On the other hand, here are several reasons which seem to us unanswerable why the interpreting angel must not be confounded with the Angel of Jehovah.
(a) The title Malakh haddobher bi is quite different from the Angel of Jehovah. That it is a title there can be no doubt, for the prophet uses it eleven times (i. 9, 13, 14, 19, ii. 3, iv. i, 4, 5, v. 5, 10, vi. 4) without any variation, and that not always after, or when conversation of any kind takes place, as, for instance, in this 9th verse of chap, i., and in chap. ii. 3. The variation in the Authorised Version, " The angel that communed with me," introduced in chap. i. 14, is unjustifiable.
(b} In chap. ii. 1-4 the prophet sees in vision " a man " engaged in measuring the site of Jerusalem. The inter preting angel who stood beside him leaves him to go forward, perhaps to ask the meaning of the vision, but before reaching his destination he is met by another angel, who comes forward with the command: " Run, speak to this young man " (the prophet). Now, assuming that the interpreter is the same as the Angel of Jehovah, directions would have been given him, and that too in word of command, by an inferior angel a proceeding altogether irreconcilable with the Divine dignity ascribed by the prophet to the Malakh Yehovah.
Moreover, " the man " with the measuring line in his hand, in chap, ii., is, as we shall see, in all probability the same " man " whom the prophet saw in his first vision (comp. i. 8, ii), who, as we saw, was no other than the Angel of Jehovah himself; and as the interpreting angel was standing by the prophet and going forward toward " the man " with the measuring line, it proves that they are two, and not one.
(c] To " the angel that talked with (or in ) me " there is no Divine work ascribed, and no Divine name given at all.[1] Remarkable in this connection is the form of the
- ↑ This precludes the idea suggested by some that the interpreting angel was the Holy Spirit, though the work of this angel resembles one aspect of the mission of the blessed Paraclete.
