The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have God’s seal on their foreheads. They were given power, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person. In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them. The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions. They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war. They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months. They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”. The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.
The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”
The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them. Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the horses’ heads resembled lions’ heads. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur. By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm. The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk. They didn’t repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20 The first execution upon the wicked men inhabiting the…
The first execution upon the wicked men inhabiting the earth (as a little before the Angel said) wrought by the infernal powers, is declared in this place unto the eleventh verse. And after the sixth execution thence unto the nineteenth verse. And lastly is showed the common event that followed the former execution in the world, in the two last verses.
That is, that the Angel of God glittering with glory, as a star fell down from heaven. Whether thou take him for Christ, who hath the keys of hell himself, and by Princely authority, Rev. 1:18, or whether for some inferior Angel, who hath the same key permitted unto him, and occupieth it ministerially, or by office of his ministry, here, and Rev. 21, so the word falling, is taken, Gen. 14:10, and 24:64, and Heb. 6:6.
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The key was given to his star. For those powers of wickedness are thrust down into hell, and bound with chains of darkness: and are there kept unto damnation, unless God for a time do let them loose, 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6, and of this book, Rev. 20:20, the history of which chapter hath agreement of time with this present chapter.
By the bottomless pit, he meaneth the deepest darkness of hell.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–21 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw…
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Ver. 1. A star fall from heaven] Gr. πεπτωκοτα, that had fallen from heaven, viz. when the third angel sounded, Rev 8:10, then the bishop of Rome began to fall; but here, in Boniface III and his successors, "He is fallen, he is fallen" from his primitive integrity into the deepest gulf of impiety, The Jesuits (to blind the matter) tell us that by this star is meant Luther, whom Satan sent out to disturb the Church, and God sent them to withstand him. (Scultet. Annal.) Bugenbagius also, a Dutch divine, when he first read Luther’s book of the Babylonish Captivity, rashly pronounced him the most pestilent heretic that ever the Church was pestered with. But a few days after, having thoroughly read and weighed the contents of that book, he recanted, and affirmed that all the world was deceived, and Luther only was in right; and so not only himself became a Lutheran, but many others also persuaded by him.
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The key of the bottomless pit] Whereinto he lets souls innumerable; so that in the days of Hildebrand letters were set forth as sent from hell, wherein the devil and his angels give the Popish clergy many thanks for sending them in so many souls as they never had in any age before. (Mat. Paris, A. D. 1072.) This key of the bottomless pit is (saith Whitaker) facultas expromendi et docendi dlabolicas doctrinae, his faculty of broaching and teaching doctrines of devils.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–21 And the fifth angel sounded; the fifth of the…
And the fifth angel sounded; the fifth of the seven angels mentioned Rev 8:2, to whom were given seven trumpets. It denoteth the beginning of a new period of calamities and miseries to the earth, or to the church.
And I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: what this star falling from heaven means, is not easy to resolve. Those who think it the devil, once a star, but fallen, forget that John is not here told a story of what was in the beginning of the world, but what should be, and that five hundred years after Christ’s coming. And the same reason holds against those who think those seditious persons are meant, who did so much mischief in and about Jerusalem during the siege; this had been to have revealed to John those things which he knew were done many years before. Amongst those who think some particular eminent minister of the church, who apostatized, is meant, those seem to me to judge better, who think that Boniface the Third is meant, who, in the year 606, obtained the privilege of the pope’s supremacy, than those who understand it of Arius or Pelagius, who both of them fell two hundred years before this. It seems very harsh to interpret it of Christ, or any good angel’s descending from heaven, because the word πεπτωκοτα is rightly by us translated falling, and not to be interpreted so softly as descending. In all probability, therefore, the first apostacy of the bishop of Rome was here prophesied. But how
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to him was given the key of the bottomless pit, ( by which hell is meant here, as often in Scripture), is hard to say; unless we understand it of his instrumentality, to send many thousands to hell by that corrupt doctrine and worship, which by him then began to obtain. But his key was borrowed, (if God had not permitted him he could not have done it), and it turned but one way; he had only a power to open it, not (as Christ) both to open and shut it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 12, 17 Observe here, 1. That those who understand this woe…
Observe here, 1. That those who understand this woe denounced by the fifth angel to denote a temporal judgment, apply it to the Jewish seducer, who headed the turbulent Zealots; he was a ringleader of most hellish villains, and the Zealots under him did all the mischiefs imaginable, marched up to Jerusalem, plundering the city, seizing the temple, and killing the high-priest, with the rest of the priests; but by God’s providence it so happened, that this judgment of the Zealots fell not upon the Christians, signified by the trees and green things, but upon the Jews themselves only, because they were not of the faction of Zealots.
Observe, 2. That those who understand this woe to intimate a spiritual judgment, apply it, some to the first rising of the of the Turks and Mahometans, others to the Papacy and Papal clergy: Mr. Mede applies it to the former, king James to the latter. "By locusts and grasshoppers (says he) understand Monks and Friars, who seem to fly a little from the earth, but indeed are gorbellied devourers; in locusts you see little but a mouth and a belly; in Monks you see a mouth to mumble over masses, and a belly to consume; they seized when time was, upon the meadows, the fat and pleasant parts of the land, and like grasshoppers consumed every green, that is, every good thing."
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Yet observe, 3. The commission and command given to them not to hurt the trees; such as are fruit-bearing and fruitful bearing Christians are preserved, and the storm falls upon drossy hypocrites: whence we may remark, that in times of error and seduction, as well as in times of judgment and calamity, God takes a special care of his faithful ones for their preservation; and has a special regard to the fruit of the trees of righteousness: It was commanded them that they should not hurt any tree.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 13 Upon the sounding of this trumpet, the things to…
Upon the sounding of this trumpet, the things to be observed are, 1. A star falling from heaven to the earth. Some think this star represents some eminent bishop in the Christian church, some angel of the church; for, in the same way of speaking by which pastors are called stars, the church is called heaven; but who this is expositors do not agree. Some understand it of Boniface the third bishop of Rome, who assumed the title of universal bishop, by the favour of the emperor Phocas, who, being a usurper and tyrant in the state, allowed Boniface to be so in the church, as the reward of his flattery. 2. To this fallen star was given the key of the bottomless pit. Having now ceased to be a minister of Christ, he becomes the antichrist, the minister of the devil; and by the permission of Christ, who had taken from him the keys of the church, he becomes the devil's turnkey, to let loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ. 3. Upon the opening of the bottomless pit there arose a great smoke, which darkened the sun and the air. The devils are the powers of darkness; hell is the place of darkness. The devil carries on his designs by blinding the eyes of men, by extinguishing light and knowledge, and promoting ignorance and error. He first deceives men, and then destroys them; wretched souls follow him in the dark, or they durst not follow him. 4. Out of this dark smoke there came a swarm of locusts, one of the plagues of Egypt, the devil's emissaries headed by the antichrist, all the rout and rabble of antichristian orders, to promote superstition, idolatry, error, and cruelty; and these had, by the just permission of God, power to hurt those who had not the mark of God in their foreheads. 5. The hurt they were to do them was not a bodily, but a spiritual hurt. They should not in a military way destroy all by fire and sword; the trees and the grass should be untouched, and those they hurt should not be slain; it should not be a persecution, but a secret poison and infection in their souls, which should rob them of their purity, and afterwards of their peace. Heresy is a poison in the soul, working slowly and secretly, but will be bitterness in the end. 6. They had no power so much as to hurt those who had the seal of God in their foreheads. God's electing, effectual, distinguishing grace will preserve his people from total and final apostasy. 7. The power given to these factors for hell is limited in point of time: five months, a certain season, and but a short season, though how short we cannot tell. Gospel-seasons have their limits, and times of seduction are limited too. 8. Though it would be short, it would be very sharp, insomuch that those who were made to feel the malignity of this poison in their consciences would be weary of their lives, Rev 9:6. A wounded spirit who can bear? 9. These locusts were of a monstrous size and shape, Rev 9:7, Rev 9:8, etc. They were equipped for their work like horses prepared to battle. (1.) They pretended to great authority, and seemed to be assured of victory: They had crowns like gold on their heads; it was not a true, but a counterfeit authority. (2.) They had the show of wisdom and sagacity, the faces of men, though the spirit of devils. (3.) They had all the allurements of seeming beauty, to ensnare and defile the minds of men - hair like women; their way of worship was very gaudy and ornamental. (4.) Though they appeared with the tenderness of women, they had the teeth of lions, were really cruel creatures. (5.) They had the defence and protection of earthly powers - breastplates of iron. (6.) They made a mighty noise in the world; they flew about from one country to another, and the noise of their motion was like that of an army with chariots and horses. (7.) Though at first they soothed and flattered men with a fair appearance, there was a sting in their tails; the cup of their abominations contained that which, though luscious at first, would at length bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. (8.) The king and commander of this hellish squadron is here described, [1.] As an angel; so he was by nature, an angel, once one of the angels of heaven. [2.] The angel of the bottomless pit; an angel still, but a fallen angel, fallen into the bottomless pit, vastly large, and out of which there is no recovery. [3.] In these infernal regions he is a sort of prince and governor, and has the powers of darkness under his rule and command. [4.] His true name is Abaddon, Apollyon - a destroyer, for that is his business, his design, and employment, to which he diligently attends, in which he is very successful, and takes a horrid hellish pleasure; it is about this destroying work that he sends out his emissaries and armies to destroy the souls of men. And now here we have the end of one woe; and where one ends another begins.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–21 And the fifth angel sounded,.... His trumpet:
And the fifth angel sounded,.... His trumpet:
and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: some take this star to be Jesus Christ, the bright and morning star; and understand by falling, no other than his descending from heaven to earth, in which sense the word is used in Gen 14:10; and that because he is not only said to have the keys of hell and death, Rev 1:18; but particularly the key of the bottomless pit, Rev 20:1; but then there is a wide difference in the use of the key by the star here, and the angel there, or between the opening of the pit, and letting out smoke and locusts, and the shutting it up, and Satan in it; the one well suits with Christ, the other not: nor is Satan here designed, as others think, who once was a bright star, and shone among the morning stars, but by sin fell from heaven, his first estate; and the fall of this Lucifer, son of the morning, was as lightning from heaven, Luk 10:18. But then this was a matter over and past, and what was well known to John; nor did he need a vision to represent this unto him: nor is Arius intended, who lived before any of the trumpets were blown; nor the Emperor Valens, who fell from the heavenly doctrine of Christ's divinity into the Arian heresy, which he encouraged and defended; whereby Christ, the sun of righteousness, was obscured, and the air, the church, enlightened by Christ, was darkened; in whose time the locusts, the Goths and Vandals, infected with Arianism, greatly distressed the eastern Christians; but his reign was long before the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, which was after the year 600: wherefore by this star is meant antichrist; but whether the western or eastern antichrist, the pope of Rome, or Mahomet, is a question: some interpreters go one way, and some another: Brightman thinks both are intended, seeing they both are antichrist, and rose to the height of their power much about the same time; and the characters and circumstances in this vision very. Well agree with them both: what is objected to Mahomet is, that he never was a doctor or teacher in the church, or had any dignity in it, which a star in this book most commonly signifies, and therefore could not be said to fall from it; but this may be observed, that the Arabians, among whom he lived, had received the Christian religion before his time; that he himself was conversant with the Scriptures, as appears by his wretched perversion of them in his Alcoran; and certain it is, that his accomplices were such as had professed Christianity, as Sergius, a Nestorian of Constantinople, and John of Antioch, an Arian, and he himself set up for a prophet: others think the pope of Rome is meant by the star, seeing the bishops of that city had shone out in great light and purity of doctrine and practice formerly, but now about this time most sadly apostatized; they had been indeed gradually declining for some time, but now they may be said openly to fall from heaven, when Phocas, who murdered his master, the Emperor Mauritius, and took the imperial crown to himself, gave to Pope Boniface the Third the title and power of universal bishop, about the year 859, which he and his successors exercised in a most haughty and tyrannical manner:
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and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit; which shows that this could not be a star in a literal sense, but must design some man, or body of men, and agrees well with the popes of Rome: by "the bottomless pit" is meant hell, out of which the beast arose, and into which Satan will be cast, Rev 11:7; and by "the key" is designed the power of it, of opening and shutting it, of saving persons from it, or of casting them into it; and which the popes of Rome take to themselves, even all power in heaven, earth, and hell, signified by their triple crown; and which they arrogate to such a degree as to say, that if the pope should send many thousands into hell, no one ought to say, what dost thou? This is a different key from what were given to Peter; he had the keys of the kingdom of heaven, his pretended successors have the key of the bottomless pit; his were keys of knowledge, theirs of ignorance, and of the depths of Satan, let out of this bottomless pit, of which the antichristian religion, both Popish and Mahometan, consist; his were given by Christ, theirs by Phocas a murderer; or they had their power from the dragon, Rev 13:2; from Satan himself, according to whose working and influence they come forth, though by divine permission.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–21 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a…
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star - Far different from that mentioned, chap. viii, 11. This star belongs to the invisible world. The third woe is occasioned by the dragon cast out of heaven; the second takes place at the loosing of the four angels who were bound in the Euphrates. The first is here brought by the angel of the abyss, which is opened by this star, or holy angel. Falling to the earth - Coming swiftly and with great force. And to him was given - when he was come. The key of the bottomless pit - A deep and hideous prison; but different from "the lake of fire."
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–21 The fifth angel sounds, and a star falls from…
CHAPTER IX.
The fifth angel sounds, and a star falls from heaven to
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earth, 1.
The bottomless pit is opened, and locusts come out upon
the earth, 2, 3.
Their commission, 4-6.
Their form, 7-10.
Their government, 11, 12.
The sixth angel sounds, and the four angels bound in the
Euphrates are loosed, 13-15.
The army of horsemen, and their description, 16-19.
Though much evil is inflicted upon men for their idolatry,
&c., they do not repent, 20, 21.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX.
Verse 1. A star fall from heaven] An angel encompassed with light suddenly descended, and seemed like a star falling from heaven.
The key of the bottomless pit.] Power to inundate the earth with a flood of temporal calamities and moral evils.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 20 Rev 9:1. The fifth angel sounded, and I saw…
Rev 9:1. The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven to the earth — “Stars, in the language of prophecy,” says Lowman, “signify angels. The angels of the heavenly host, as well as the angels or bishops of the churches, (see Rev 1:20; Rev 8:10,) seem to be called stars in Scripture: as when, at the creation, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, Job 38:7. In like manner, when the abyss or bottomless pit is shut up, it is represented in this prophecy to be done by an angel coming down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit. These expressions are so nearly the same, as well as upon the same subject, that they may be well taken in the same sense, and so used to explain each other. The expression then, a star fallen from heaven, or an angel come down from heaven, with a key to open the bottomless pit, seems naturally to mean the permission of the Divine Providence for those evil and calamitous events, which are described to follow from opening the bottomless pit, which could not have happened but by the permission of the Divine Providence, and according to the wise and holy orders of the divine government; for the providence of God could as surely have prevented the temptations of Satan, and the powers of darkness, as if Satan and his angels had been fast locked up, and secured in safe prison; so that he sends an angel, his messenger, with the key of the bottomless pit, to open the prison and permit them to go out, to teach that they can only act so far as they have permission, and can always be restrained and shut up again, at the good pleasure of the supreme Governor of the world. The abyss, or bottomless pit, is explained in the prophecy itself to be the place where the devil and Satan are shut up, that they should not deceive the nations, Rev 20:1-3. The abyss seems also to be used in the same sense when the devils besought Christ that he would not command them to go out into the deep, Greek, εις την αβυσσον, into the abyss, or bottomless pit. Grotius observes on Luk 8:31, that this abyss is the same with what St. Peter calls hell, or tartarus,” 2Pe 2:4; where see the note. “Now this prison of Satan and of his angels, by the righteous judgment of God, is permitted to be opened for the just punishment of apostate churches, who would not repent of their evil works. We may then say with the bishop of Meaux, ‘Behold something more terrible than what we have hitherto seen! Hell opens, and the devil appears, followed by an army, of a stranger figure than any St. John has anywhere described.’ And we may observe from others, that this great temptation of the faithful was to be with the united force of false doctrine and persecution. Hell does not open itself, (as the bishop observes,) it is always some false teacher that opens it.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–20 And the fifth angel sounded - See the notes…
And the fifth angel sounded - See the notes on Rev 8:6-7.
And I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth - This denotes, as was shown in the notes on Rev 8:10, a leader, a military chieftain, a warrior. In the fulfillment of this, as in the former case, we look for the appearance of some mighty prince and warrior, to whom is given power, as it were, to open the bottomless pit, and to summon forth its legions. That some such agent is denoted by the star is further apparent from the fact that it is immediately added, that “to him (the star) was given the key of the bottomless pit.” It could not be meant that a key would be given to a literal star, and we naturally suppose, therefore, that some intelligent being of exalted rank, and of baleful influence, is here referred to Angels, good and bad, are often called stars; but the reference here, as in Rev 8:10, seems to me not to be to angels, but to some mighty leader of armies, who was to collect his hosts, and to go through the world in the work of destruction.
