How Do Angels Speak?

The Languages of Angels

Low Angle View Of Angel Statue In Cemetery

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Angels are God’s messengers, so it’s important for them to be able to communicate well. Depending on what type of mission God gives them, angels may deliver messages in a variety of different ways, including speaking, writing, praying, and using telepathy, and music. What are angel languages? People may understand them in the form of these communication styles.

But angels are still quite mysterious. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “The angels are so enamored of the language that is spoken in heaven that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.” Let’s take a look at some reports of how angels have communicated through speaking to try to understand a bit more about them:

While angels sometimes remain silent when they’re on assignment, religious texts are full of reports of angels speaking when God has given them something important to say.

Speaking With Powerful Voices

When angels speak, their voices sound quite powerful—and the sound is even more impressive if God is speaking with them.

The apostle John describes the impressive angel voices he heard during a vision of heaven, in Revelation 5:11-12 of the Bible: “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and 10,000 times 10,000. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice, they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

In 2 Samuel of the Torah and the Bible, the prophet Samuel compares the power of divine voices to thunder. Verse 11 notes that God was accompanying cherubim angels as they were flying, and verse 14 declares that the sound God made with the angels was like thunder: “The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.”

The Rig Veda, an ancient Hindu scripture, also compares divine voices to thunder, when it says in a hymn from book 7: “O omnipresent God, with loud roaring thunder you give life to creatures.”

Speaking Wise Words

Angels sometimes speak to deliver wisdom to people who need spiritual insight. For example, in the Torah and the Bible, the archangel Gabriel interprets the prophet Daniel’s visions, saying in Daniel 9:22 that he has come to give Daniel “insight and understanding.” Also, in the first chapter of Zechariah from the Torah and the Bible, the prophet Zechariah sees red, brown, and white horses in a vision and wonders what they are. In verse 9, Zechariah records: “The angel who was talking with me answered, ‘I will show you what they are.’”

Speaking with God-Given Authority

God is the one who gives faithful angels the authority they have when they speak, urging people to pay attention to what they say.

When God sends an angel to lead Moses and the Hebrew people safely across a dangerous desert in Exodus 23:20-22 of the Torah and the Bible, God cautions Moses to listen carefully to the angel’s voice: "Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him. But if you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries."

Speaking Wonderful Words

Angels in heaven may speak words that are too wonderful for human beings to utter on Earth. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12:4 that the apostle Paul “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” when he experienced a vision of heaven.

Making Important Announcements

God sometimes sends angels to use the spoken word to announce messages that will change the world in significant ways.

Muslims believe that the archangel Gabriel appeared to the prophet Muhammad to dictate the words of the entire Qur’an. In chapter two (Al Baqarah), verse 97, the Qur'an declares: "Say: Who is an enemy to Gabriel! For he it is who has revealed this scripture to the heart by God's leave, confirming that which was revealed before it, and a guidance and glad tidings to believers."

Archangel Gabriel is also credited as the angel who announced to Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ on Earth. The Bible says in Luke 26:26 that “God sent the angel Gabriel” to visit Mary. In verses 30-33,35, Gabriel makes this famous speech: “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end...The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

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Hopler, Whitney. "How Do Angels Speak?" Learn Religions, Aug. 27, 2020, learnreligions.com/how-do-angels-speak-123830. Hopler, Whitney. (2020, August 27). How Do Angels Speak? Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/how-do-angels-speak-123830 Hopler, Whitney. "How Do Angels Speak?" Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/how-do-angels-speak-123830 (accessed March 19, 2024).