2015, “payday lenders have given $1.5 million to congressional lawmakers and another $300,000 to the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. The industry also spent another $6.2 million on politics at the state level to combat regulation over the same time period,” IBT added.

“The industry’s shrewdest investment may have been the money it delivered to Trump after he won the 2016 election. While payday lenders weren’t lining up to support Trump during the presidential election, in January after Trump’s win, Advance America, the nation’s biggest payday lender, donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration. Title loan magnate Rod Aycox and his wife each donated $500,000 for the event; payday lender Checks into Cash chipped in another $25,000. In November, the Community Financial Services Association of America, the industry’s trade group, announced its annual conference and expo would be held at the Trump National Doral resort in Miami.”

An in a damning observation, IBT added: “As that money flowed to Trump and his business empire, the Trump administration has made moves to help the industry — in particular, it took decisive action to undermine the CFPB’s previous efforts to regulate lenders.

The New York Times notes, “This week, the agency is expected to release the revised payday rule, which will no longer require lenders to assess whether customers can afford their fees before offering a loan.”

Read the full New York Times article here.