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And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit - Of the under-world, considered particularly of the abode of the wicked. This is represented often as a dark prison-house, enclosed with walls, and accessible by gates or doors. These gates or doors are fastened, so that none of the inmates can come out, and the key is in the hand of the keeper or guardian. In Rev 1:18 it is said that the keys of that world are in the hand of the Saviour (compare the notes on that passage); here it is said that for a time, and for a temporary purpose, they are committed to another. The word “pit” - φρέαρ phrear - denotes properly a well, or a pit for water dug in the earth; and then any pit, cave, abyss. The reference here is doubtless to the nether world, considered as the abode of the wicked dead, the prison-house of the guilty. The word “bottomless,” ἀβύσσος abussos - whence our word “abyss” means properly “without any bottom” (from Α a, the alpha privative (not), and βύθος buthos, depth, bottom). It would be applied properly to the ocean, or to any deep and dark dell, or to any obscure place whose depth was unknown. Here it refers to Hades - the region of the dead the abode of wicked spirits - as a deep, dark place, whose bottom was unknown. Having the key to this, is to have the power to confine those who are there, or to permit them to go at large. The meaning here is, that this master-spirit would have power to evoke the dead from these dark regions; and it would be fulfilled if some mighty genius, that could be compared with a fallen star, or a lurid meteor, should summon forth followers which would appear like the dwellers in the nether world called forth to spread desolation over the earth.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 The fifth Angel....and I saw a star, &c. This…
The fifth Angel....and I saw a star, &c. This again may be to represent the confusion of all things in antichrist’s time, or it may signify the fall and apostacy of great and learned men from the Christian faith. Bossuet applies it to the fall of Theodotus, of Byzantium, towards the end of the second age; but certainly no great stress can be laid on such arbitrary applications, which it is no hard matter to invent, as may be seen by the different fancies we may meet with about the locusts, &c. (Witham) --- Here is a description of the rise and progress of the reformation. This trumpet begins with announcing to us the fall of a star from heaven; a very just emblem of the apostacy of Luther, who in quality of a priest and religious man is styled a star, but renouncing the faith and vows, may truly be said to have fallen from heaven upon the earth. (Pastorini, hic.[here]) --- To him (i.e. to the Angel, not to the fallen star) was given the key of the bottomless pit, which properly signifies hell. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Revelation Chapter 9
Revelation Chapter 9
The fifth angel sounds; and one who should have been by position the instrument of light and governmental order over the earth was seen as having lost his place; and the power to let loose the full darkening influence of Satan was given him. He opened the bottomless pit-the place where evil is shut up and chained; not where it is punished, that is, the lake of fire. Supreme authority, and all heavenly light over the earth, and healthful influence of order, were darkened and made to cease by the evil Satanic influence which was let loose. Nor was this all: direct instruments of Satanic power came out of this evil influence in numbers; crowds of moral locusts with the sting of false doctrine in their tail. But it was not to destroy temporal prosperity on the earth, but to torment the ungodly Jews; not to kill, but to harass and vex them. This was to continue five months; for it is not the final judgment. The torment was worse than death-pain and anguish of heart. But they had the semblance of military imperial power, crowned, and with masculine energy, to those that met them; but they were, if seen behind and the secret disclosed, subject and weak: their faces were as the faces of men, their hair as the hair of women. But they were armed in a steeled conscience. They were the direct instruments of the power of Satan, and under his orders. The angel of the bottomless pit-he who rules the depths of Satan’s wiles, as the ruler of the power of darkness-led them. We are too unbelieving as to the direct influence of Satan in darkening men’s minds when permitted, when men are given up to his darkening influence. Cruel harassing torments, worse than death, with darkening of their minds, become the portion of the once beloved people. One woe was past.
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The sixth angel sounds. The woe which follows is much more human and providential. It is directed against the inhabitants of the Latin Empire. The instruments of it are let loose from beyond Euphrates -a countless crowd of horsemen. But they were not simply such. Their consciences and their words, both were in the power of Satan, but in judgment from God. But it now killed men. Their mouths belched forth the power of Satan, and their influence in doctrine was Satanic: with both they did hurt. I do not believe this death here is mere temporal death (there may be such), but, I suspect, making apostates. The rest, who did not thus fall, did not repent of their idolatry and misdeeds.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Rev_9:1. I saw a star fallen from the Heaven…
Rev_9:1
FIFTH TRUMPET, OR THE FIRST WOE1
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Rev_9:1. I saw a star fallen from the Heaven to the Earth.—Its fall is done; it has fallen hither from Heaven to judgment, Luk_10:18; Isa_14:12. A star—therefore not an Angel (Eichhorn); either good (Bengel) or bad (Düsterdieck); certainly not the devil (Bede, against which view Rev_12:9 militates). According to Düsterdieck, the ideas of star and Angel are confluent (Psa_103:21; Jer_33:22). Here, however, where distinct symbols or conceptions are treated of, the two forms must be kept separate. If we suppose the locusts to be phantasies originating in psychical gloom, we may take the star, which has fallen from Heaven, to be repentance without faith, or the sorrow of this world—so-called Cain or Judas repentance—or the remorse and penance of religious self-torment, whether clothed in a more ancient and mediaeval or a more modern form. Comp. Joh_13:30; 1Jn_3:21.
To him was given, etc.—It is the key of the pit of the Abyss, and is given him only after his fall. Repentance was in Heaven at first, but, through want of submission, fell to Earth, a fallen star, receiving now the melancholy ability to open the pit of the Abyss, the demonic domain of the lower realm of the dead. On the Abyss, comp. the Lexicons. The pit, φρέαρ, denotes the mouth of the Abyss; the mouth being significant of the close connection and readily opened communication between human psychical life and the demonic domain.
Different interpretations of the star see in De Wette, p. 102:—(Lyra): Valens; (Grotius): Eleazar; (Herder): Menahem, the son of Judas. The Abyss: the fortress Masada. Abaddon: Simon, the son of Gorion. A singular interpretation is given by Alcasar: the Mosaic Law.
According to Hengstenberg, the star is an ideal person, a line of rulers, the last and grandest form being Napoleon. Sander: Mohammed and his Islam. Gärtner: Arius. The Kreuzritter: The hierarch; he regards the ascending smoke as enthusiasm and fanaticism.
[Barnes (on Rev_8:10): “A star is a natural emblem of a prince, of a ruler, of one distinguished by rank or by talent. See Num_24:17 and Isa_14:12. A star falling from Heaven would be a natural symbol of one who had left a higher station, or of one whose character and course would be like a meteor shooting through the sky.” And in loc.: “This denotes a leader, a military chieftain, a warrior. In the fulfillment of this, we look for the appearance of some mighty prince and warrior, to whom is given power, as it were, to open the bottomless pit, and to summon forth its legions.”
[Alford: “The reader will at once think on Isa_14:12 : ‘How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!’ And on Luk_10:18 : I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven.’ And doubtless as the personal import of the star is made clear in the following words, such is the reference here. We may also notice that this expression forms a connecting link to another place, Rev_12:9, in this Book, where Satan is represented as cast out of Heaven to the Earth. It is hardly possible, with Andr. Ribera, Bengel and De W., to understand a good Angel by this fallen star.” Elliott agrees with Alford in regarding him as Satan, whom he looks upon as the inspirer of Mohammed. (For other views see on pp. 201 sq.)—E. R. C.]
Rev_9:2. And he opened the pit of the abyss.—The smoke. The region of the evil conscience in the realm of the dead is a region of self-burning, like Gehenna, whence the smoke of torment ascends. The Seer knows of a retroaction of the gloomy feelings of this region on the Earth, the more since this region is even to be found in the back-ground of an unfree human soul-life in this world. Hence there results a great darkening of the sun and air.
Rev_9:3. Locusts.—Old Testament types, Exo_10:12-15; Joel 1, 2. In antithesis to natural locusts, which desolate vegetation, these locusts leave unharmed all green things, attacking solely those men who have not the seal of God.
The scorpions of the earth.—(Of the earth; De Wette: in antithesis to the abyss.) See the article Scorpion in Winer, particularly the distinction between the Oriental and the Italian species.
Interpretation of the locusts: Longobards, Vandals, Goths, Persians, Mohammedans, Jewish zealots. Bede and others: The raging of heretics. The Pope and the monks; or, Luther and the Protestants (ancient Protestant exposition—in opposition to Bellarmin and others), etc. Hengstenberg: Martial hosts, see Düsterdieck, p. 328. “He who, like Hebert (Die zweite sichtbare Zukunft Christi, Erlangen, 1850), looks for the literal fulfillment of all these visions, expecting, for instance, the actual appearance of the locusts described in Rev_9:1 sqq.,2 certainly does more justice to the text than any allegorist; by reason of a mechanical conception of inspiration and prophecy, however, he fails to recognize the distinction betwixt real prophetic matter and poetic forms” (Düsterdieck). Remarkable words, if we consider that by allegorists are understood such as regard the Apocalypse as a Book of allegoric figurative forms.
Rev_9:5. Not kill them, but that they shall be tormented [Lange: torment them].—This trait is characteristic; it runs through Rev_9:6 : They shall seek death and not find it. In itself, this torment is not spiritual death as yet; it is, however, so great as to make men weary of life.
Five months.—The reference of the five months to the popular idea that locusts are wont to appear during the five months from May onward (Düsterdieck, p. 323 [Alford]), does not preclude the symbolical significancy of the number. Here, too, manifold guesses have been hazarded. See De Wette, p. 102; Düsterdieck, p. 321; Ebrard, p. 294; Sander, p. 70. Vitringa thought he had found the key to the mystery in the following formula: Each day of each month=one year. Bengel defined the month as 15 5/6 5/3 years. Hengstenberg saw in the number 5, as the number of incompleteness, the sign of half. Thus: “A long time, but not the longest.”
Rev_9:6. Seek death.—“A terrible counterpart to the ἐπιθυμία of the Apostle, springing from the holiest hope” (Düsterd.).
Rev_9:7-10. Like horses.—The likening of the locusts to horses see likewise in Joel 1, 2
As crowns.—Ewald: The antennæ. Düsterdieck and others: A jagged elevation in the middle of the thorax (?). Hengstenberg: The sovereign people. We must not overlook the fact, that the figures are modelled from the idea, as is often the case in the Gospel parables.
Their faces as the faces of men.—Hengstenberg cuts the knot: “Virtually they really were the faces of men.” Undoubtedly if they were troops of cavalry!
Rev_9:8. Hair as the hair of women.—Hengstenberg: Suffering their hair to grow at will, uncut and untended. Ebrard: “Mild and gentle womanly faces.” By this he understands, not inaptly, those women whom, as history shows us, the spirits of the abyss employ as tools to decoy many fools. Yet the text does not speak of women’s faces.
As the teeth of lions.—To terrify—not to bite with. Hence the interpretation of Calov. and others is wrong: The false doctrines and blasphemies with which heretics have rent the orthodox Church. Düsterdieck thinks their desolating voracity is symbolized; this quality, however, should not be portrayed here.
Rev_9:9. As iron breastplates.—Their thoraxes.
The sound of their wings.—Comp. Joe_2:5.
Rev_9:10. Tails like scorpions.—Does this mean that their tails themselves are like scorpions (Bengel and others); or that they, like scorpions, have tails (Düsterdieck)? The analogy of Rev_9:19 seems to favor the former supposition. But as we must adhere to the general idea of the locusts, the latter view is the more probable.
Rev_9:11. And they have a king over them.—According to Hengstenberg, this king is identical with the fallen star. And certainly it is impossible not to perceive a close affinity between them. If, however, we regard the fallen star, a faithless remorse and penitential self-torment, as the beginning of the plague of locusts, their king surely must be regarded as its consummation—the genius of absolute self-torment. This symbolical king must likewise be distinguished from Satan, for whom Grotius and others take him. The comment: An angel who is, in a peculiar manner, the head of the Abyss (Bengel and others) throws no light on the subject.
Abaddon.—See the Lexicons, article אֲבַדֹּוך. It occupies in the Old Testament the same relation to Sheol as in the writings of the Rabbins to Hell. [See Excursus on Hades, p. 364.—E. R. C.]
Apollyon.—With reference to ἀπώλεια. John had himself beheld the truest type of the whole locust plague in the development of Judas, in reference to whom it must be said that even suicide is a seeking of death and not finding it. [See Excursus on Hades.—E. R. C.]
Rev_9:12. Behold, there come.—On the singular, ἔρχεται, see Düsterdieck. De Wette reads ἔρχονται, with Cod. B. and others. The following two woes are, according to the arrangement of the Seer, intensively as well as extensively greater. The climax, intensively viewed, may be stated as follows: Penitential self-torment; the spiritual death of heresy; consummate apostasy. Extensively defined: An infliction of torment upon such men as have not the seal of God; an infliction of death upon the third part of men; and, moreover, double hurtfulness; an apparent general fall into destruction by the reception of the mark of the Beast. See Rev_14:9-11.
Rev_9:13 sqq.
SIXTH TRUMPET, OR THE SECOND WOE3
In consequence of the omission of the utterances of the seven Thunders, Revelation 10, the esoteric sketch of the cycle in question is incorporated in the sixth Trumpet. And this makes it possible to regard the sixth Trumpet as a double Trumpet. It is half the Trumpet of heresies; half the Trumpet of beginning apostasy. Hence the second woe is continued through Revelation 10 to Rev_11:14. Hence, also, it results that the second woe is in two stages. At the end of the first stage, men do not repent of the works of their hands, Rev_9:20; at the end of the second stage, there is at least a repentance of fear, ch, Rev_11:13. Still it must be observed that the section consisting of chs. 10 and 11 to Rev_9:14 is representative of an entirely new cycle—a cycle connected with the preceding section only from Rev_11:7. The connection between the two consists in the fact, that in Revelation 9 we have to do with the spiritual end of the course of the world; in Rev_11:7 sqq., with the spiritual beginning of the end of the world. Thus at the revelation of the consummate offence, the precursory offences form themselves into a unit. See 2Th_2:7-8.
Rev_9:13. A voice from the four horns.—Not from God, “behind the altar.” The four horns of the altar denote the complete, all-sided protective power of the altar. From the same altar on which the prayers of the saints were perfected (Rev_8:3-5), the signal that they have been heard goes forth. The earth is now, in its sealed ones, prepared by voices and thunders and lightnings and an earthquake of the spiritual life; the greatest temptations may, therefore, now be let loose. The distinction between these new and great temptations and the foregoing ones is at the same time expressed. That which the voice from the horns of the altar says, is, of course, to be traced back to Divine decision. According to Düsterdieck, the misapplication of the horns to the four Gospels (Zeger and others) may have even occasioned the reading—four horns. Nevertheless, four, as the number of completeness, is not devoid of significance in a correct apprehension of the passage. Other interpretations of the four horns see in Düsterdieck, p. 332. How important it is that the trials should not break out before their set time, appears from the fact, that the Angel of the sixth Trumpet may loose the four bound Angels only upon a higher order. The same truth is demonstrated by the cooperation of the sixth Angel. Offences must come.
[The following, abridged from Elliott (Vol. I., pp. 481 sqq.), is worthy of consideration: “When a voice of command issued from the Throne, or some divinely commissioned Angel, it was an intimation that it originated from God; but when proceeding from some other local source, it was indicated that the locality whence the voice proceeded was one associated with sin to be punished (comp. Gen_4:10; Gen_31:38; Isa_66:6; Hab_2:11; Jam_5:4). So here, a cry commissioning judgment from the mystic incense Altar indicates that that Altar had been a scene of special sin. But this explanation is only partial. It would seem as if guilt had been contracted in respect of some ritual in which the horns of the Altar were concerned. There were three such services in the Mosaic ritual. The first two were the occasional atoning services for sins of ignorance; the third that of the Annual Atonement. In all these cases, some of the blood of the sacrifice was put on the horns of the Altar (comp. Exo_30:10; Lev_4:3-7; Lev_4:13-18; Lev_16:1-18). It was thus that Hezekiah made atonement for Israel after its apostasy under Ahaz (see 2Ch_29:20-24). This rite of Atonement having been performed, the promised reconciliation with God followed. From the Temple, and Altar, and each blood bedewed horn of the altar, a voice, as it were, went forth, not of judgment, but of mercy; instead of summoning destroying armies against Judah from the Euphrates, it staid them (comp. 2Ch_32:21; Isa_37:33-34). Thus direct was the contrast between Israel’s case under Hezekiah, and that of Christendom as here figured. And now when, after the judgments of successive Trumpets, the Seer heard a voice denouncing judgment yet afresh from the four horns of the golden Altar, what could he infer but this, that in spite of the previous fearful rebukes of their apostasy, neither the priesthood nor the collective people, at least of this third of Christendom, would have repented. More particularly, as the rite had special reference to the sins connected with the incense Altar itself, it was to be inferred that those sins would be persisted in: to wit the abandonment of Christ in His character (1) of the one great propitiatory Atonement, and (2) of the one great Intercessor; and thus the sin would be graven even on the four horns of the golden Altar, and their one and common voice, or that of the intercessorial High Priest from the midst of them, would pronounce the fresh decree of judgment: ‘Loose the four Angels to slay the third part of men.’ ”—E. R. C.]
Rev_9:14. Loose the four angels.—The number four being the number of the world, the four symbolical angels represent the collective spirit of the world, collective heathenism, in its infection of Christianity and transformation of Christian truths into powerful lies, 2 Thessalonians 2 These angels are, therefore, neither bad angels (Bede, Düsterdieck and others), nor good ones (Bossuet), nor destroying ones (De Wette, Ebrard), if, by such, personal beings are understood. As symbolic forms they are, beyond question, evil spirits—yet in angelic shape; as it were in the angelic shape of the one Satanic mask of an Angel of light (2Co_11:14) in four world-forms. Different interpretations of the quaternary see in Düsterdieck, p. 333.
At the great river.—We doubt not that the hither bank of the great river Euphrates has an import similar to that of Babylon, yet without coinciding with Babylon. Babylon is a peculiar configuration of the spiritual river Euphrates; that river, the general basis and condition of Babylon—spiritual Babylon as the sphere of historical Babylon.
Different interpretations: Parthian armies against the Romans; Roman armies against Jerusalem; Tartars, Turks (the Angels being their commanders). The Euphrates, the Tiber; Babylon, Rome (Wetstein). The Euphrates, the border of Abraham’s land, or of the Roman empire.
According to Düsterdieck, the mention of the Euphrates is merely schematical [schematisch], as the region whence plagues usually came in the Old Testament—the Assyrians, for instance. Insignificant enough!
Ebrard: “Almost all ancient Protestant exegetes discover in this passage a prediction of Mohammedanism. Grotius, Wetstein, Herder, Eichhorn and others think it prophetic of the army of Titus, which destroyed Jerusalem. De Wette, with Züllig and Ewald, occupies the ground of ‘fancy.’ ”
In opposition to these historical conceptions, a just reference has been made to the supernaturalness of the martial hosts portrayed. Düsterdieck will not listen to any allegorical apprehension of this supernaturalness, and so, according to him, these armies are still more incomprehensible than those of the locusts. According to Gärtner (p. 465), the two hundred millions of horses are two hundred millions of devils—hosts of Satan, amongst whom the fanatical faith of Islam, symbolized, as he contends, by the Euphrates, originates. The horsemen are such men as are borne away by the horses.
Rev_9:15. The four angels were loosed.—The resistance hitherto made by the power of truth is withdrawn.
Prepared for the hour, etc.—Beautifully expressive of the certainty that these trials, like all hateful things in the world, have their appointed time, and that time only, Luk_22:53.
To slay the third part of men.—Only spiritual slaying can be meant here, as is further indicated by “the third part,” three being the number of spirit, Rev_8:7-12.
Rev_9:16. And the number.—Two hundred millions [two myriads of myriads]. He did not himself count the hosts, but heard the number through the voice of prophecy; this fact makes the number more than ever significant. It being impossible to conceive of an army of this size, Bengel has added together all the Turkish armies of more than two centuries; Hengstenberg sees an allegorical collective designation of all armies in the number; whilst Düsterdieck takes it as schematioal [schematisch]—that is to say, denoting, like the army, nothing definite. But, manifestly, the number itself is allegorical. The myriad is indicative of an enormous number; the formula, myriad times myriad, denotes the infinite productivity of the figures; and, finally, the binary is significant of an antithesis, either of positive and negative offences, or of dogmatical and ethical heresies.
