01_AzuelosVoltaggio_161_178_copia_161_178 10/07/15 11:33 Pagina 176 176 THE “ANGEL SENT FROM BEFORE THE LORD” IN TARGUM JOSH 5,14 176 V. The angel’s mission The primary duty of the angel-emissary is expressed through his literal transmission of God’s words to individuals and communities, and often also in his execution of a mission. Therefore, the angel must appear in combination with the requisite message from God 50. In the “commander of the army of the Lord” scene, however, there is a certain vagueness as to the actual mission of the angel. The angel responds to Joshua’s query: “Are you one of us, or one of our adver- saries?” (5,13) with the statement: “I have now come” (5,14). What does he mean? Can God’s pronouncement be found in his answer? Unlike present day interpreters, the targumists felt the need to include the content of the conversation between the commander of the army of the Lord — the angel — and Joshua, so as to convey the nature of his mission explicitly 51. Targum Jonathan translates Josh 5,14: “Then he said: ‘No, but I am an angel sent from before the Lord (ywy ~dq !m xylX $alm). Now I have come’ [tosefta in the marginal notes according to ms. O: ‘to be repaid by you in the evening because of the cancellation of the offerings of the Lord in this day, because of the cancellation of the teaching of the Torah’. He said to him: ‘For which one of the duties have you come?’. He said: ‘For the abolishment of the teaching of the Torah I have come (ytyta ![k hrwt dwmlt lwjb l[)’]. Then Joshua fell on his face on the ground and worshiped and said to him: ‘Whatever my lord speaks with his servant’”. With the exception of the marginal note by ms. O, Targum Jonathan translates the section literally with no apparent concern for the abbreviated style. The targumic addition in the Targum Jonathan and the Geniza Tosefta, however, supply the dialogue between the angel and Joshua, thereby clarifying the mission: the angel asserts that he is there to hold Joshua to account for abolishing the sacrifice and the Torah. Joshua questions him further, wanting to know ex- actly what sin the angel has to come to punish him for, and is given 50 See A. ROFÉ, The Belief in Angels in the Bible and in Early Israel (Je- rusalem 1979) 24-26 (Hebrew). 51 Cf. Y. KAUFMANN, The Book of Joshua (Jerusalem 1975) 109 (Hebrew); AHITUV, Joshua, 109; see the bibliography in E. ASSIS, From Moses to Joshua and from Miraculous to the Ordinary. A Literary Analysis of the Conquest Narrative in the Book of Joshua (Jerusalem 2005) 116, n. 39 (Hebrew).