Angel of the Lord or God?
English: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. Česky: Jákob zápasící s andělem. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Judges 2:1-5. Yahweh speaks because the people inquired of him (1:1, which we shall call oracular divine speech ). But now Yahweh speaks, via his intermediary, on his own initiative (which we shall call non-oracular divine speech, and which occurs again in Judges only in 2:20–21; 6:7–10; 10:11–14). As with other passages of Scripture, Yahweh and his angel/messenger are interchangeable: “Now the angel of the Lord … said, ‘I brought you up from Egypt .’ ” Compare, for example, the story of the angel/messenger finding Hagar in the wilderness (Gen. 16:7), the conversation that follows between the two (Gen. 16:8–12), and Hagar’s words, “So she named the Lord who spoke to her” (Gen. 16:13). Here is a case where God himself appeared in the form of a human being, one who could be seen by a mortal. One instance of oscillation between Yahweh and his angel/intermediary that includes an a...