Rev_9:17. And thus I saw the horses,—In the vision, he adds, probably because the monstrosity of their appearance necessitates a slight reminder of the fact that we have here to do with allegorical forms; an assumption which Düsterdieck, in his horror of allegory, endeavors to refute.
And those who sat on them.—The horses are of prime importance (see above); their riders, however, are first described. In this place the riders bear the colors of the horses, as the horses the colors of the riders in Revelation 6.
Having breastplates.—According to Bengel and others, the riders are here referred to; according to Düsterdieck and others, the words, having breastplates, refer to both horses and riders. This view is contradicted, in the first place, by the impossibility of putting the idea into execution; and, furthermore, by the antithesis between the colors of the breastplates and the destructive stuff issuing from the mouths of the horses. Many hypotheses have been founded on the colors of the breastplates, see Düsterdieck, p. 337. On ῦάκινθος see Ebrard. He conjectures that this color was dark brown; it cannot but be seen, however, that it must correspond with the color of smoke. Düsterdieck would have it that “dark red” is the corresponding color.
As the heads of lions.—Not actual lions’ heads. A cruel and terrific aspect cannot be meant by this, according to Düsterdieck, because it “would undoubtedly correspond better with the allegorical exposition.”
It is likewise denied that there is an allegorical meaning to fire, smoke, and brimstone. The combination is, most certainly, found in volcanos in natura. The significance of these forms, however, appears from the following other passages: Rev_14:10-11; Rev_19:20; Rev_21:10. For different interpretations, see Düsterdieck. The view of Calov., who finds the three substances associated in the Koran, is particularly striking. Other singular exegeses are those of Grotius (burning torches), Hengstenberg and Bengel (the murderous spirit and wanton destructiveness of soldiers). It is worthy of note that the same materials which compose the erring spirit of this world, create the hellish torment of the next: the fire of fanaticism; self-dissolution in ambition and self-seeking; demonic irritability—inflammability.
Rev_9:19. For the power of the horses.—They are hurtful in a two-fold manner; with their mouths and with their snake-like tails. Their principal power, however, is in their mouths. On the futile application of this double figure to the fable of two-headed serpents or amphisbænæ (Wetstein, Beng., Herder), see Düsterd.
Other interpretations: Bengel: Reference is had to the turning of the Turkish cavalry, to the sudden detriment of their pursuers.
Hengstenberg interprets the hurtful power in the tails as significant of the insidious malignity of martial hosts; for fiery wrath, warlike terrors, and the like, pervade the visions of the fifth and sixth Trumpets particularly, according to him.
Grotius: The tails are indicative of foot soldiers [on the backs of the horses, behind the horsemen].
Sander: They dragged the teachings of their false prophet behind them.
Volkmar has even applied this passage to the kicking out of the horse behind.
The after-effects of all heresies consist in the fact that they poison morals and manners, introducing a destructive element into Christian social life especially, and thus issuing in psychical and physical evils.
Rev_9:20. And the rest of the men, who were not killed by these plagues.—The Seer distinguishes between the specific destruction of a third of mankind by the fatal horses and the general corrupt condition of the human race.
Repented not.—Comp. Rev_16:11. Their conversion should show itself in a specific abstinence from religious and moral transgressions. The works of their hands, therefore, do not directly denote their whole conversation and walk, but those characteristic sins in which, of a truth, their whole walk was reflected. It has been maintained that idols are thereby indicated, as their own manufacture (Hengstenberg, Düsterdieck); but the first object—τὰ δαιμόνια—stands in the way of this view. This first object is, indeed, of prime importance to the Seer. The meaning is as follows: subtile demon-worship, symbolized by subtile idol-worship offered to images of the most diverse materials; see 1Co_10:20.
Which neither see, etc.—Compare the analogous passages in the Old Testament [Psa_115:4-7; Psa_135:15-17; Isa_46:7; Jer_10:5; Dan_5:23].
Rev_9:21. Of their sorceries.—The poison-mingling, as the word might likewise be understood, is already contained in the preceding murders.
Ebrard: “Sorcery is to be understood as seductive enchantments.” The reason alleged in support of this view, viz., that true sorcery is a sin against God, whilst the present passage treats of injuries inflicted by man upon his brother man, is, however, of insufficient weight. All gross (poison-mingling) and all refined sorcery is conjoined with injury to one’s neighbor. The terms are, doubtless, symbolical throughout; Gal_5:20.
“It is clear that the author is thinking of heathen.” De Wette (similarly Düsterdieck). Truly, the author regards all the things mentioned, even in respect of their most subtile conception, their most subtile manifestation in Christendom, as heathenish.
[ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE SEVENTH SEAL AND THE TRUMPETS]
By the American Editor
[The very position of the Seventh Seal, separated as it is from the others by the visions of chap. 7, should lead us to suppose that it is sui generis; and a careful consideration of its development supports and enforces this supposition. The most rational hypothesis, as it seems to the Am. Ed., is that it includes the Trumpets and the Vials; there is no strong disjunctive at the beginning of either Rev_9:2 or 6, such as would certainly have been employed had the Seal closed with Rev_9:1 or 5, and no such disjunctive occurs until Rev_18:1. This hypothesis is not only in accordance with the manifest indications of the phraseology, but it avoids the supposition that a Seal was opened without any thing being revealed under it, and it also gives unity to all that follows, and to the whole complex vision.
In the view of the writer, the opening of the first five Seals discloses the general course of history to the time of the second Advent—false Christs, war, dearth, aggravated mortality, together with the persecutions of the saints; the opening of the sixth reveals the events immediately preceding the Advent (see pp. 178 sq.); the seventh is the Seal of Judgment (also terminating in the Advent), in which, under the Symbol of Seven Trumpets (indicating the going forth of Jehovah against the enemies of His people, comp. Num_10:9; Num_31:6; Jos_6:4-5; 2Ch_13:14; Jer_51:27, etc.), are revealed the woes to be visited upon the sinful and persecuting world-power;4 the last Trumpet develops into the seven Vials.5
That the opening of the Seal was to be delayed, is consistent with God’s dealings in judgment—sentence against an evil work, ordinarily, is not executed speedily (Ecc_8:11); and not only so, but it is intimated, (Rev_6:10-11), that there should be delay until a certain period (or number of martyrs) should be completed.
The length of this period of delay being unrevealed, the time of the beginning of the Trumpet-blasts can be determined only by the occurrence. It becomes a most interesting and important question: Have any of these blasts been given, or are they all still future ? The writer must acknowledge that, after a careful consideration of the principal views that have been presented, he has been constrained to the conclusion that the scheme of interpretation advocated by Elliott and Barnes is substantially correct (see foot-notes on pp. 205 sqq.). The points of resemblance between the symbols and the events of history, especially as portrayed by the infidel Gibbon, are too many, too striking, and too exact, to allow the thought that they are merely fortuitous. It would seem as though God had raised up the great historian just mentioned to perform a work for the Bible and the Church, which could not have been so effectually performed by a friend—at times it seems as though he were writing history, purposely for the elucidation of prophecy. The language of Barnes in reference to the correspondence between the events of the sixth Seal and the history of the Turkish invasion, as described by him, may be equally applied to the correspondence between the entire series of symbols and his descriptions of all the invasions which historical interpreters have adduced as fulfilling these symbols: “If Mr. Gibbon had designed to describe the conquests of the Turks as a fulfillment of the prediction, could he have done it in a style more clear and graphic than that which he has employed? If this had occurred in a Christian writer, would it not have been charged on him that he had shaped his facts to meet his notions of the meaning of the prophecy? ”
It must be acknowledged that there are difficulties connected with this interpretation; that there are some points where the symbol and the event adduced as realizing it, do not seem exactly to harmonize. It may be remarked that, in view of the imperfection of our records of history, and the partial ignorance of individual interpreters, even of that which is imperfectly recorded, such discrepancies are to be expected—indeed, it is matter of surprise that they are not more numerous and important. In fact, one of the influences that led the writer to adopt, in the main, the scheme of Elliott, was the exhibit of objections by Alford. Thoughts, such as the following, arose in his mind: If these are the only objections that can be adduced by an acute and learned opponent, they are tantamount to an acknowledgment that in the far more numerous and important matters presented in the scheme, there is complete resemblance between the Symbol and the event; and if this be so, either these discrepancies will disappear on a more thorough investigation of our historical records, or else they will serve to show that on the points at issue our records are themselves imperfect. The first of Alford’s objections is to Elliott’s interpretation of the third part (see p. 201). He remarks, “It is fatal to this whole class of interpretations that it is not said: the hail, etc., were cast on a third part, but that the destruction occasioned by them extended to a third part of the earth on which they were cast. And this is most expressly declared to be so in this first case by all green grass being destroyed, not a third part of it” (Rev_8:7). Now, Elliott’s hypothesis concerning the third part is deduced from a most careful comparison of Rev_8:7-12 with the acknowledged facts of history. It is notorious that four successive hordes of enemies did, in the Fourth and Fifth centuries, burst upon the Roman Empire, their ravages being almost entirely confined to a third, or the Western division, thereof; and it is manifest, also, that these ravages did, as to their general features, most strikingly fulfill the requirements of the symbolization—the first invasion being on the inland provinces, the second on the maritime portions, the third on the rivers and fountains, the fourth affecting the governors, the luminaries of that third part (see pp. 205 sq.). In view of the general agreement, which is like that of the mountain shadows on the bosom of the Lake of Geneva and the mountains themselves, it seems legitimate to conclude that the symbol shadowed forth the fact, and that the third part of the former was designed to indicate (when the event should occur) the third part of the smitten empire. If this be so, then, when it is said that hail fell upon the earth, we may understand the prophecy as meaning that it fell upon that third part; and, be it observed, there is no undue straining of language in such an interpretation, for certainly there is no disagreement between a prophecy that Great Britain shall be smitten, and the fact that Scotland receives the blow. And still further, by the third part of the trees and all the grass, we may understand the trees and the grass of that smitten third part.
Another objection is that Elliott’s scheme fails to give any satisfactory explanation of the exemption of the sealed from the torment of the fifth plague (Rev_9:4). So far as Elliott is concerned, the objection is well taken. This does not imply, however, that an explanation cannot be given consistent with the scheme. Whilst historical records do give us the general information that the citizens of those countries which had been the seat of the old Roman Empire did suffer fearfully from the Saracenic invasions, they are almost totally silent as to the fate of individuals; from historical investigation it is impossible to determine who were the sealed, and what was their condition during the ravages of the Saracens. Alford writes: “In the very midst of this corrupt Christianity, were at that time God’s elect scattered up and down; and it is surely too much to say every such person escaped scathless from the Turkish (Saracenic) sword.” If from, other points of resemblance between the Symbol and the Saracenic woe (and there are many such which cannot be challenged, see pp. 207 sq.), the identity between the object of prophecy and that woe can be established, then it is not “too much to say,” especially in view of the absence of all proof to the contrary, that God did, according to His promise, preserve His sealed ones from the torment which was visited upon the unsealed.
Another objection is brought against Elliott’s interpretation of the crowns like unto gold (Rev_9:7). “Elliott tries to apply it to the turban; but granting some latitude to the στέφανοι, the ὄμοιοιχρυσῷ, will hardly bear this. The appearance of a turban, even when ornamented with gold, is hardly golden.” True; but a yellow turban (Barnes) might be described as like to gold. Certainly Alford, who interprets fiery and sulphureous (Rev_9:17) as meaning red and light-yellow, should have no objection to this explanation.
Alford again writes: “I cannot forbear noticing, as we pass, the caprice of historical interpreters. On the command not to kill the men, etc., in Rev_9:5, Elliott says: ‘i. e., not to annihilate them as a political Christian body.’ If then the same rule of interpretation is to hold, the present verse (6) must mean that 'the political Christian body' will be so sorely beset by these Mohammedan locusts, that it will desire to be annihilated, and not find any way. For surely it cannot be allowed that the killing of men should be said of their annihilation as a political body in one verse, and their desiring to die in the next, should be said of some thing totally different, and applicable to their individual misery.” The propriety of the criticism of the distinguished commentator may be allowed, and yet it be shown to have no force against the historical scheme. In chs. l.–lii. of the immortal history of Gibbon, we have described the rise, the conquests, and the decline of the Saracens. In the grand features of history as therein set forth, we perceive the similarity to the complex symbol of Rev_9:1-11. Prominent amongst these features is the fact that though the Mohammedan conquerors tormented, they never totally destroyed the political combinations of Christendom. In Europe they were as an invading army encamped—they were never able to take Constantinople; although they ravaged the country around Rome, they were restrained from the capture of the Imperial City; in their advance upon Christendom from the Pyrenees, they were driven back by Charles Martel. Even in Spain, where for centuries they held dominion, they never completely extinguished either the Spanish nationality or the organized Church. In Syria, where their first conquests in Christendom were made, although their sceptre has passed away to the Turks, we still find nominally Christian communities substantially as they were organized in the days of the Saracens. “After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians of the Turkish Empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was granted by the Arabian Caliphs…… All the oriental sects were included in the common benefits of toleration; the rank, the immunities, the domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy, were protected by the civil magistrate…… The captive churches of the East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry of their rulers; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the pride or the zeal of the Christians” [Gibbon, Rev 51.). From the beginning, these communities have been tormented, but not destroyed. And not only so, but from the days of the Caliphs their preservation as organized communities, having a peculiar dress, has been in accordance with the policy of their rulers—they are thus more easily kept in subjection, and are separated from Moslems as inferior and tributary. The very preservation of these communities has in all time subjected them to torment, to official exaction and popular contumely and persecution. Is it not most natural to suppose that as political communities they have desired annihilation?
The last objection urged by Alford is against Elliott’s interpretation of Rev_9:19. “Well may Mr. Barker say (Friendly Strictures): ‘An interpretation so wild, if it refutes not itself, seems scarcely capable of refutation.’ Happily, it does refute itself. For it is convicted, by altogether leaving out of view the power in the mouths, which is the principal feature in the original vision; by making no reference to the serpent-like character of these tails, but being wholly inconsistent with it; by distorting the canon of symmetrical interpretation in making the heads attached to the tails to mean that the tails are symbols of authority, etc.” The force of the criticism is admitted, and yet, like the preceding, it bears not against the historical scheme. The following is suggested as possibly the true explanation of the verse alluded to. On opening Webster’s Dictionary we find the following as the second definition of Basilisk: “In military affairs, a large piece of ordnance, so called from its supposed resemblance to the serpent of that name, or from its size. This cannon carried an iron ball of 200 pounds weight, but is not now used.” Such were the cannon with which the Turks moved to the assault of Constantinople. These long, serpent-like instruments of destruction, dragged breach foremost in the rear of the companies that served them, might well have been described in symbol as tails, like unto serpents having heads; and the power by which the Turkish armies breached the walls of Constantinople, and thus subjugated the Eastern third of the old Roman Empire (Rev_9:18), was in these tails and the mouths of these heads.
It should be remarked, in conclusion, that the resemblance contemplated in this Note is not merely between the individual symbols and the events which have been adduced as fulfilling them respectively, but it is a resemblance between the entire series regarded as a whole, and the entire course of history—it extends to the relations of the symbols to each other, their succession and mutual proportions.—E. R. C.]
Footnotes:
[1] [Elliott and Barnes, in accordance with Bishop Newton and many other historical interpreters, understand by this Trumpet the woes under the Saracenic invasions. They support this view by considerations such as the following: 1. The admixture of the human with the bestial (Rev_9:7-8) seems to imply, that the agents in this woe were men. 2. It is implied, that they were actuated by a false religion by Rev_9:1-3; Rev_11:3. That they were symbolized by locusts (Rev_9:3) indicates (1), that they were from the Orient, Arabia especially (see an exceedingly able article by Elliott [Hor. Apoc., Vol. I., pp. 420 sqq.] on “The Local Appropriateness of Scripture Symbol); (2) that they ravaged in numerous and immense armies as succeeding swarms; (3) their destructiveness. 4. The peculiarities of appearance presented Rev_9:7-10 are strikingly significant of the Saracens: (1) like unto horses, they were principally horsemen; (2) crowns like unto gold, their peculiar head-dress—turbans adorned with gold (Elliott) or yellow (Barnes); (3) faces like men, bearded; (4) hair like women, they wore their hair (unlike other military nations) long. (“In that most characteristic of Arab poems, Antar—a poem composed at the time I speak of—we find the mustache and the beard, the long hair flowing on the shoulders, and the turban also, are specified: i. 340; ‘He adjusted himself properly, twirled his whiskers, and folded up his hair under his turban, drawing it from off his shoulders:’ i. 169; ‘His hair flowed down his shoulders:’ iii. 117; ‘Antar cut off Maadi’s hair in revenge:’ iv. 325; ‘We will hang him up by his hair:’ ii. 4; ‘Thou foul-mustachioed wretch!’ ” Elliott); (5) teeth like lions, their ferocity; (6) breastplates as of iron, “Sale’s Koran ii. 104, ‘God hath given you coats of mail to defend you in your wars’ ” (Elliott). 5. The addition of the scorpion (also pointing to the Orient) sting, Rev_9:10, indicates (1) that their agency was to be on men, and not as the simple locust figure would have indicated, on vegetation, Rev_9:4. (It was the command of the Caliph Aboubeker, the father-in-law and successor of Mohammed, in accordance with the spirit of the Koran, issued to the Saracens on the invasion of Syria, “Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of corn; cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat.” Gibbon, Rev 51); (2) that it was to be a tormenting, not an utterly destructive, agency, Rev_9:5 (the sting of the scorpion is exceedingly painful, but not ordinarily fatal, see Books of Travel generally. In reference to the nature of this woe, as thus appropriately symbolized, the following is extracted from Barnes):
[“As applicable to the conflicts of the Saracens with Christians (Christendom, the external Church), the meaning here would seem to be, that the power conceded to those who are represented by the locusts was not to cut off and to destroy the Church; but it was to bring upon it various calamities to continue for a definite period. … In respect to this, some remarkable facts have occurred in history. The followers of the False Prophet contemplated the subjugation of Europe and the destruction of Christianity from two quarters—the East and the West—expecting to make a junction of the two armies in the North of Italy, and to march down to Rome. Twice did they attack the vital part of Christendom by besieging Constantinople; first, in the seven years’ siege, which lasted from A. D. 668 to A. D. 675, and secondly, in the years 716–718, when Leo the Isaurian was on the imperial throne. But, on both occasions, they were obliged to retire defeated and disgraced. Gibbon, 3:461 seq. Again, they renewed their attack on the West. Having conquered Northern Africa, they passed over into Spain, subdued that country and Portugal, and extended their conquests as far as the Loire. At that time they designed to subdue France, and having united with the forces which they expected from the East, they intended to make a descent on Italy, and complete the conquest of Europe. This purpose was defeated by the valor of Charles Martel, and Europe and the Christian world were saved from subjugation. Gibbon Rev_3:4 seq. ‘A victorious line of march,’ pays Mr. Gibbon, ‘had been prolonged above a thousand miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the highlands of Scotland. The Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or the Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelations of Mahomet.’ The arrest of the Saracen hosts before Europe was subdued, was what there was no reason to anticipate, and it even yet perplexes historians to be able to account for it. ‘The calm historian,’ says Mr. Gibbon, ‘who strives to follow the rapid course of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem, inevitable danger.’ ‘These conquests,’ says Mr. Hallam, ‘which astonish the careless and superficial, are less perplexing to a calm inquirer than their cessation—the loss of half the Roman empire than the preservation of the rest’ (Middle Ages ii. 3, 169). These illustrations may serve to explain the meaning of the symbol—that their grand commission was not to annihilate or root out, but to annoy and afflict. Indeed, they did not go forth with a primary design to destroy. The announcement of the Mussulman always was, ‘the Koran, the tribute, or the sword,’ and when there was submission, either by embracing his religion or by tribute, life was always spared. ‘The fair option of friendship, or submission, or battle,’ says Mr. Gibbon (3:387), ‘was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet.’ Comp. also vol. iii. 453, 456.”
