He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
English Standard Version (ESV)
What's easily missed here is that "destroying angels" isn't necessarily about inherently wicked beings, but about God's agents, whatever their nature, carrying out His judgment. The text emphasizes that these are His "destroying angels," instruments of His "burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress," rather than independent forces of evil.
He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The psalmist is recounting God's powerful interventions in history, specifically the plagues He sent upon Egypt to liberate Israel. This verse describes the intensity and variety of these judgments, summarizing them as a commission of "destroying angels" sent to enact God's fierce anger and distress upon the Egyptians. This comes after detailing several specific plagues like turning rivers to blood and swarms of insects, and precedes the ultimate judgment: the death of the firstborn.
When we think of God's anger, it's easy to picture something like human temper. But Psalm 78 paints a picture of divine wrath that is far more profound and purposeful.
The Intensity of God's Displeasure
The psalm doesn't hold back in describing God's judgment on Egypt. It uses a powerful accumulation of terms: "burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress." This isn't a fleeting emotion; it's a settled, intense disposition against sin and oppression.
These aren't just synonyms; they build upon each other to convey the overwhelming force of God's opposition to the Egyptians' cruelty and stubbornness.
The verse mentions "destroying angels." What does this mean? Were these 'evil spirits,' or something else entirely?
Instruments of Divine Will
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The phrase "destroying angels" (or "angels of evil" as some translations render it) is fascinating. It's important to understand that in Scripture, angels are often God's agents, carrying out His will – whether that will is for blessing or for judgment.
Understand the original words
charon · Hebrew Noun
A display of God’s holiness and justice against rebellion, characterized by intense heat or fire, representing the consuming nature of His righteous opposition to sin.
ebrah · Hebrew Noun
A term expressing God's intense, deep-seated resentment and judicial fury toward persistent unrighteousness and apostasy.
zaam · Hebrew Noun
A state of extreme displeasure or indignation, often describing God’s settled stance against evil and the manifestation of His holy character in response to defiance.
malakim · Hebrew Noun
Divine messengers or created spiritual beings commissioned by God to execute His judgments and carry out His sovereign will upon the earth.
This verse reflects on the terrifying final plague of Egypt, the death of the firstborn, which the psalm's author interprets as a divine 'sending' of powerful agents of destruction, highlighting the immense wrath God poured out on their oppressors.
c. 1446 BC
The Exodus from Egypt
God miraculously delivers the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through a series of ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea.
c. 1446 BC— this verse
The Ten Plagues of Egypt
A series of devastating calamities inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the Israelites.
c. 1446 BC
The Death of the Firstborn
The final and most devastating plague, where the firstborn son of every Egyptian household and all their livestock were struck down.
c. 1446 BC
Wilderness Wanderings Begin
Following their exodus, the Israelites begin their 40-year journey through the wilderness, marked by both God's provision and Israel's disobedience.
This passage describes the final plague upon Egypt, the death of the firstborn, which is directly linked to the 'destroying angel' or 'messenger of death' sent by God, aligning with the 'destroying angels' mentioned in Psalm 78:49.
2 Samuel 24:16This verse describes an angel of the Lord sent to destroy Jerusalem, highlighting the concept of angels as instruments of God's wrath and judgment against sin, mirroring the 'destroying angels' in Psalm 78:49.
Job 33:22Here, Job speaks of the 'destroyer' coming for the soul, which can be understood as a divine agent of judgment, reinforcing the theme of God using specific messengers for His wrath as seen in Psalm 78:49.
This apocryphal text vividly describes the terror and 'strange apparitions' during the plague of darkness in Egypt, offering a sensory parallel to the 'trouble' and 'evil angels' that afflicted the Egyptians according to Psalm 78:49.
poolePsalms 78:49: "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them."
Indignation and trouble; other most grievous plagues, which were mixed with and were the effects of his anger and wrath; whereby their miseries were greatly aggravated, and distinguished from the afflictions which God sent upon the Israelites in Egypt, which were only fatherly chastisements, and the effects of God’s love and occasions of their deliverance. By se…
clarkePsalms 78:49: "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them."
By sending evil angels - This is the first mention we have of evil angels. There is no mention of them in the account we have of the plagues of Egypt in the Book of Exodus, and what they were we cannot tell: but by what the psalmist says here of their operations, they were the sorest plague that God had sent; they were marks or the fierceness of his anger, wrath…
What's easily missed here is that "destroying angels" isn't necessarily about inherently wicked beings, but about God's agents, whatever their nature, carrying out His judgment. The text emphasizes that these are His "destroying angels," instruments of His "burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress," rather than independent forces of evil.
The psalmist is recounting God's powerful interventions in history, specifically the plagues He sent upon Egypt to liberate Israel. This verse describes the intensity and variety of these judgments, summarizing them as a commission of "destroying angels" sent to enact God's fierce anger and distress upon the Egyptians. This comes after detailing several specific plagues like turning rivers to blood and swarms of insects, and precedes the ultimate judgment: the death of the firstborn.
The psalmist is recounting God's powerful interventions in history, specifically the plagues He sent upon Egypt to liberate Israel. This verse describes the intensity and variety of these judgments, summarizing them as a commission of "destroying angels" sent to enact God's fierce anger and distress upon the Egyptians. This comes after detailing several specific plagues like turning rivers to blood and swarms of insects, and precedes the ultimate judgment: the death of the firstborn.
"He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels." — What's easily missed here is that "destroying angels" isn't necessarily about inherently wicked beings, but about God's agents, whatever their nature, carrying out His judgment. The text emphasizes t…
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Last reviewed October 2026