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265 "for Yahweh will destroy this city." But Lot tarried, and kept asking the "angels" to delay the upheavaling of the city until he, his wife, and two daughters could reach the safety of the mountains that were not so near. And the emissaries granted him the request, promising that they will postpone the city's upheavaling to give him and his family time to escape. In both instances (the sudden appearance to Abraham, the arrival at Sodom's gate) the "angels" are called "people," manlike in appearance; if not winged, what then made them recognizable as Divine Emissaries? We find a clue in the representation of the Hittite pantheon, carved in a rock sanctuary at a site called Yazilikaya in Tur- key, not far from the imposing ruins of the Hittite capital. The deities are arranged in two _ processions, male ones marching in from the left and female ones marching from the right. Each procession is led by the great gods (Teshub leading the males, Hebat leading the females), followed by their offspring, aides, and companies of lesser gods. In the male procession the last to march are twelve "emissaries" whose divinity or role and status are recognized by their headgear and the curved weapon they are holding (Fig. 91a); ahead of them marches a somewhat more important group of twelve, again identified by the headgear and the instrument— a rod with a loop or disc on top—they are holding (Fig. 91b). This wand is also held by the two principal male deities (Fig. 91c). The twelve-man companies of these lesser gods in the Hit- tite depiction bring unavoidably to mind the troop of Mal'ak- him that Jacob encountered on his way back from Harran— in today's Turkey—to Canaan. What comes to mind, then, is that the possession of a handheld device was what made the angels recognizable for what they were (along with, at least sometimes, their unique headgear). Miraculous deeds performed by Mal'akhim abound in the Bible, the blinding of the unruly crowd at Sodom being just one of them; a similar incident of magical blinding is reported in connection with the activities and prophecies of Elisha, the disciple and successor of the Prophet Elijah. In another in- stance Elijah himself, escaping for his life after having hun- dreds of the priests of Ba’'al killed, was saved by an "Angel Angels and Other Emissaries