[6. The length of the woe, five, months, i. e. (in the prophetic calendar) one hundred and fifty years—the precise length of the Saracenic invasion (see abstract of Elliott on p. 201; and also the Note on Prophetic Days, p. 260.—E. R. C.]
[2]“The fact that such creatures have never yet been seen should not make as conclude, that they never can or never will come. In the last times many things, till then unheard of, shall come to pass—much thitherto unseen shall greet mortal vision.” Thus Hebert. This mode of apprehension, however, has nothing to do with inspiration, as Düsterdieck thinks, but with literal exegesis.
[3][Elliott and Barnes, in accordance with Bishop Newton and many other distinguished historical interpreters, understand by the events under this Trumpet the Woe of the Turkish invasions (see pp. 201 sq.). The following is an abstract of the alleged parallelism between the prophecy and history, in view of which this view has been adopted and supported. (In the arrangement of the points, the plan of Barnes has been, in great measure, followed.) 1. The place, of departure: Rev_9:14 declares this to be the Euphrates; it is a well known fact, that the Turks went forth from this river on their career of conquest. 2. The four Angels, Rev_9:14 : Barnes explains this by referring to the fourfold division of the old Turkish Empire, previous to the outpouring on the remains of the Roman Empire, into four Kingdoms—Persia, Kerman, Syria and Roum (Gibbon, Rev 57); Elliott discards this and all similar divisions, and suggests that the number four was chosen either (a) in accordance with the propriety of the figure as indicating that there would be a general outpouring, in correspondence with the four winds which are the proverbial representatives of all winds, or else (b) as indicating that the tempest Angels (Rev_7:1) loosed in the Saracenic woe were subsequently bound at the Euphrates. 3. The preparation, Rev_9:15 : the Turkish Empire, having its seat about and to the East of the Euphrates, had long been growing in power and fitness to subdue the Eastern Roman Empire; long before their attack upon the latter, they had become the most powerful nation on the earth (see Gibbon, Rev 57). 4. Bound and loosed, Rev_9:14-15 : it is a matter of surprise that the powerful Empire which had subdued the East should so long have refrained from moving westward; it would seem as though they had been restrained by some superior power. 5. The material of their armies: Rev_9:16 implies that this was cavalry, the well known principal element of the Turkish hosts. 6. Their numbers: Rev_9:16, two myriads of myriads; the Turkish armies were immense. Gibbon says (Rev 57): “The myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles, etc.” (It is probable, if this hypothesis be correct, that the number relates to the entire number engaged throughout the period of the invasions.) 7.The numeration: by myriads, Rev_9:16 : it is one of the peculiarities of the Turks to speak of numbers, not as we do, by thousands, but by tomans (myriads), “so that it is not without his usual propriety of language that Gibbon speaks (as in the quotation in the preceding division) of ‘the myriads of Turkish horse’ ” (Elliott). 8. Their personal appearance: Rev_9:17, “breastplates fiery, hyacinthine and sulphureous;” Daubuz remarks: “From their first appearance, the Ottomans have affected to wear warlike apparel of scarlet, blue and yellow.” 9. The heads of the horses as the heads of lions, Rev_9:17; indicative (1) of their strength and fierceness—these were well-known characteristics of the Turkish cavalry; (2) not only of the characteristics, but of the titles of the heads or leaders; Gibbon writes (Rev 57.): “The name of Alp Arslan, the Valiant Lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of Togrul Bey displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates, and entered Cæsarea, etc.” Elliott remarks (vol. i., p. 498): “This kind of title, which reminds one of those of the American Indians, seems to have been common among the Turkmans. So Kizil-Arslan, the Red lion, a chief contemporary with Togrul Bey; and again kilidge Arslan (Noble Lion) etc.;” and again he writes (p. 510): “So Rycaut on the Turks, Revelation 21 : ‘The Turks compare the Grand Seignor to the lion, and other kings to little dogs.’ ” 10. Out of their mouths, etc., Rev_9:17. Barnes remarks: “This is just such a description as would be given of an army to which the use of gunpowder was known. Looking now upon a body of cavalry in the heat of an engagement, it would seem, if the cause were not known, that the horses belched forth smoke and sulphureous flame;” the use of fire-arms by the Turks in their invasion of the Eastern Empire is one of the established facts of history. 11. The destructive agency, Rev_9:18 : Not only did the Turks use fire-arms, but to this agency, more than to aught else, was their success due, as appears from the following remarks of Gibbon in reference to the siege of Constantinople, Rev 68: “Among the implements of destruction, he (the Turkish Sultan) studied with peculiar care the recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins; and his artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. A founder of cannon, a Dane or Hungarian, who had almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and was liberally entertained by the Turkish Sultan. Mohammed was satisfied with the answer to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist: ‘Am I able to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constantinople? I am not ignorant of their strength; but were they more solid than those of Babylon, I could oppose an engine of superior power: the position and management of that engine must be left to your engineers.’ On this assurance, a foundry was established at Adrianople, the metal was prepared, and at the end of three months Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible magnitude; a measure of twelve palms is assigned to the bore; and the stone bullet weighed above six hundred pounds. A vacant place before the new palace was chosen for the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden and mischievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclamation was issued that the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day. The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit of a hundred furlongs; the ball, by the force of gunpowder, was driven about a mile; and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom deep in the ground. …. The same destructive secret had been revealed to the Moslems, by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches and despotism. The great cannon of Mohammed has been separately noticed—an important and visible object in the history of the times. But that enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude; the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most accessible places; and of one of these it was ambiguously expressed that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns, and that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets. From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides; and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire.” In view of such historical facts, Elliott remarks: “It was to ‘the fire and the smoke and the sulphur,’ to the artillery and firearms of Mahomet, that the killing of the third part of men, i. e., the capture of Constantinople, and by consequence the destruction of the Greek empire, was owing.” 12. Power in their tails, Rev_9:19 : on this Elliott remarks: “A horse-tail to denote a ruler! Strange association! Unlikely symbol! Instead of symbolizing authority and rule, the tail is in other Scriptures put in direct contrast with the head, and made the representative rather of the subjected and the low. Besides which, it is not here the lordly lion’s tail, but that of the horse. Who could ever, à priori, have conceived of such an application of it? And yet among the Turks … that very association had existence, and still exists to the present day. … It is the ensign of one, two or three horse-tails that marks distinctively the dignity and power of the Turkish Pasha.” Barnes remarks: “The image before the mind of John would seem to have been that he saw horses belching out fire and smoke, and—what was equally strange—he saw that their power of spreading desolation was connected with the tails of the horses.” 13. The number, the third part of the men, Rev_9:18 : this Elliott explains as indicating the overthrow of the Eastern, or one-third of the entire, Empire. Barnes writes: “No one in reading the accounts of the wars of the Turks, and of the ravages which they have committed, would be likely to feel that this is an exaggeration; it is not necessary to suppose that it is literally accurate.” 14. The time of continuance—a day, hour, month and year, Rev_9:15 : this period in the prophetic calendar, on the ordinary hypothesis of regarding the prophetic year as consisting of three hundred and sixty days, would equal three hundred and ninety-one years and thirty days. Elliott, however, calls attention to the fact, that the term employed is not the prophetic καιρός, but ἐνιαυτον; he therefore hypothesizes that the Julian year was intended, and thence deduces as the period contemplated, reckoning twelve hours to the prophetic day (comp. Joh_11:9), three hundred and ninety-six years, one hundred and eighteen days. The Turks, according to Abulfeda, went forth from Bagdad on their career of Western conquest on the 10th of Dzoulcaad A. H. 448, which corresponds with January 18th, A.D. 1057; from this to May 29th, 1453 the date of the fall of Constantinople, is three hundred and ninety-six years, one hundred and thirty days; or counting to May 16th, the day on which the investment was completed, the fortieth day of the siege, we have the exact prophetic period. Concerning the fortieth day, we have the “unintended expository words (of Gibbon): ‘After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constantinople could be no longer averted.’ ” 13. The effect, Rev_9:20-21 : it is notorious that, previous to the Turkish woe, nominal Christendom was sunk in a condition of (1) demon worship (the invocation of saints), (2) idolatry (image worship), (3) murders (bloody persecutions), (4) sorceries (incantations and pretended miracles), (5) fornications (abounding impurities), (6) thefts (indulgences, masses, etc.); and it is equally notorious that this woe was not followed by general repentance.—E. R. C.]
[4][These judgments, in the opinion of the Am. Ed., commenced after the Woman had become the Harlot—after the unholy alliance between the Church and State. See on Revelation 17.—E. R. C.]
[5][“There were to be seven Trumpets sounded, and under the seventh Trumpet seven Vials poured out. The numeral resemblance of these to the seven trumpet blasts sounded on seven successive days against the ancient Jericho, and which were followed on the seventh day by seven compassings of its walls, till on the last the wall fell down, and entrance was given to Israel into that first city of the promised Canaan (Jos_6:3-16)—this interesting resemblance, I say, has been noticed by Ambrose Ansbert in old times, and in more modern times by Vitringa, and other Apocalyptic interpreters after him. It almost seemed as if some power were marked out hereby as the New Testament Jericho; whose domination opposed, and whose overthrow would introduce the saints’ enjoyment of the Heavenly Canaan.” Elliott, Vol. I, p. 349.—E. R. C.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–21 upon--Greek, "unto," or "into."
upon--Greek, "unto," or "into."
as the scorpions of the earth--as contrasted with the "locusts" which come up from hell, and are not "of the earth."
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have power--namely, to sting.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21 The three Spiritual (or Woe) Trumpets, Rev_9:1 - Rev_22:6.
The three Spiritual (or Woe) Trumpets, Rev_9:1 - Rev_22:6.
THE FIFTH (first Woe) TRUMPET—
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Abysmal locust-demons—emblems of infernal influences on earth, Rev_9:1-11.
Rising from the curse-scarred surface of the earth into the sphere of spiritual woes, we now behold a vivid picture of diabolical influences issuing from hades, headed by Abaddon, and filling the moral atmosphere of our earth. They are presented as hellish locust swarms, in which the qualities of that insect being made the basis, all demoniac traits are added. This picture informed the early believers that the dominating influences of hell on earth were still to continue for awhile, even during the Messianic dispensation, making life a pessimism and death a desire to the profane world. These infernal locusts are an image of the infernal swarm of errors and vices issuing from hell and Satan, and filling men’s lives with misery.
Hengstenberg interprets the whole as a picture of human war, and justifies his interpretation by several Old Testament passages in which locusts are symbolical of armies, as Jer_46:23; Jer_51:27. Yet as these locusts come from the pit and are led by Apollyon, we may believe the image to be elevated from the idea of war between man and man to a moral war of the infernal upon the terrestrial. This is sustained by the prohibition to kill, Rev_9:5, and the still stronger fact that death is sought in vain, Rev_9:6.
It is a strange symbol of physical war which prohibits killing!
1. Star fall from heaven—Rather star fallen from heaven. Note Rev_4:11. The seer did not see the fall, for that had taken place ages ago. Jesus in spirit saw Satan falling as lightning from heaven. Luk_10:18. He beholds the fallen star on the earth, as king of the infernal locusts, and his name is Abaddon. Rev_9:11.
Was given— Originally by the Supreme.
Key—As keeper and sovereign.
Bottomless pit—In the Greek the αβυσσος, or abyss, etymologically signifying, a depth without a bottom. Note Rev_13:1. But the Greek phrase here is very peculiar—φρεστος της αβυσσου, the well of the abyss. The abyss is the under world, consisting largely of waters, yet the abode of evil spirits and wicked souls. It is entered from the earth through a narrow descending passage or well; and this well has a key to it held by Abaddon, the fallen star.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 The Fifth Trumpet. First Woe. Chap. 9 Rev_9:1-12
The Fifth Trumpet. First Woe. Chap. 9 Rev_9:1-12
1. fall from heaven] Rather, fallen. St John does not say that he witnessed the actual fall.
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to him was given] Clearly therefore the star is identified with a person: no doubt a “fallen angel,” in the common sense of the term. For the identification of angels with stars, cf. Rev_1:20, and Job_38:7 : and of fallen angels in particular, Enoch xviii. 16, xxi. 3, &c. The fall of this star may legitimately be illustrated, as to the image by Isa_14:12, and as to the meaning by Luk_10:18; Luk_12:9 in this book: but it is not to be assumed that this passage refers to the same event as either of the two last, still less that the first does.
of the bottomless pit] Lit. of the pit (or well) of the abyss: the depth of Hell, the home or penal prison of the demons (see Luk_8:31, where the word translated “the deep” is the same), is conceived as a pit in the earth’s surface, no doubt literally bottomless, but of finite area, so that it can be fitted with a cover which can be fastened down with a padlock or seal. Cf. Rev_11:7, Rev_17:8, for the notion of evil beings issuing from the pit; Rev_20:1; Rev_20:3, for their being confined there. But notice (i) that this pit is nowhere identified with the “lake of fire,” the final destination of the Devil and his angels: (ii) that we are not told that the Devil himself is cast into it yet; rather the contrary is implied.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 (1) And the fifth angel . . .—Translate, And…
(1) And the fifth angel . . .—Translate, And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star out of the heaven fallen (not “fall,” as in English version; the seer saw not a falling, but a fallen, star) upon the earth. The emblem of a fallen star is used elsewhere in the Bible. Isaiah (Isa_14:12) speaks of Lucifer fallen from heaven. Christ described Satan as lightning falling from heaven. Some great power or ruler is represented, then, by this fallen star. He is, moreover, said to have fallen from heaven, and he is represented as having been given the key of the abyss. Does not this lead us to expect the working of some evil spirit and diabolical agency? The 11th verse confirms our expectation. We may compare Rev_12:8-12, where Satan is described as defeated, cast down to the earth, and filled with wrath. To understand this fallen star as the representative of a good angel seems hardly possible.
And to him was given . . .—Literally, and there was given to him (i.e., to the being represented as a fallen star) the key of (not “the bottomless pit”) the pit of the abyss. The abyss is the same word rendered “the deep,” in Luk_8:31, where the demons besought our Lord not to send them into the abyss, or deep. It is the word which describes the abode of the evil spirits. The verse before us suggests the picture of a vast depth approached by a pit or shaft, whose top, or mouth, is covered. Dante’s Inferno, with its narrowing circles winding down to the central shaft, is somewhat similar. The abyss is the lowest spring of evil, whence the worst dangers arise. (Comp. Rev_11:7; Rev_17:8; Rev_20:1-3.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–21 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a…
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; a star from heaven fallen unto the earth (Revised Version); not saw a star fall. (For the distinctive character of the last three judgments, see on Rev_8:2) "A star" sometimes signifies one high in position. Thus Num_24:17, "There shall come a star out of Jacob;" Dan_8:10, "And it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground." In Rev_1:20 "the stars" are "the angels of the seven Churches;" in Job_38:7 the angels are called "stars;" in Isa_14:12 we have Satan referred to thus: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" It seems, therefore, that Satan himself is here referred to under this symbol. The trumpet visions hitherto have portrayed troubles affecting the outer man; now begin to be set forth these yet more terrible visitations which, affecting his spiritual nature, are seen more directly to emanate from the devil. He has fallen "from heaven unto the earth;" that is, whereas formerly heaven was his abode, the sphere of his work while yet obedient to God, he now has no office or power, or entrance there, but is permitted to exercise what influence he possesses on the earth. (cf. Luk_10:18, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven This is the view of Tertullian, Aretbas, Bede, Vitriuga, Alford, believe an evil angel is meant; Wordsworth thinks an apostate Christian teacher is signified; Andreas, Bengel, and De Wette believe a good angel is intended; others see particular emperors, etc.; while Hengstenberg thinks the figure represents not one, but a number of persons, including Napoleon. And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit; of the pit of the abyss (Revised Version). That is, as Wordsworth explains, of the aperture by which there is no egress from or ingress into the abyss. Christ holds the key, (Rev_1:18) but for a season Satan is permitted to exercise power. The abyss is the abode of the devil and his angels; the present abode, not the lake of fire, into which they are subsequently cast. (Rev_20:10)
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-6. The evil effect of degeneracy: the fallen star.
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Homiletic expositions aim to avoid as tar as possible the topics of controversy. Yet must they be definite in their view of the interpretation of the words of Holy Scripture. Their own sphere is the moral and practical. They speak with no authority in the department of exposition. The view taken of this figure does not confine its reference to any individual person; although some individuals have gained a special notoriety. Many who have occupied the place of "stars," which are "the angels of the Churches," have fallen from their place and ceased to be illuminating powers, and their degeneracy has been the occasion of a temporary triumph of evil in one form or other. These have let loose the spawn of hell. Here the sad picture is presented of the ill effects of such degeneracy. It may be moral or intellectual descent; although the alliance with evil would seem rather to confine it to a departure from goodness and righteousness. A mere mental aberration not equally destructive. The great power of evil is found in that unfaithfulness to truth which issues in degeneracy of manners and life. The evil of such degeneracy is
I WIDESPREAD. From the position and influence of him who has been as a leader and guide of others. His life known, his influence great, his example contagious. Men follow leaders; and the welfare of the world is now advanced, now retarded, by the fidelity or unfaithfulness of them who are charged with high trust and responsibility.
II DESTRUCTIVELY INJURIOUS. In proportion to the influence which any one wields is his power for good or evil. If one falls from a high position, he drags down others. The angel of light, become an agent of evil, opens the bottomless pit. He brings the utmost evil upon men such "as have not the seal of God upon their foreheads.
