AMBASSADOR, AMBASSAGE.?As diplomatic agents of sovereigns or other persons in high authority, ambassadors are frequently mentioned in OT and Apocrypha from the days of Moses (see below) to those of the Maccabees (1Ma_9:70; 1Ma_11:9; 1Ma_14:21; 1Ma_15:17). Insult to their persons was a sufficient casus belli (2Sa_10:4 ff.). In several passages (e.g. Num_20:14; Num_21:21, Deu_2:26, Jdg_11:12; Jdg_11:19, 2Sa_5:11, 2Ki_19:9) the ?messengers? of EV are practically ?ambassadors,? as the Heb. word is elsewhere rendered (2Ch_35:21, Isa_30:4, Eze_17:15). Jos_9:4, however, should be read as in RVm. The ambassador of Jer_49:14 (= Oba_1:1) is probably an angel. In NT the word is used only metaphorically (2Co_5:20, Eph_6:20).
?Ambassage,? the mission of an ambassador (2Ma_4:11 RV), is used also as a collective for ambassadors themselves (Luk_14:32; Luk_19:14 RV). In 1Ma_14:23 read with RV ?the copy of their words.?
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909