Dumah (angel)

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Dumah is an angel mentioned in Rabbinical literature. Dumah is a popular figure in Yiddish folklore. I. B. Singer's Short Friday (1964), a collection of stories, mentions Dumah as a "thousand-eyed angel of death, armed with a fiery rod or flaming sword." Dumah is the Aramaic word for silence.

[edit] The Angel

Duma(h) or Douma (Aramaic) is the angel of silence and of the stillness of death.

Dumah is also the tutelary angel of Egypt, prince of Hell, and angel of vindication. The Zohar speaks of him as having "tens of thousands of angels of destruction" under him, and as being "Chief of demons in Gehinnom [i.e., Hell] with 12,000 myriads of attendants, all charged with the punishment of the souls of sinners." [Müller, History of Jewish Mysticism.] In the Babylonian legend of the descent of Istar into Hades, Dumah shows up as the guardian of the 14th gate. [Faiths Of Man: A Cyclopedia Of Religions. by James George Roche Forlong, 1904.]

Definition partly taken from Gustav Davidson.

[edit] Miscellaneous biblical references

• The burden of Dumah is mentioned in Isaiah as possibly a prophecy.

• Dumah is one of the twelve sons of Ishmael, and may also be the name of a similar territory of the tribe of Ishmael.

• Dumah is a city of Judah.

• One of the seven sections of Ghinnom is also named Dumah. A place where the outspoken sinners are silenced.

[edit] Other References

• Dumah is featured in Neil Gaiman's Sandman as one of the angels who rules over Hell following Lucifer's abandonment.

He also appears as one of the "brothers" of Raziel in the Legacy Of Kain series, specifically in 2 of the 5 games forming the series: in Soul Reaver 1, he appears as the vampiric brother of Raziel, after Kain gave him the dark gift. In Soul Reaver 2, he appears as a member of the Sarafan Brotherhood, before his death and his consequential rebirth as a vampire by the hand of Kain