III BITTERLY AFFLICTIVE. The injury caused is great in the social degeneracy, in the weakening of moral principle. A pillar of the house trembles, all becomes less secure. But the painfulness is great:
1. To him who falls.
2. To them whom he drags down with him.
3. To them whose sympathies being only with goodness are afflicted by anything that tends to degeneracy of manners, to feebleness of faith, or to the lowering of the tone and felicity of human life.
4. To the widespread, outlying multitudes, amongst whom the spread of goodness is retarded by every act of unfaithfulness and every instance of degeneracy and defection. R.G.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-3. Moral evil in the universe.
"And the fifth angel sounded," etc. We take these verses to illustrate moral evil in the universe. Moral evil is a "pit." A pit is a scene of confinement and darkness. Moral evil, or sin, wherever it exists in the spirit, imprisons the faculties and blinds the vision. Socrates has well said, "No man is a free man who has a vice for his master." All corrupt souls are reserved in chains of darkness. Sin is slavery, sin is midnight. In relation to moral evil as a "pit," four things are suggested.
I IT IS EXPOSABLE. "The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Moral evil, in its incipient state, so stupefies the faculties and blinds the conscience that the subject only becomes aware of it by the advent of a messenger from heaven; an angel from heaven uncovers it, makes it bare to the soul. How do the savages, how do the millions whose souls are buried in sensuality, become conscious of sin? Only by a special message from heaven. What says Paul? "I was alive without the Law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." That is, Paul fancied he was alive that is, all right until the Divine message came. Every genuine gospel minister may be said to be a star from heaven with the "key of the bottomless pit," that key with which he opens it and exposes it to the consciences of his hearers. Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, was such an angel; he uncovered the pit of moral evil within his hearers, and they exclaimed, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?
II IT IS FATHOMLESS. "Bottomless pit." It is an abyss without a bottom. Moral evil is fathomless.
1. Who can fathom its origin? We can account for sin in this world on two principles.
(1) On the principle of internal tendencies. The human being, from the very commencement of its existence, seems to have a disposition to go wrong.
(2) On the ground of external influences. He comes into a world where all human beings are more or less minted with sin; the moral atmosphere which he breathes is more or less corrupt. But in the case of the first sinner neither of these conditions existed; all his propensities were toward the right, and all external influences tended toward the right.
2. Who can fathom its issues? What are its bearings, ramifications, ultimate results? Problems these which the highest created intellect could, perhaps, never solve. Moral evil is, indeed, a "bottomless pit.
III IT IS BURNING. "A great furnace." Sin, or moral evil, is fire; like all fire it exists in two states, latent and active. Where it becomes active it is consuming and transmuting; it consumes the good and transmutes its embers into evil, and in all it inflicts agony on the soul the agony of moral regrets for the past, and terrible forebodings for the future. Every sinner has a "furnace" within him, a furnace that must break forth into awful activity sooner or later.
IV IT IS OBSCURING. "A smoke and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." How great the obscuration of moral evil! It clouds all the moral stars of truth in the soul, and mantles the moral heavens in gloom.
1. How benighted men are on the eternal question of right! The foundations and laws of moral obligation are, in the daily course of human action, buried in darkness.
2. How blinded men are to the eternal conditions of well being! Men look for happiness without instead of within; in the senses, not in the soul; in matter, not in mind; in the creature, not in the Creator. Thus, in truth, our moral heavens are starless and our path is a wilderness. We walk in darkness and have no light.
V IT IS ALARMING. "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power." It is here represented that from the fathomless abyss, burning and smoking, there issued a host of scorpion-locusts resembling war horses, with crowns like gold, with the face of men, the hair of women, the teeth of lions, having breastplates as of iron, and the sound of their wings like the sound of chariots and of horses charging to battle. In Oriental lands and distant ages nothing was regarded with greater horror than an army of locusts; their numbers darkened the heavens, their wings rattled as thunder, and their mission was to devour What hellish squadrons, to terrify and destroy the soul, issue from the fathomless abyss of moral evil! Terrible armies come in the memories of the past and. in the apprehensions of the mysterious future.
CONCLUSION. Do not ask Where is hell? Place it not in some underground region, or in some burning planets far away; the fathomless, burning, and tormenting pit is in the soul of every morally unrenewed man. Thank God, there are remedial means on this earth for the quenching of its fires, and the annihilation of all the squadrons of tormentors it sends forth. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 13 I saw a star fall from heaven unto the…
Rev_9:1-12
I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth.
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Moral evil in the universe
I. It is exposable (Rev_9:1). Moral evil, in its incipient state, so stupefies the faculties and blinds the conscience that the subject only becomes aware of it by the advent of s messenger from heaven--an angel from heaven uncovers it, makes it bare to the soul.
II. It is fathomless. Bottomless pit. Who can fathom its--
1. Origin.
2. Issues.
III. It is burning. A great furnace. Like all fire, it exists in two states--latent or active. Where it becomes active it is consuming and transmuting: it consumers the good, and transmutes its embers into evil, and in all it inflicts agony on the soul--the agony of moral regrets for the past, and terrible forebodings for the future.
IV. It is obscuring.
1. How benighted men are on the eternal question of right!
2. How blinded men are to the eternal conditions of well-being!
V. It is alarming (Rev_9:3). What hellish squadrons, to terrify and destroy the soul, issue from the fathomless abysses of moral evil! Terrible armies come in the memories of the past and in the apprehensions of the mysterious future. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The fallen stars
A star falling from heaven may be interpreted as something bright that leaps from its proper place, or may be used as the symbol of many things that are out of their true position, and as the type of many persons who are wandering, or who have wandered, or who will wander from their proper locality. It stands for broken plans, broken character, for virtue turned upside down, and for a world filled with riot, confusion, and shame.
1. As we study history, we find, in each age, a large number of prominent men who for a long season gave a brilliant light, and then all at once became eclipsed by their sins, being struck from the celestial skies. Is there any sight more sad than this? It is opportunity clipped, virtue smothered, consummate grandeur scorched, and a posterity robbed of examples that might have been splendidly luminous beyond all human estimate. Such men have struck a blow at humanity, and they stand unenvied, in the niche of fame, as traitors to their race, aliens from God, and bad specimens of a discrowned morality; and such is the penalty of a high position misused, of a great trust betrayed, and of a grand possibility disgraced.
2. Again, great cities and countries that have become extinct are fallen stars--Babylon, Nineveh, and Tyre, and others of like nature, which once led the world in beauty, culture, commerce, and force, but which now are lost in the ashes that serve as their mausoleum. No one could have foreseen their fate, because so stately, so magnificent, and so glorious did they appear, and right royal in their beauty.
3. In each ones personal history we discover that bright luminaries have fallen from their place; for no one can look back upon a past life without detecting various periods when awful slips were made. How innocent we once were! What bright dreams of goodness flitted athwart the brain, crowned the soul, and illuminated a possible future! Ah! the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. We meant to do that which was right, but temptation came, then we turned aside to the evil way; and probably there is not a person in the world at the age of twenty-one who has not lost somewhat of the freshness of early life, and we all moan over some good thing that we have too easily let go. Are we as truthful as we once were? as honest? as pure? Ah! the firmament of our souls has become strangely darkened, and many of the brilliant lights that once studded it appear to have died out. Only here and there twinkles one little star, very lonely, sad, obscure. Clouds and darkness are round about us, while a thick vapour has thrown its fearful shroud over our original beauty. Yet, all this we can remedy; and these choice constellations of early days, now so disguised, can be made to shine with renewed glory, can once more proclaim their power, and can yet again blaze with gorgeous splendour. And Jesus came on purpose to tell us how to keep these starlike virtues in their orbit, how to call them back when they have wandered, and how to summon up their original splendour. He did not wish us to be freed from all temptation, that, merely by the absence of exposure, our innocence might be eternally fortified, and that our goodness might be iron-clad--no, not that; but He endeavoured to show us how to meet temptation, how to conquer it, how to take our innocence and to push it into virtue, and how to change a mere passive goodness into a decided, active, and glorious nobleness of character. (Caleb D. Bradlee.)
Why should God permit this star to fall
Could not He who made the heavens have kept the constellations in their place, and have saved from extinction those brilliant lights? If Be could only make them, but could never control them after they were born, where was His omnipotence? If He could only make them, and yet not know that they would rebel, where was His omniscience? Or, in other words, why did God ever allow sin to attack the children of men? that old question that is ever new, and that will ever come up to trouble us; for it has puzzled the human heart ever since the human heart was made, yet is not the answer really very plain? Without free will we should be machines; but with it there must be the possibility of our going astray. God can, and does, prevent sin from injuring the world ultimately; but He cannot, consistently with the freedom of the human mind, stop a human being from going astray if that human being so desires. And if the star will fall from heaven, why it must fall; but God will prevent it from scorching the world, while God, perhaps, in time will so inflame it with His blessed love, pity, and grace that it will find again its place, regain its power, and shine once more in splendour. (Caleb D. Bradlee.)
The evil effects of degeneracy: the fallen star
The evil effects are--
I. Widespread.
II. Destructively injurious.
III. Bitterly afflictive.
1. To him who falls.
2. To them whom he drags down with him.
3. To them whose sympathies being only with goodness are afflicted by anything that tends to degeneracy of manners, to feebleness of faith, or to the lowering of the tone and felicity of human life.
4. To the widespread, outlying multitudes, amongst whom the spread of goodness is retarded by any act of unfaithfulness and any instance of defection. (R. Green.)
Abuse of the best things
The best things, when abused, become the worst; there is no devil like a fallen angel, no enemy to the gospel like an apostate Christian, no hate like the theological hate, no war like a religious war, and no corruption like religious corruption. The reasons are not far to seek. The best things are the strongest; they can therefore do evil when used in an evil way. (A. J. Morris.)
Shall men seek death, and shall not find Jr.--
The extremity of anguish
I. A state of misery in which death is sought.
1. Death is universally regarded amongst men as the greatest evil. The ravenous beast, the furious storm, the destructive pestilence, the engulfing earthquake, are only terrible because death is terrible.
2. The relief which men generally seek in this world in their sufferings is from death. The mariner will forsake his ship with valuable cargo, the king will resign his kingdom, the wounded will suffer amputation of every limb, if thought needful, to avoid death.
II. A state of misery in which death is sought as a relief in vain. It is miserable to seek relief in the most deeply felt evil, but to seek it in such an evil in vain adds wondrously to the misery of the case. Fatigue, disappointment, the consciousness of lost energy, add to the anguish. Earth runs from death; hell runs after it, and runs in vain.
III. Concluding inferences:
1. The fact that men are exposed to such a state of being implies that some sad catastrophe has befallen our nature.
2. There is something in the universe to be dreaded by man more than death, and this is sin.
3. Christianity should be hailed as the only means to deliver us from this extremity of anguish. It destroys sin; it condemns sin in the flesh. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
As it were crowns like gold.--
The fictions of sin
These mystical locusts personify the lusts and passions which destroy the soul, and which, destroying the soul, destroy all things. Our text suggests that sin affects great things, it promises great things, and it never gives what it promises. On their heads were as it were crowns of gold. It is not a real, solid, golden crown, but as it were. Sin always acts by an infernal magic; it is full of illusion, imposition, and mockery. There is indeed a Mephistophelean element in all sin; it saves its word whilst it lies, it gives a spurious gift, it is ironical, scornful, and derisive. It is the supreme sophistry; the supreme satire.
1. There is no reality in the greatness that sin promises. Sin promises distinction, glory, fame. The devil is quite flush of crowns. But men always find at last that selfish greatness, soiled greatness, unrighteous greatness is false greatness, and that it only mocks those who have made such immense sacrifices on its behalf. Take a conqueror, of whom Napoleon is the type. He was himself a locust, with a crown upon his head. And just as the locusts strip the trees and leave rich and smiling landscapes desolate, so did this imperial locust and his legions strip kingdoms and leave a track of blood and ruin. But how empty was all his glory, and how little it came to! An exile at St. Helena, you feel he got the crown, as it were. And to-day how utterly discredited he is, and how beggared all his greatness! The world knows him as a colossal brigand. Take a poet, and let Byron be our typical instance. How much of greatness and fame did he seem to acquire, and yet his career was based on egotism, sensuality, godlessness; and how poor he looks now! Take a politician. I have been reading the biography of a notorious statesman. He was a brilliant man and he loved brilliance. All his letters are about splendid events, gorgeous pageantries, eloquent speeches. He breakfasts with wits, takes tea with duchesses, dines with the queen. You read about literature, diplomacy, rank, but the great words of righteousness and humanitarianism are hardly breathed. How poor it all looks now! How theatrical it looks, how theatrical it was! How differently we look upon Wilberforce, who brought men liberty; upon Cobden, who gave us bread; upon Shaftesbury, who made mercy to distil upon waste places as the gentle rains drop upon the plains, beneath. Their crowns are solid, they glow as they age; but as for my dramatic statesman, ms diadem was dust before he was. It is always so. Wherever glory is built on egotism, violence, unrighteousness, it possesses only an apparitional crown. The burglar seizes property, but in his hands it is no longer property, but pillage. The sensual man seizes love, but beautiful love thus seized instantly dies and becomes a ghastly corpse--that we call lust. The ambitious man seizes greatness, but the moment that he touches it in the spirit of egotism and pride the splendid crown becomes tinsel. The coveted thing, whatever it be, loses its essence when the lawless lust has got it. If you want greatness and glory seek for it in another and truer pathway. You young men, be sure that you seek it in the ways of truth and wisdom and purity. Wisdom is the principal thing. She shall bring thee to honour. You professional men. You justly contemplate promotion and distinction in your calling, lawyer, physician, artist. Be sure you make no compromise. Be ready to go without a crown that you may get one. You municipal men. You political aspirants. Bring the religious and moral into your life or some day you will be mocked by knowing the crown for which you struggled is only a miserable counterfeit. And then we all hope for a larger glory and honour still. It is astonishing what a faith we have in the possibilities of our nature; what an instinct for greatness; what an appetite for glory! Years ago I remember a poor woman dying; she was a very poor woman, and was carried to the grave from a lowly cottage. But her children put this verse on her funeral card: And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. They felt she was great enough to have the sun for her robe, the moon for a footstool, and Orion, Venus, Sirius, Arcturus, Aldebaran, for the stars of her forehead. And they were right. The most magnificent things of the Apocalypse do not startle us. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. But let us aim at true greatness--not mock greatness. We do not want the crowns of the locusts--we want one of those other crowns, such as the elders wore, as the angels wore, as the saints wore. The true crown is a crown of righteousness, it fadeth not away.
II. There is no reality in the wealth that sin promises. Wealth without morality, without humanity, without spirituality, is in an extraordinary degree unreal and tantalising. On the Stock Exchange is what is known as phantom gold. Certain transactions in gold are known by this name. It is gold that exists only on paper, and it is dealt in as a pure speculation. But how much of the wealth of society is phantom gold! It is on paper only; it is truly a visionary, speculative thing. There is no real solid joy in it. Look at illegitimate wealth--wealth gotten by immoral means. Men sometimes get it, and then they are detected and they are deprived of it. There are rogues in prison to-day who have been deprived of their ill-gotten wealth. You have seen a mouse in a trap--it gets the cheese as it were. And if they do not go to prison, wealth that comes badly has a trick of melting away swiftly. They put it into a bag with holes, they get it and are poor, they never have anything. Fairy gold turns to withered leaves and dust. And sometimes conscience will not let them enjoy it. Look at Judas! He got the thirty pieces of silver as it were. And there is much the same deception and disappointment with all selfish, godless, unspiritual wealth. Men have it, and yet they have it not, they get the golden prize, and then harndling it find it as it were. They have it, and it is a phantom. It is like a man promising you money, and then showing you a five-pound note in a looking-glass. Balzac, the French writer, built himself a splendid mansion, but when he had finished it he had exhausted his resources, and so he proceeded to furnish it in imagination, Here a ticket announced a great picture, there a cabinet, conch, table, etc. The realities were not there, only labels. And it is often much the same with the selfish unspiritual rich, their outward life overbrims with riches, lint their soul is empty. They have certificates, title-deeds, parchments declaring that they have wealth and power and happiness, but the realities are utterly wanting in their deepest, truest life. They cant translate it into the true riches of brain and heart, of character, experience, and hope. A friend of mine in London is a jeweller for the theatres, and he was showing me the other day the jewels of the stage. What a size those jewels are! Mammoth gems, mountains of light, stars of the first magnitude. What colours those jewels have! Rich, burning, gorgeous hues. And what a quantity! Pearls by the peck. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, abound. Crowns, mitres, diadems, necklaces on every side. The crown-jewels in the Tower look mean and shabby compared with this treasury of gems. And yet one crown jewel would far more than have bought them all. Clever, ingenious, plausible--they were still Brummagem. One simple, small, modest gem of royalty outweighs all the gay and garish gems of the mimic kings and queens of the gaslight. And it is much the same with Vanity Fair, with all unspiritual glory, and fashion, and luxury. The rich and gay are but actors, their purple brings them no self-respect, their gold no gladness, their splendour no satisfaction of soul. Have no unrighteous wealth. It will only deceive and curse you. Do not hold your wealth in the spirit of selfishness. Be the steward of God, using for His glory, for high and generous purposes, whatever He gives you. And be sure of this, that no wealth is truly yours until it is realised in the spiritual and godly. The gold of this land is good.
