Among the Angels described in the Old Testament, we have seen some charged with powers of hindrance and destruction—_a troop of angels of evil_.[919] They too are the servants of God, who is the author of all evil as well as good,[920] and the instruments of His wrath. But the temptation of men is also part of His Providence. Where wilful souls have to be misled, the _spirit_ who does so, as in Ahab’s case, comes from Jehovah’s presence.[921] All these spirits are just as devoid of character and personality as the rest of the angelic host. They work evil as mere instruments: neither malice nor falseness is attributed to themselves. They are not rebel nor fallen angels, but obedient to Jehovah. Nay, like Ezekiel’s and Zechariah’s Angels of the Word, the Angel who tempts David to number the people is interchangeable with God Himself.[922] Kindred to the duty of tempting men is that of discipline, in its forms both of restraining or accusing the guilty, and of vexing the righteous in order to test them. For both of these the same verb is used, “to satan,”[923] in the general sense of _withstanding_, or antagonising. The Angel of Jehovah stood in Balaam’s way _to satan him_.[924] The noun, _the Satan_, is used repeatedly of a human foe.[925] But in two passages, of which Zechariah’s Fourth Vision is one, and the other the Prologue to Job,[926] the name is given to an Angel, one of _the sons of Elohim_, or Divine powers who receive their commission from Jehovah. The noun is not yet, what it afterwards became,[927] a proper name; but has the definite article, _the Adversary_ or _Accuser_—that is, the Angel to whom that function was assigned. With Zechariah his business is the official one of prosecutor in the supreme court of Jehovah, and when his work is done he disappears. Yet, before he does so, we see for the first time in connection with any angel a gleam of character. This is revealed by the Lord’s rebuke of him. There is something blameworthy in the accusation of Joshua: not indeed false witness, for Israel’s guilt is patent in the foul garments of their High Priest, but hardness or malice, that would seek to prevent the Divine grace. In the Book of Job _the Satan_ is also a function, even here not a fallen or rebel angel, but one of God’s court,[928] the instrument of discipline or chastisement. Yet, in that he himself suggests his cruelties and is represented as forward and officious in their infliction, a character is imputed to him even more clearly than in Zechariah’s Vision. But the Satan still shares that identification with his function which we have seen to characterise all the angels of the Old Testament, and therefore he disappears from the drama so soon as his place in its high argument is over.[929]