III. There is no reality in the pleasure that sin promises. Pleasure that is not moral; pleasure that is selfish; pleasure that has no thought of God in it is always fictitious. It is imagination, illusion, falsehood. I remember a picture of the Prodigal Son, and there was one fine touch in it. The poor fellow had come to the feeding of the swine, and the painter had put in one of those poetic touches which mean so much a few poppies gave bits of colour to the dismal picture. Yes, one deep lesson of the parable was there--the prodigal had been under the power of opium, he had been the victim of illusion. And this illusion had betrayed him to the far country, the swine, the hunger, the brink of despair. It is always thus--the poppy plays the grand part. The devil makes men to see wondrous delights in sensual, selfish, godless pleasures. But they prove sooner or later as the podigal son did that it is illusion, that unrighteous and unspiritual enjoyment is a miserable cheat. The African saw blocks of silver on the other side of the river, but when he crossed the river they turned into black stones. He never gives you a crown of roses but as it were. Brethren, seek for a real crown--greatness, wealth, pleasure. Make for this. Dont be deceived. And there is One who can give it. It is in the truth and grace and power of Christ that you shall realise all the grand and beautiful and enduring satisfactions of the heart. There is no as it were in Jesus Christ. It is reality; it satisfies, abides. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Stings in their tails.--
The tail of a habit
A beast escaped with a halter, says Thomas Manton, is easily caught again; so a lust indulged will bring us into our old bondage. Nothing is harder to bury than the tail of a habit; but unless we do bury it, tail and all, the viper will wriggle out of its grave. A clear, clean, and complete escape is the only true deliverance from an evil practice which has long been indulged. A drunkard is not safe from the drink while he takes his occasional glass with a friend. A man who allows himself any one sin will be sure to allow another; where one dog comes into the room another may follow. A fish is not free for his life while a hook is in his mouth, and a line holds him to the rod. However thin the connecting medium, it will be the death of the fish, if it holds; and, however slight the bond which links a man to evil, it will be his sure ruin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
There come two woes more.--
Woes to come
To my own apprehension, while reading this in private, it seemed just such an utterance as the angel of God might address to the soul of the ungodly when he leaves the body. Death is over, saith the angel. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. Thou hast passed through the woes of death, but behold there comes a judgment, and then comes a second death: One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
1. The woe which is supposed to be passed is the woe of death. Death to the righteous has lost its sting, but to the wicked death has all its terrors. Its horrors are not diminished by anything that Christ hath done; yea, rather, death gathers more cause of dismay; for the very Cross itself may fill the obdurate heart with consternation. When the sinner dies impenitent, having rejected the mercy of Christ, death is woe indeed. One of my predecessors, Mr. Benjamin Keach, has left on record an account of a man that had been a trouble to his Church--for he had backslidden--and his cries, shrieks, and tears, at the very prospect of death, were enough to make ones hair turn white and stand upon end. The poor wretched man seems to have had a foretaste of perdition before he entered into its fire; and so it is ofttimes with the wicked: thou hast had thy harvest; thy summer is ended; but thou art not saved; thou hast been warned, but thou shalt not be warned again, and all the while conscience says this is just--I knew my duty and I did it not; I knew it was my duty to repent, but I steeled my heart against God, and I would not forsake my sins; I turned my back upon the Cross to dance in a merry circle downwards to the pit. This shall make death woeful indeed, when it shall be hurled into the mind; thou knewest thy duty, but thou didst it not:
2. Of the two woes that loom in the future, I would now briefly but solemnly speak.
(1) The first woe of the man who dies in his sins is the woe of judgment; that is terrible indeed. Scarce can a prisoner stand in the docks to be tried for his life by his fellow-man without trembling; at least, it is a wonder if it should be so. But conceive the great assize--the graves are opened! What horrors shall seize hold upon the wicked at that moment!
(2) After the woe of judgment there comes the woe of hell. Oh, what a woe is that in which all the woes of the lost are condensed! You cannot compare the pains of this life with the agonies to be endured hereafter. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 1–6. I saw a star from heaven fallen. (Revision).…
1–6. I saw a star from heaven fallen. (Revision). John saw when the trumpet sounded, not a star fall, but a star fallen to the earth. A star is a symbol of a leader. A star fallen to the earth would indicate his degradation in some way. To him was given the key of the bottomless pit. He was given power to let out hellish influences on the earth.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 13 Rev_9:1. Fall.—Better, “fallen”; that had fallen. A star would…
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH WOE-TRUMPETS
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
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Rev_9:1. Fall.—Better, “fallen”; that had fallen. A star would seem to represent a false teacher. Some think Mahomet is referred to. He claimed to have received instructions from Gabriel. And he let loose a flood of evils on the earth. But it is doubtful whether any personal identifications are permissible. The typical and symbolical character should be preserved. Bottomless pit.—Better, “pit of the abyss”; inner prison; lowest deep (Luk_8:31). The word “deep” describes the abode of the evil spirits. “This verse suggests a vast depth, approached by a pit or shaft, whose top, or mouth, is covered. Dante’s “Inferno,” with its narrowing circles winding down to the central shaft, is somewhat similar. The abyss is the lowest spring of evil, whence the worst dangers arise.”—Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
Rev_9:2. Darkened by reason of the smoke.—“The enemy is at work (in the conflict of the Church with evil), seeking to obscure the Church’s light by the diffusion of dark and low-born thoughts.
Rev_9:3. Locusts.—Not the insect, but evil spirits, whose influence and work can be represented by locusts. Godet’s note marks every point of this figure: “From out the bottomless pit, the dwelling-place of devils, issue a cloud of evil spirits, represented under the image of locusts, of brilliant and attractive colours, but armed with the sting of a scorpion, and who for five months (the time during which, in the East, the plague of locusts lasts—May to December) throw into a kind of delirium—not of joy, but of deep sadness—mankind, crushed under the weight of its struggle with the Almighty. It is as if the inhabitants of the earth were subjected to possession on a great scale, after the likeness of the single instances of the kind which we find in the gospel history.” These times of delusion, and possession—of fanatics and fanaticism—bear very seriously on the Christian Church, carrying even its members away.
Rev_9:4. Not hurt the grass.—As they were not to do the mischievous work of actual locusts, we are to understand that actual locusts are not meant.
Rev_9:5. Not kill them.—They were to produce a living misery. The poison of scorpions is so acid that it causes great agony. This is the figure here.
Rev_9:6. Seek death.—As an end to their misery.
Rev_9:7. Like unto horses.—There is an imagined likeness between the head of the locust and the mailed head of a horse. Crowns.—With possible allusion to decorations on warhorses’ heads.
Rev_9:8. Hair of women.—It is said that, in Arabic poetry, the same comparison is used of the antennæ of the natural locust. Teeth as lions.—Joe_1:6. Alford sees in this vision “a great symbolical army, multitudinous as locusts, malicious as scorpions, ruling as kings, intelligent as men, wily as womanhood, bold and fierce as lions, resistless as those clad in iron armour. The locust-like army has characteristics partly human, partly diabolical, partly civilised, partly barbarous,” It may be best to see in this description the various delusions, infatuations, fanaticisms, which have afflicted humanity, and put Christ’s Church in peril, idealised. This explains the mixture of metaphor.
Rev_9:11. Abaddon, Apollyon.—The destroyer. Not an historical person, but the representative of the destructive spirit. “The genius of destruction—bodily and spiritual.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rev_9:1-12
The Locust Symbols.—The interpretation of these visions is most difficult, but we must bear in mind that they are descriptive of that great war which the Church is waging with the world, which good is waging with evil, but the end of which, we are assured, is the victory of the good. The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of His Christ (Rev_11:15), but during the progress of the war the issue will often appear doubtful—nay, even the triumph may seem to be in the hand of the enemy; but faith disregards the back-flowing waves, for she knows the tide is coming in. We have seen that the advance of Christianity is marked by the manifestation of evils as well as the establishment of good. Christianity does not create evils, but the very intense honesty of her principles reveals the hidden force of unsuspected corruption. Thus the faith of Christ is come to give light unto the world, but in her progress many lights fall—the false lights of world-power, world-wisdom, false religionism, heresies. The enemy, too, is at work, and seeks to obscure her light by the diffusion of low and earth-born thoughts. The smoke of the pit blackens the light, and confuses the atmosphere. Now, this obscuration is surely the diffusion on earth of evil thoughts and ideas, the spirit of falsehood and hate, hostility to truth, and emnity against God and man. The bright, clear air, made gladsome by the sun, is darkened; “all forms, that once appeared beautiful, become hideous.” In the history of advancing truth there will come times when confused ideas will darken simple truth and right, and out of the darkness will emerge strange and mongrel teachings, with a certain enforced unity, but without moral harmony—a medley of fair and hideous, reasonable and barbarous, dignified and debased, which enslave and torment mankind. The outcome of these teachings is often war and tyrannous oppression, but the sacred seer teaches us distinctly that those who hold fast by the seal of God are those who cannot be injured, for he would have us remember that the true sting of false conceptions is not in the havoc of open war, but in the wounded soul and conscience.—Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Rev_9:7. Horses in Battle.—“The Mamalukes, wearing their beards long and rough, with graue and sterne countenance, having strong and able bodies, vsed such cunning in all their fights and battels that, after they had giuen the first charge with their launces, they would by and bye, with wonderful actiuitie, vse their bows and arrows, casting their targuets behind them; and forthwith the horseman’s mace, or crooked scimitar, as the manner of the battel or place required. Their horses were strong and couragious, in making and swiftnesse much like unto the Spanish jennets; and that which is of many hardly beleeued, so docile, that at certaine signes or speeches of the rider they would with their teeth reach him up from the ground a launce, an arrow, or such like thing; and as if they had known the enemie, run upon him with open mouth, and lash at him with their heeles, and had by nature and custom learned, not to be afraid of anything. These couragious horses were commonly furnished with siluer bridles, guilt trappings, rich saddles, their necks and brests armed with plates of yron; the horseman himselfe was commonly content with a coat of maile or a brest plate of yron. The chiefe and wealthiest of them used head pieces: the rest a linnen covering of the head, curiously folded into manie wreathes, wherewith they thought themselves safe ynough against any handle strokes; the common souldiers vsed thrumb’d caps, but so thicke that no sword could pierce them.”—Knolles.
Rev_9:7-10. Locusts.—These great grass-hopper-looking insects have been sad scourges to mankind, and the Egyptian plague of them has happened more than once since that early date. Africa, especially that part near to Egypt, has been at different times infested by myriads of these creatures, which have consumed nearly every green thing. The effects of the havoc committed by them may be estimated by the famine they occasioned. St. Augustine mentions a plague of this kind in Africa, which destroyed no less than eight hundred thousand men in the kingdom of Masinissa alone, and many more in the lands near the sea. It is also related that in the year 591 great hosts of locusts migrated from Africa into Italy, and after grievously ravaging the country, were cast into the sea, and there arose a pestilence from their stench, which killed nearly a million men and beasts. In the territory of Venice, in 1478, more than thirty thousand persons are said to have perished in a famine occasioned by the devastation of the locusts, and instances of their dreadful numbers have been recorded in France, Spain, and Germany. In different parts of Russia, Hungary, Poland, Arabia, India, and other countries, the locusts have come at regular intervals. In the accounts of the invasions of locusts, the statements, which appear most marvellous, relate to the prodigious mass of matter which encumbers the sea wherever they are blown into it, and the pestilence arising from its putrefaction. Their dead bodies are said to have been, in some places, heaped one upon the other to the depth of four feet, in Russia, Poland, and Lithuania; and when, in South Africa, they were driven into the sea by a north-west wind, they formed, says Barrow, a bank three or four feet high along the shore. When we consider the forests that are stripped of their foliage, and the earth of its green garment for thousands of square miles, it may well be supposed that the volume of animal matter produced may equal that of herds of large animals accidentally falling into the sea. Nevertheless, unless Augustine had been a saint, the death of so many men would have been doubted.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v1 This chapter is a thrilling description of the rise…
MOHAMMEDANISM
This chapter is a thrilling description of the rise and progress of the Mohammedan wars. A most wonderful Providence circumvents and overrules all the works of the devil. Satan never could have come on the earth without Divine permission; and he can only stay through the period of that permission. We live in a most auspicious era, when Satan is fast approaching the end of his earthly peregrinations. The day is dawning when we will have a world without a devil in it. Glory to God forever!
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At the rise of Mahomet, in the seventh century, the visible Church, both Greek and Latin, had degenerated into formality, hypocrisy, and gross idolatry, being filled with image-worship. Mahomet proclaimed to the world that God had sent him on a universal mission of iconoclasm; i.e., to destroy idolatry out of the world and establish a pure Monotheism; i.e., the worship of God alone among all the nations of the world. Notwithstanding the transparent plausibility of his proclamation, it was the climacteric institution of the devil. Despite his translucent pretensions to establish the worship of God only, purify the nations from idolatry, and unify the religions of the world, while he demolished all systems of idolatry, he established a cruel, bloody, murderous, tyrannical superstition, infinitely worse than the most barbaric idolatry that has ever cursed the world.
As this chapter is all on Mohammedanism, we now invite the reader to accompany us, for a time, into Daniel’s prophecies, where we have the same vision lucidly revealed in the eighth chapter, six hundred years before John saw it. After we shall have expounded Daniel’s vision (D.V.), as recorded in Daniel 8 th, we will return to the wonderful Apocalypse of John.
Now remember this vision begins with the ram, which represents the Persian Empire; which, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, reached universal dominion.
5-8. The “he goat” is the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great, who himself is the solitary horn between the eyes. In his precipitate conquest of the whole world, he rushes furiously against Media and Persia, the horns of the ram, and breaks them to pieces.
The four horns which came up are the four kingdoms-i.e., Greece, Egypt, Syria, and Central Asia into which the universal empire was divided by his four surviving generals, when he died of dissipation; i.e., the great horn was broken only one year after he had reached the pinnacle of universal empire.
9. “And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceedingly great towards the South, and towards the East, and towards the ‘Pleasant Land.’ Horn, throughout these prophecies, means political power, because human government is nothing but brute force, in the Bible symbolized by a wild beast. The nations themselves recognized this cruel fact. Great Britain is symbolized by the lion, Russia by the bear, and the United States by the eagle, all of which are ferocious, blood-thirsty animals. Why is Mahomet called a little horn? Because Arabia was at that time, and always has been, very weak politically, consisting mainly of arid mountains and sandy deserts, roamed over by the predatory Bedouins. Hence Mahomet, the false prophet, and the wonderful head of the great Eastern hemisphere of anti-Christendom, is called a little horn. For the same reason, the pope of Rome, whose political dominions were quite small, is called a little horn, though he is the great head of the Western hemisphere of anti-Christendom. Mahomet and the pope are the right and left supporters of his Satanic majesty, while Diabolus sits upon his ebon throne in the Pandemonium and rules the world. It says this little horn waxed great towards the South, the East, and the “Pleasant Land.” Africa means South, Asia means East, and “Pleasant Land” means the Holy Land. It is a patent historic fact that Mahomet, in his early conquest, overran the fairest portions of Asia and Africa, and in A.D. 637 Omar, the leader of the Moslem armies, overran all Palestine, consummating the conquest and the capture of Jerusalem and the occupancy of the temple. While the Moslem armies pushed their conquest throughout these countries, all Asia and Africa, where the apostles had preached the gospel, they not only took possession of the people, the spoils, and the government as they went, but they gave the people the solitary alternative of the Koran or the sword, thus exterminating Christianity as they went, and everywhere establishing the religion of the false prophet.
10. “And it waxed great to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and stars to the ground and stamped upon them.” Heaven is in the singular number, and means the firmament; “stars” means the rulers of the world; these everywhere Mahomet subdued, cast down, and “stamped upon them.”
11, 12. “He magnified even to the prince of host;” i.e., Mahomet became the leader of this military movement, which proposed to conquer the world and establish the Moslem faith in every nation. “By him the daily sacrifice was taken away.” “Sacrifice” is not in the Hebrew, which only says “daily.” It does not mean sacrifice, for this had not been offered in the temple since the Romans destroyed it, A.D. 73. It simply means that the daily worship was taken away. At that time the Greek Christians were in all that country, and Sophrosus, the venerable Greek patriarch, presided over the temple. When the Moslems captured it, A.D. 637, he fled away, exclaiming, “Alas alas! the abomination of desolation is now set up in the holy place!” “And an host was given unto him against the daily worship by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced and prospered.”
When Satan succeeded in the postponement of God’s millennium and the inauguration of his own, in its worldwide dominion, he climaxes the hellish enterprise by raising up Mahomet to rule the East, and the pope the West, as his faithful subordinates in the wholesale damnation of the world. You must remember that the very ingress of Satan into this world is by Divine permission, and in due time God will take him out. Neither Mahomet nor the pope, though raised up by Satan, could ever have encumbered a throne or rendezvoused an army without God’s permission. We see here, in Dan 8:12, that Mohammed was permitted to take the Holy Land and destroy the temple because of transgression. The Christian Church, East and West, had not only degenerated into formality and hypocrisy, but had actually gone off into idolatry, so that image worship everywhere abounded. Why did God ever permit Mahomet, the pope, and the devil, and other innumerable diabolical agencies, thus for ages to inundate the world with sin, misery, violence, bloodshed, and every species of diabolism which earth and hell could invent? The solution of this problem goes deep down into the hidden mysteries of human probation.
Rom 8:28: “God worketh together for good all things to them that love God.” You could not have all things and leave out Mahomet, the pope, and the devil, for they are the biggest things in the world. Hence it follows as a legitimate deduction from the Divine ipse dixit that they are a blessing to God’s true people. It seems that all the powers of hell are turned loose to tempt the bride of Christ. In the glorious scheme of divine administration, Christ proposes to evangelize and rule this and many other worlds through the instrumentality of His true, faithful, and loyal bride. Hence, it is pertinent that all the candidates for the heavenly bridehood be subjected to every conceivable temptation, lest they might deflect and fall amid the momentous responsibilities incumbent on them in their responsible participation of the divine administration amid the bright immortal worlds which shall constitute the celestial empire in the ages of coming eternity. For reasons by us, amid the joys and storms of this fleeting probation, utterly incomprehensible, it is imperatively requisite that we pass through all the flint-mills earth and hell can invent. If we do not come out with a shout, it is demonstrative proof that we still need another flint-mill. I doubt not but the transcendent grace of God in Christ actually makes the devil himself one of the most prolific media of blessing to His true people. So let us shout over Mahomet, the pope, and the devil, and live in glowing anticipation of our descending Lord, who will forever take them all, with the countless myrmidons, out of the world.
13, 14. Here Daniel specifies the period during which the temple will be polluted by idolatry twenty three hundred years. Remember, this vision opens with the Persian Empire, which was founded by Cyrus the Great, and succeeded the Chaldean. Cyrus, with money out of the royal treasury, carried the Jews back to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple, B.C. 440. As the temple was built by a heathen monarch, with heathen money, and ruled by the same heathen king, the theocracy desolate in oblivion, it was much contaminated with idolatry. B.C. 444 plus A.D. 1896 equals 2340. The temple was forty nine years in building. Hence 2340 minus 49 leaves 2291 years elapsed since the temple under Nehemiah was finished. Daniel’s time for the cleansing of the temple is 2300 years. Now 2300 minus 2291 leaves 9 years yet to come till the temple at Jerusalem will be cleansed from idolatry.
The Moslem army under Omar captured Jerusalem A.D. 637. Dan 12:7 says they shall hold it a time, times, and half-time. A time is a year in lunar chronology — 354 days; in calendar chronology, 360 days; and in solar chronology, 365 days. We can only understand prophetical fulfillments proximately, because we have no definite system of chronology, and do not know which one obtains in any given prophecy. Really we do not know that any one of the three is precisely correct. However, they are all near enough to the true and exact chronology for all practical purposes. Hence, no one knows the day of these wonderful prophetic fulfillments, and the appointing of the day is fanatical. But Dan 12:4 assures us that the time of the end shall be known, for many shall run to and fro, and spread the knowledge of the thrilling fact that we are living in the time of the end. Let us take the middle chronology — 360 days in a year — and calculate Daniel’s time, times, and a half-time. A time is 360. Times are 360 plus 360 — 720. Half-time is 360 divided by 2— 180. Now these items — 360 plus 720 plus 180 — equal 1260 days; i.e., 1260 calendar years. Moslem rule began A.D. 637. Now, 1896 minus 637 leaves 1259. Hence you see, by this calculation, the Moslem power will fall at Jerusalem in 1897. When I was there last summer (1895), all nationalities were on the constant lookout for the fall of the Turkish government in Palestine. Turkey is already a political corpse, served by the Christian Powers as pallbearers. The government will fall whenever they see proper to bury the corpse. All nations are in daily expectation of the Turkish collapse. There is no possible alternative, upon the fall of the Turkish power at Jerusalem, but Palestine must come into Christendom. Then, of course, the temple will be cleansed. Rev 12:6 gives the period 1260 days. The 14th verse, same chapter, gives the statement times, times, and a half-time. Upon examination, you find these two statements synonymous. Hence, you may rely on 1260 years as the solution of time, times, and a halftime. Dan 12:11 gives the period 1290. This is readily explained on the hypothesis of lunar chronology, in which 1290 would just about equal 1260 years calendar chronology. You see all these numbers, which God in His mercy has hung out over the dark night of Satan’s reign to illume the pilgrim’s dreary journey “till the Sun of righteousness rises with healing in His wings,” beautifully and reciprocally corroborate and confirm the conclusion that we are living in the time of the end of the Gentile Dispensation, when these wonderful latter-day prophecies hasten to their fulfillment. They tally and harmonize sufficiently for all practical purposes. Let us not be croaking critics, but sit meek and lowly, like little children, at the feet of Jesus, and be taught by the Holy Ghost the deep things of God.
17-27. These wonderful prophetic visions so wrought on Daniel’s nerves that he fainted, and was sick several days; yet this wonderful vision of the end was not revealed to him. He was too far from the time of fulfillment to receive knowledge of the vision. These prophecies cover the intervening centuries down to the end. The Holy Ghost, in His mercy, has given His saints in every age the needed light on contemporary fulfillments. Daniel, with bygone generations, did not need a revelation of the fulfillments reserved for our day; but we have the profoundest interest in the fulfillment of the prophecies, which literally moved in panorama all around us and shaped the destiny of the world. Daniel was thrilled with the most eager enthusiasm to understand the wonders of the latterday prophecies, but God said to him (12:9):
“Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end.”
This not only means that the revelation of this prophecy was postponed till the time of the end, but that it is to be revealed in the time of the end. I find a thousand corroboratives that we are living in the time of the end, and this prophecy is now fast being revealed to the saints of God.
Dan 12:10 :
“Many shall be purified, made white, and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”
This verse is now everywhere being fulfilled in the Holiness movement, which belts the globe and moves like a race-horse through every nation. It is really wonderful how God is now, by His blessed Holy Spirit, revealing these prophecies to His saints. Yet the dead, popular Churches and wicked world are utterly blind and deaf to these stirring realities. Preachers and people are asleep to the mighty issues which rush on us like an avalanche.
Dan 12:7 :
“When He shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”
God, at the present day, is using myriads of agencies, directly and indirectly, to scatter the power of His holy people throughout the whole earth. Mighty armies of evangelists, male and female, are everywhere rising up and hastening to the ends of the earth, scattering broadcast the power of the holy people. When bishops and presiding elders have the true light of God, they will unite their counsels to send the sanctifying fire to the ends of the earth. In countless instances, ecclesiastical magnates lay all their wits under contribution to kill out the Holiness movement. In that case, they diligently take up every sanctified preacher and send him to the North Pole. The fire already kindled spreads and intensifies after he is gone, and the new preacher gets sanctified. Whither he goes heavenly fire comes down, melts and floods the icebergy Churches, spreads all over the surrounding country, catches the presiding elder, raises up a regiment of fire baptized workers, who take the district for God, while many missionaries go into regions beyond. Oh, how blind, how blind, the enemies of God’s holy people! They are doing their utmost to scatter the power and expedite the Lord’s coming, as profoundly ignorant that they are fulfilling prophecies as the high priest of Jerusalem when he signed the death warrant of our Savior.
23. “A king of fierce countenance shall stand up.” That king is Mahomet, the Arabian impostor. The Koran, by whose falsifications he has substituted the Bible, is full of dark sentences, expounded only by the muttering Moslem priest. The temple ground on Mt. Moriah contains ten acres, surrounded by great stone edifices occupied by the Mohammedan priests.
24. “His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.” While the Mahometan religion, from the beginning, was propagated by the sword, he was not a military leader. He was only a prophet, while the princes of the earth, loyal to the Koran, led his armies.
25. “Through his policy also shall cause craft to prosper in his hand. He shall stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand.” All the Moslems are wizards and witches. While on the summit of the largest Egyptian pyramid. five hundred and fifty feet high, and covering thirteen acres of ground, they did their utmost to get me to give them money to work miracles. They did the same when I was in the interior of the pyramid and elsewhere in my peregrinations with the tricky children of Esau. The Prince of princes is Christ, whom Mahomet avowedly rivals, supplants, supersedes, and eclipses, everywhere destroying the Bible and substituting the Koran. “He shall be broken without hand.” This is profoundly significant. All the kings of the earth have fought against the Moslem power in vain. During the Crusades, all Christendom united to drive the Mohammedans out of the Holy Land. They fought two hundred years, lost two millions of lives, and were driven out of Asia in utter despair. But while the combined powers of earth have been forced to submit to this cruel monster twelve hundred years (and even now they connive at his merciless Armenian murders), in due time God is going to kill this monster. All nations can’t kill him, but God can. For the last two hundred years, the hand of the Almighty has been heavy on the Turkish Government. Life is almost extinct; he is almost dead. No human being has killed him; in fulfillment of prophecy, he is dying without human hand. The hand of the Almighty is killing him. Good Lord, in condescending mercy to a suffering world, cut the work short in righteousness!
We now return to Revelation 9 th.
1. It should read: “I saw a star having fallen from heaven.” Satan is that star; his archangelic name was Lucifer. Isa 14:12 :
“How thou art fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.”
John has a retrospective vision of Lucifer’s apostasy and fall from heaven. Doubtless Satan, before he fell, was one of the brightest of all the heavenly host, as his name, “Lucifer,” is a Latin compound, and means light-bearer. John tells us (Revelation 12) that “one third of the stars — i.e., the angels — followed his evil influence and were cast down. Doubtless all created intelligences were originally probationers. Unfortunately, Lucifer, with many others, forfeited his probation and was cast out. Presumptively the probation in these celestial worlds has already expired, while we are still on probation. From this fatal apostasy originated all the evil spirits in earth and hell. They not only throng the dark pandemonium, but for wise purposes connected with our probation are permitted to interpenetrate the atmosphere enveloping this earth, coming in contact with human spirits, tempting and trying them in every conceivable way. Millions of souls fall under their mighty assaults and plunge into endless woe, while the heroic and true-hearted gloriously triumph through the blood of Christ. This verse tells us that the key of hell was given to Satan six thousand years ago. During all these centuries the devil has held the key and turned it against multiplied millions.
Rev 20:1 : We find the key in the hands of the angel, who arrests the devil and locks him up in hell. Doubtless, during the terrible Armageddon wars, the tide will turn against the devil and he will suffer signal reverses. The Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13) — i.e., that is, God the Father — will be here in person sitting in judgment against a wicked world and fallen Church. Amid Satan’s signal and awful defeats, even the key of hell will be wrested from him and turned over to the Apocalyptic Angel, who will arrest the devil like a common criminal and lock him up in hell.
We have now reached the seventh century in the prophetical panorama. Satan’s millennium, thoroughly inaugurated, is getting under full headway. The devil now raises up Mahomet to run the Eastern hemisphere, and the pope the Western.
2-12. We see here that Mohammedanism actually came from hell, sweeping out of the open vortex like vast swarms of locusts. The Holy Spirit compares them to scorpions, whose fiery fangs wither and blight everything with which they come in contact. In their desolating marches, the authorities protected the trees, which are rare and valuable in the Old World. The people who had the seal of God in their foreheads — i.e., the sanctified, who are few and unknown — were providentially rescued from this bloodthirsty monster. Mahomet constantly declared himself a purifier of religions, sent by the Almighty to destroy idolatry from the face of the earth, establish a universal Monotheism, and exterminate polytheism from the globe. At that time, nominal Christianity was confined to the Greek and Latin Churches, which had not only retrogressed into formality and hypocrisy, but they had filled their temples with idol-worship.
For wise purposes, God permits the devil to be in this world. Doubtless, for a similar reason, inscrutably connected with our probation, he permitted Mahomet to rise. He is the scourge of God for the castigation of fallen religion. The five months during which this awful havoc against humanity deluged the world with blood and bleached it with bones are one hundred and fifty prophetic years, and measure the first great period of the Moslem wars.
Meanwhile the Saracens overran Syria, Palestine, all Asia Minor, Egypt, the Barbary States of Africa; crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, subjugated all Spain, scaled the Apennines, poured their motley myriads of Oriental barbarians into France, sanguine with the hope speedily to overrun all Europe, exterminate Christianity from the globe, and unfurl the Crescent beneath every sky.
A.D. 733, precisely one hundred years after the death of Mahomet, Charles Martel, the French hero, immortalized his name by the signal defeat of the Moslem armies at Tours. Martel is a French word, and means “hammer.” This name was given to Charles, the heroic leader of the Christian armies, because he indefatigably hammered the Moslems till he signally defeated them at Tours. The Mussulmen had met no such defeat in a hundred years. Christendom knows not how much she is indebted to Charles Martel for the defeat of the Mohammedans at Tours. At that time they had driven Christianity out of Asia, Africa, and Spain. The trembling devotees of the lowly Nazarene had taken refuge in Europe, which, at that time, was the wild West. Meanwhile, the Crescent floated over the time- honored capitals of the world.
7. The golden crowns here spoken of are the yellow turbans worn by the Mussulmen.
8. The Saracen warriors wore long hair, like women, and were ferocious as lions.
10. The scorpion-stings and snake-heads, here described in the tails of their horses, emblematize the fatal destructiveness of their retreats. Such was their wonderful equestrian agility that their retreats were, if possible, more fatal than their attacks. Riding at sweeping gallop, they were accustomed to shoot backward with unerring precision, thus mowing down their pursuers in piles.
11. Abaddon is a Hebrew word, and means destroyer; Apolyon is a Greek word, precisely synonymous with Abaddon. This forever settles all questions as to the Satanic origin and authorship of the Mahometan religion.
12. We now wind up the fifth trumpet and the first woe. When the seventh seal was opened, in the eighth chapter, the volume of this wonderful prophetical book was reached. So momentous were the contents that seven trumpet-bearing angels were called out to proclaim successively the wonderful mysteries revealed in the book. Revelation moves in a geometrical progression. The first trumpet proclaims the ingress of that moral and spiritual corruption which derailed the Apostolic Church, propagated the dogmata of a sinning religion, prepared the way for the rise of the papacy, sapped the foundation of ancient civilization, undermined civil government, and brought on the Dark Ages. In the second trumpet, the infection reaches all classes of society, everywhere infusing an insurrectionary spirit. In the third trumpet, it reaches the subordinate departments of the governments, stirring up revolution. During that trumpet, Satan invents alcohol, called wormwood (8:11) — Greek, absinthe — which is the intoxicating element in whisky. During the fourth trumpet, all the thrones of earth’s time-honored empires totter and fall. By this time the Roman Empire, the upholder of ancient civilization, has been overturned by the Goths, Huns, and Vandals, and a barbarian encumbers the palace of the Caesars. The Dark Ages, memorialized by sin, ignorance, superstition, violence, rapine, and bloodshed, envelop all nations. Satan’s millennium is now in full blast. So he raises up Mahomet and the pope to run the machinery of the world.
So fearfully momentous are the proclamations of the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets, that they are denominated woes by the Holy Ghost. Remember. the geometrical ratio which obtains in the first, second, third, and fourth trumpets continues through the fifth, sixth, and seventh, which the Holy Ghost denominates “woes.” Doubtless, the last trumpet, which proclaims the last woe, will contain more than the preceding six.
Herewith (9:12) we wind up the fifth trumpet and the first woe. It lasts five months; i.e., one hundred and fifty prophetic years. The signal defeat of the Mussulmen at Tours, France, by Charles Martel, is the salient epoch in the first woe. For three generations the Moslem conquest had rolled its bloody tide over Christendom, driving it out of Asia, where it began, and Africa, where it was first propagated, till, panic-stricken for its doom, it trembles amid the wilds of Europe. Thus one woe is past, and, behold, two others come quickly!
SECOND WOE — Rev 9:9-13; Rev 9:11-14
“Loose the four angels bound in the great river Euphrates” (14, 15). The four angels are the four greatest Turkish Sultanies in the world, which bordered on the river Euphrates. This is the second great outbreak of Mohammedan wars, which lasted, without intermission, four hundred years, as we have a year (i.e., 365 days), a month (i.e., 30 days), an a day — 396 days; or, in round numbers, four hundred years. The Crusades, which are described in the tenth chapter, come in before this period, and are somewhat parenthetical in the Moslem conquests.
16. Two myriads of myriads, as the Greek says, are two hundred millions. That is certainly a wonderful host, marshaled and fighting for the extermination of Christianity four hundred years. No doubt but that inconceivable host were engaged during the four hundred years.
17-20. You see, from the description, they are the same people you saw in the first woe. Their attack is like lions, and their retreats like serpents coiling around their pursuers.
20, 21. Here we find a sad statement. All these horrific calamities, with wholesale murders, thefts, robberies, and every conceivable woe, till men sought death in preference to life, still did not bring them to repentance.
Dan 8:12 says Mahomet was permitted to rise and chastise the fallen Church because of transgression. People claiming to be Christians were gross idolaters, and worshipped devils. Yet they would not repent. No wonder the last woe is hastening to come on the fallen Churches of the present day. All who believe and preach a sinning religion worship devils. God’s religion saves you from sin, while Satan’s religion lies you out of your soul by offering you salvation in sin. Doubtless similar results will characterize the great tribulation, when the last woe will flood the earth with calamities such as the ages have never known. Millions on the earth are now worshipping devils, thinking they are worshipping God. Reader, will you not wake up before the awful storms of divine wrath wrap the world in cataracts of woe?
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The Great Voice from Heaven.
Rev 9:12
The Great Voice from Heaven.
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This is a world in which there is no standing still. Ceaseless progress is the law of nature. Everything is going on, and in our lives we feel it often, and sometimes we feel it sadly; there is no pause nor cease. Here in truth we have no continuing city; our feet are not set upon solid land; from birth to death we are carried on by a rapid current against which there is no striving. Now there are just two ways by which men can advance: the one leads upward, and its end is heaven; the other leads downward, and its end is perdition.
I. The voice of God comes to us from heaven and says to us, "Come up hither." The new voice of God speaks not to the ear, but to the heart. The whole Bible is a great voice from heaven. Revelation furnishes us with a continuous proof that it is the upward path which God would have us choose from the two that are before us.
II. A second voice that invites us up to heaven is that of our blessed Saviour. What was the Redeemer’s whole appearance on earth but one earnest, unceasing, lifelong entreaty that men would turn to God? And the Saviour even yet appears to remind us of His earthly travail and sorrow, and to whisper to us, "As ye would not that all that should prove in vain, come up hither."
III. The blessed Spirit, too, adds His voice to that which invites us towards heaven. The whole scope and object of His working is to make us fit for heaven, is an indication of His design and His wish that we should go up thither. The Spirit, the Purifier, as He makes us holier and better, thus fitting us for a clearer atmosphere and a nobler company, is ever whispering within us that it must be a higher life in which virtue will be perfect, and another world in which hearts will be pure.
IV. The voice of our dear friends who have fallen asleep in Jesus invites us to "come up hither." Let us plant our feet on the rock, and take not one step further in the evil way, for tomorrow may end our path, and today is the accepted time.
A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, p. 283.
Reference: Rev 11:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 488; W. Gledden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 136.
Rev 9:15
The Triumph of Christianity.
This book of the Apocalypse is confessedly one of those Scriptures that Scripture itself speaks of as "hard to be understood." Yet it must not on that account be neglected. Nay, perhaps, on that very account it is deserving of the most painstaking study.
I. Note well the topography, or, as I might truly say, the geography, of the text. The event concerning which this seventh angel is sounding, and which occasions these great voices of jubilation in heaven, is not an event which is happening in the region of heaven; but it is an event which is to occur on this earth. They are rejoicing over this event which is thus foreshadowed: that "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." Through the whole of Scripture, it is this earth, which was the scene of the usurper’s conquest, and the scene of the Redeemer’s conflict with him, and the scene of the Redeemer’s travail, and toil, and agony, and shame, and death, and the scene of all His Church’s conflicts and sufferings, that is yet to be the theatre of His triumphs. He is not to win in some ghostly region far away, and leave this world to the devil or to ashes. But here, in this tangible world, is He yet to triumph, and over the field of His sufferings is He yet to wield His sceptre. The prayer that has been going up from the Church for two millenniums shall yet receive its glorious answer, "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
II. Let me next observe that, as an earnest of the final triumph, there has already been a partial fulfilment of this prophecy. Has nothing been done yet to make "the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ"? Take a map of Europe and see; take the page of history and see. All along the line there has been victory. Though the enemy has vastly outnumbered the Church’s little armies, and though there has been hard fighting, and though it has suffered reverses and repulses, and though its sufferings have been great and its martyrs many, yet defeat it has never known up till now. And though the battle is still prolonged, and its final victory not actually grasped, yet all is tending that way, and the issue cannot be doubtful. The Church’s
"Battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won."
R. Glover, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 371.
Rev 9:15
(with 1Co 15:24, 1Co 15:28)
The Coming of the Kingdom the Sure Hope of the Church.
When we read these passages, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever," and again, "Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, and God shall be all and in all," we are transported in thought to the utmost verge of future history. The end stands in contrast to the beginning. Sin began in man putting God off the throne of his heart and will; redemption ends in "God being all and in all." Again, we have seen how Israel was trained to the idea of an invisible King, and how all the national institutions of law, temple, monarchy, priesthood, were to be witnesses for Him, being pictures of an ideal state. In the shattering of the earthly symbolism and the advent of Christ, the training passed from the narrow limits of a nation to the whole world, and from external domain to inward and spiritual obedience. The true theocracy is reached when "the end comes," and "the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdom of the Lord." The advance of that kingdom of God is by the increasing recognition of the truth, the truth of God and the truth of humanity as in Christ, sin and evil passing away as the mind of Christ possesses the spirit of man. But in what sense can the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ?
I. The kingdoms of the world are something more than the various political states—empire, monarchy, or republic—into which nationalities are divided. The true kingdoms of the world are the moral forces and interests which bear sway over human life. There are the kingdom of commerce, with its penetrating influences, the kingdom of science, with its vast interests, the kingdom of literature, of art, of public opinion, all of which govern in that inner sphere which gives shape to history and character to movements. When we weigh what these kingdoms are we can perceive the possibility of their becoming the kingdoms of the Lord without any arrestment of movement or any shock to the methods in which they now control society. Life need not be of the world, but "the pride of life" constitutes it worldly. If we take away "the lust" and "the pride," then "the eye," and "the flesh," and "life" remain, but purified and true parts of the kingdom of God.
II. From these hints we can imagine the kind of victory secured by the coming of the kingdom of God. Already we can see how the aspect of civilisation has been changed by the inward influence of the Christian spirit, as in the case of marriage, slavery, and a thousand cruelties that have passed away as the mist vanishes when the sun arises in its strength. Let us imagine the diffusive power of the heavenly leaven to have penetrated the entire "lump" of human interest. To believe in the possibility of such an end is itself ennobling. It is good for us even to hope that Christ will yet reign, not by the forceful putting down of all authority, but by winning the willing homage of every heart.
D. Macleod, Christ and Society, p. 107.
References: Rev 11:15.—J. Halsey, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiii., p. 264. Rev 11:19.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1621. Rev 12:7.—Ibid., Evening by Evening, p: 337. Rev 12:7-9.—H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxvi., p. 209. Rev 12:10.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. ii., p. 405. Rev 12:11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1237; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 77. Rev 12:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1502.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Section 2. (Rev 9:1-21; Rev 10:1-11; Rev 11:1-18.)
Section 2. (Rev 9:1-21; Rev 10:1-11; Rev 11:1-18.)
Alliance with the enemy.
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In evil we may always expect a constant development. It is a kingdom, and the head of it is the great apostate, Satan himself. Thus if God only permit things to have their way, as He is doing now in that which is before us in the prophecy, we must expect that the picture will grow ever darker until the great consummation when the lightning of divine wrath will at last enlighten the whole and disperse it, and the day will at last come. What distinguishes the last three woes from what has gone before is the introduction, manifestly, of Satan himself into the scene. Christianity is that which, as light, holds in check the darkness as long as its power continues. We see, indeed, its manifest waning in the present day; but when the Church is removed, and, with the Church, the Spirit of God as dwelling in it is gone out of the scene, then the apostasy from Christianity will link itself more and more openly with the enemy of God and man. We have seen in the history of the churches themselves, as given in the seven epistles, a similar progress, although necessarily not as open; but now we come to the days in which the lawless one shall exalt himself against "all that is called God or that is worshiped," and his "coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders;" God allowing to be taken with a strong delusion those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
1. Accordingly, when the fifth angel sounds, we see a star fallen from heaven to the earth, to whom is given the key of the pit of the abyss, and the pit of the abyss is opened. The star is not seen to fall, as under the third trumpet. It has already fallen; and we are necessarily referred back to the third trumpet for its previous history. It is the history of an apostate. To him is given the key of the abyss, and by his means there is opened upon the earth from the pit of the abyss a Satanic influence pictured as a smoke of a great furnace, so that the sun is darkened and the air, by the smoke of the pit. The abyss, or bottomless pit, is not hell itself; nor, according to Scripture, is Satan yet there. Yet the abyss is a "pit," often in the Old Testament the synonym for a dungeon, and everything shows it to have this meaning here; for it is a key by which alone it can be opened. The "pit of the abyss" is the "dungeon of the abyss," -the dungeon which is that; an infinite deep from which nothing can recover itself, except by divine permission. So the demons pray that they may not be sent into "the deep," or "abyss" (Luk 8:31); and Satan is, in the twentieth chapter, shut up there: but the distinction between that abyss and hell itself, which is the lake of fire, is manifest in what is said in that connection. In the Old Testament, parallel to this in Revelation, it is said: "They shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in prison" (Isa 24:22). Here the pit and the prison are synonymous. That it is not hell proper is seen again from the use of the word with regard to the Lord Himself (Rom 10:7): "Who shall descend into the deep (abyss); that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead?" The connection of the pit with the state of the dead in the Old Testament is similar to that of the abyss here in the New; and the beast in its last phase is said to come up out of the abyss. Here, too, the death-state is indicated. It naturally refers to the wounding to death and revival of the beast, or of the seventh head (Rev 13:3; Rev 13:12; Rev 13:14). Some have even contended, seeing the identification of the beast, or empire, with its last head (Rev 17:11), for the literal resurrection of a person in this case. But literal resurrection could only be from God, and the beast in its last form is filled and energized by Satan (Rev 13:1-2). The coming out of the abyss, therefore, is figurative, as the beast itself is; and indeed the use of the word seems figurative throughout. Christ has "the keys of Hades and of Death" (Rev 1:18), and it is not to be imagined that He should give up into the hand of an apostate, whether man or spirit, any portion of His own authority. We must not think, therefore, as has been done, of a literal opening of Hades, and an eruption of the spirits of the lost upon the earth. The demons, it is urged, were, in heathen account, but "the spirits of mortals when separated from their earthly bodies;" and Josephus is cited for the orthodox Jewish opinion that "demons are none other than the spirits of the wicked dead. With very few exceptions, the Christian fathers were of like opinion, . . . and the burden of evidence and authority is to the effect that demons are the souls of dead men, particularly the spirits of those who bore a bad character in this life. There is no such thing known in the Bible as a good demon." This does not suit, however, with that which the Lord gives us from the mouth of the rich man in Hades, who is assured by Abraham of a great gulf fixed between the two classes there (Luk 16:26), "so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence." This naturally intimates that, at least without distinct permission, the spirits of the dead would not be found upon earth. God might, of course, give permission, and it is said here that to the fallen star the key of the pit is "given;" this, no doubt, from God; for if Christ be the Master of the prison-house, none plainly could break bounds without His permission. The dead are by their death removed from the sphere of earth, and those shut up to await judgment can scarcely be thought of as at the same time taking active part in that which is done upon the earth. The thought of Satan being in hell and yet taking such part as it is confessed he does, naturally leads to the thought that with regard to the spirits of the dead there may be the same thing. But Satan is not in hell, as we have seen; nor, as yet, even in the abyss. And the days of men upon earth are ended when the earthly life is. Thus we read that it is for "deeds done in the body," and not out of it, that men are to give account in the day of judgment.
But we have to remember here, surely, that the whole language is symbolic. We are not called upon to believe that Christ literally puts the key of the prison-house into the hands of an apostate. The symbolism of the language here sets aside the whole moral question as to such a thing. Man certainly has the terrible power of yielding himself to the power of evil so as to open, not merely for himself, but for others also, the access to himself and others of that which lies otherwise under the restraint of God’s judgment. At the time to which we are brought here this will be done, as we have seen, in a way such as has never been known as yet; but it is the abandonment to a lie of those that love a lie; and thus fittingly that which is said to rise out of the pit is but a smoke of darkness, by which everything, to the very sun itself, is darkened. Out of this smoke come locusts upon the earth, the evil bringing its own torment with it. It is not said that the locusts come directly out of the pit. It may be natural indeed to think that after all they cannot be bred of the smoke merely, but must have come out of the pit with this. But where the spiritual sense is the whole matter, naturalistic interpretations may easily deceive us. Recognizing that these are symbols, there is no difficulty. The smoke is not the smoke of torment, but the fumes of malign influences darkening men’s minds. Out of this darkness we can easily understand such locusts as we have here to be bred. The symbolism, one would think, is manifest, and we can scarcely escape from it by saying that these are "supernatural, infernal, not earthly, locusts." It is quite in accordance with their origin that their power should be represented as that of the scorpions of the earth, that is, in their poisonous sting, the sting of malignant error; and their distinction from natural locusts is seen in this, that they do not touch the food of such, but are a plague only upon men, and these the unsealed men. Remembering that it is in Israel that this sealing has taken place, it seems to be clear that the unsealed ones too are Israelites, and that the sphere of this plague is in the East. They do not kill, as in general the scorpion does not, but inflict a torment to which death is preferable; and their power lasts five months. The death here is plainly not spiritual, but simple, natural death. Men long to die as their escape from torment, but death flees from them.
Next we find them pictured as warriors, a military power subordinated to what is their grand interest and aim, the propagation of poisonous falsehood. Thus the shapes of the locusts are like horses prepared to battle, and, as in the certainty of triumph beforehand, "upon their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold." Little matter of real triumph had they, as the limiting words here show. Their faces are as the faces of men. They have the dignity and apparent independence belonging to such. Nevertheless, their hair is as the hair of women, for they are in fullest subjection to the dark and dreadful power that rules over them. Their teeth as the teeth of lions shows the savage, tenacious grip with which they can hold their prey; their breastplates of iron, probably the fence of a hardened conscience. The sound of their wings like that of the locust-hosts they resemble, conveys the hopeless terror which they inspire.
Finally, as most important, we are again reminded of their scorpion stings and their power to hurt men five months. From this it has been urged that we have, in fact, to double the five months and make it ten; but the words themselves prohibit such a thought. The repetition is plainly for the sake of emphasis.
They have a king over them, the angel of the abyss, whose name is given (exactly the same in meaning) in Hebrew and in Greek. The use of the Hebrew joins with what we have seen before, to assure us that it is upon Israel that this woe comes; while the Greek no less plainly indicates that the angel here has also to do with the Gentiles. According to both, he is the "destroyer." It is natural to think of Satan in such connections; and Satan, we are reminded, is the inspirer of antichrist. The historical application in this case is one in which there is great unanimity among interpreters. They are applied to Mohammed and the Saracens, whose astonishing successes were manifestly gained under the inspiration of a false religion. They came in swarms from the very country of the locusts, and their turbaned heads with men’s beards and women’s hair, and their cuirasses, the sparing of the trees and corn, and even of life where there was submission, with their time of prevalence according to the year-day reckoning, 150 years -all these things have been pointed out as fulfilment of the vision. It has been objected, on the other hand, that such points as these are below the dignity of Scripture, and that the terms are moral. While this is surely true if we think of the full intention, it is to be considered, on the other hand, whether God does not allow and intend oftentimes a correspondence between such outward things and what is deeper, just as the face of a man may be a real index to his spirit; and because they are external they are well fitted to strike the imagination. The parable is, as we know, a very common method of instruction everywhere in Scripture. Thus God would open our eyes to what is indeed all around us; and to stop at what is external, or to ignore it, is alike an error. But in any case, and for reasons already considered, we cannot take this Saracenic scourge as any complete fulfilment of the locust vision; nor can we, on the other hand, connect it in full certainty with other prophecy, as would be necessary for very clear interpretation. What seems indicated, however, with regard to its final fulfilment in the time yet to come, is the rise and propagation of that desolation to which we know both the masses of mere Christian profession and of the unbelieving Jews will in the end surrender themselves. The antichrist of that time will be, there is little doubt, both an apostate from Christianity (2Th 2:1-17) and from the faith of his Jewish fathers (Dan 11:37); and his apostasy will remove, under divine permission, the present restraint upon the power of evil. It will be as if the abyss had opened its mouth to darken the light of heaven. A mist of confusion will roll in upon men’s minds which, under Satanic influence, will soon find definite expression both in forms of blasphemy and a host of armed adherents ready to force upon others the doctrines of the pit. As has been said, it is apparently with Israel that this trumpet has to do; but to have the Greek name of the leader seems to speak also of the connection with Gentiles. If the application here made be the true one, then we know that the wicked one will not be a Jewish false Christian merely, but will also head the apostasy of Christendom. In this sense also it may be that the beast under its last head, the revived Roman empire, is said to come up out of the abyss, its actual revival being due to the dark and dreadful power which is presented to us here, so exceeding in malignity all that has preceded it that its advent is called, in the language of inspiration, "the first woe."*
{*As to the duration of this woe, five months, little may be said beyond what is given in the text in connection with the historical interpretation. Five, however, is the number of human capacity and the limit of human responsibility; ten being but the twofold witness of this, manward and Godward, as seen in the Ten Commandments. The time of this intense persecution, then, will not be beyond the limits of human endurance, or, at least, beyond the measure of human responsibility. The fact, too, that men were not slain but only tormented would also indicate this. May we not also see a measure of mercy in this limitation of the time of this infliction? "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." It would almost seem as though God were yet calling upon men in this sore judgment to turn to Him. We see, indeed, that this is implied in the next plague (ver. 20), where men still refuse to repent. -S.R.}
2. The sounding of the sixth trumpet is followed by a voice out of the horns of the golden altar which is before God. We recognize it at once as that which has furnished the incense added to the prayers of the saints by the Angel-Priest, and that we have here what is distinctly judgment upon the persecutors of the people of God. We have only to remember, also, that the idolatry in Israel in the last days is spoken of as "the abomination of desolation" (that is, the abomination which brings the desolator) to see an intimation of the connection between what has taken place under the fifth trumpet and what is here. In Dan 9:27 it is said literally, "And because of the wing of abominations there shall be a desolator." The wing of abominations is in contrast with that sheltering wing of the God of Israel under which the true remnant amongst them have learned to trust. The voice from the altar may remind us of one who has caused sacrifice and oblations to cease from the place whence it went up to God. The altar here is indeed the golden altar, not the altar of sacrifice itself; but the blood of the sacrifice had to be applied to the horns of the golden altar in order that incense might go up from it. It is more emphatic as read now: "one voice out of the four horns" -their united cry against the blasphemous invader. The cry is for judgment, to loose the four angels that are bound by the great river Euphrates.
The Euphrates was the boundary of the old Roman empire, and there the four angels are said to be bound -restrained, it may be, by the power of the empire itself, until, having risen up against God, their own hands throw down the barrier, and the hordes from without enter upon their mission to slay the third part of men: a term which we have seen as probably indicating the revived Roman empire. Here is the seat of the beast’s supremacy, with which the power of Antichrist is found allied. When we turn to the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel to find the desolator of the last days (Eze 38:17), we find, in fact, the full array of nations from the other side of the Euphrates pouring in upon the land of Israel, while the connection of that land with Antichrist and with the Roman empire is plainly shown us in Daniel and in Revelation alike. If the Euphrates be the boundary of the empire, as it once really was, it is also Israel’s as declared by God; and the two are already thus far identified. Their connection, spiritually and politically, we shall have fully before us in the more detailed prophecy to come.
But why four angels? and what do they symbolize? The restraint under which they were marks them sufficiently as opposing powers, and would exclude the thought of holy angels; nor is it probable that they are literal angels at all. They would seem representative powers, and in the historical application have been taken to refer to the fourfold division of the old Turkish empire into four kingdoms prior to the attack upon the empire of the East. If such an interpretation is to be made in reference to the final fulfilment, then it is noteworthy that "Gog of the land of Magog, Prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal," -as the R.V., with most commentators, reads it now, gives (under one head indeed) four separate powers as principal associates in this latter-day irruption. Others there are, but coming behind and apart, as in their train. This is at least a possible application, and therefore not unworthy of serious consideration; while it does not exclude a deeper and more penetrative meaning.
The angels are prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they might slay the third part of men. The immense host, 200,000,000 in number, are perfectly in the hand of a Master -time, work and limit carefully apportioned by eternal Wisdom, the evil in its fullest development servant to the good. The number is particularly emphasized: "I heard the number of them;" and yet it seems impossible to be literal except we take it, as some would do, as applying to angelic hosts, where, of course, all our reasoning is lost. The horses seem to be of chief importance, and are most dwelt upon, though their riders are first described, but only with regard to their "breastplates of fire and jacinth and brimstone." These answer to the "fire and smoke and brimstone" out of the horses’ mouths; divine judgment, of which they are the instruments, making them thus invincible while their work is being done. The horses have heads like lions; destruction comes with an open front -the judgment of God: so that the human hands that direct it are of the less consequence; divine wrath is sure to find its executioners.
God’s judgment is foremost in this infliction, but there is also Satan’s power in it. In this there is no possible contradiction, as we know. The horses’ tails are like serpents, and have heads and with these they do hurt. Poisonous falsehood characterizes this time, when men are given up to believe a lie. Death, physical and spiritual, are in league together, and the destruction is terrible: but those that escape are not delivered from their sins, which, as we see, are in the main idolatrous worship, with things that naturally issue out of this. The genealogy of evil is as recorded in the first of Romans. The forsaking of God leads to all other wickedness, but here it is where His full truth has been rejected, and the consequences are so much the more terrible and disastrous.
3. It has been already noticed that the difficulty of interpretation with regard to the trumpets hitherto is the result of their lying so much outside the field of vision of Old Testament prophecy. We are now coming, however, to what is completely within that field, and in this way the little book in the angel’s hand speaks: a book which is opened, not needing to be opened, comparatively small in its scope, as Old Testament prophecy, compared with the larger range of the book of Revelation itself, necessarily is. The visions that follow here are all the filling up of Old Testament outlines. This we shall see as we take them up in detail.
(1) We have already seen that in the trumpets, as in the seals, there is a gap filled up with a vision between the sixth and seventh, so as to make the seventh structurally an eighth section. This corresponds, moreover, to the meaning; for the seventh trumpet introduces the kingdom of Christ on earth, which, although the third and final woe on the dwellers on the earth, is, on the other hand, the beginning of a new condition, and an eternal one. With this octave a chord is struck which vibrates through the universe. The interposed vision is in both series, therefore a seventh, with a meaning corresponding to the number of perfection. At least so it is in the series in connection with the seals, and we may be sure that we shall find no failure in this case: failure in the book of God, even in the minutest point, -our Lord’s "jot or tittle," -is an impossibility. Nothing is more beautiful of its kind than the way in which all this prophetic history yields itself to the hand that works in all and controls all; and this is what the numbers speak of. Thank God, we know whose hand it is. But the vision of the trumpet-series is very unlike that of the seals, and its burden of sorrow differs indeed from that sweet inlet into beatific rest. We shall find, however, that it vindicates its position none the less. As in the work, so in the word of God, with a substantial unity there is yet a wonderful variety; never a mere repetition, which would imply that God had exhausted Himself. As you cannot find two leaves in a forest alike, so you cannot find two passages of Scripture that are just alike, when they are carefully and intelligently considered. The right use of parallel passages must take in the consideration of the diversity and unity alike.
In the vision before us there is first of all seen the descent of a strong angel from heaven. As yet no descent of this kind has been seen. In the corresponding vision in the seal series, an angel ascends from the east; but here he descends, and from heaven. A more positive, direct action of heaven upon the earth is implied, power acting, though not yet the great power under the seventh trumpet, when the kingdom of Christ is come. This being, apparently angelic, is yet "clothed with a cloud" -a veil about him, which would seem to indicate a mystery, either as to his person or his ways. It does not say "the cloud," -what Israel saw as a sign of the presence of the Lord, -otherwise there could be no doubt as to who was here: yet in his actions presently he is revealed to faith as truly what the cloud intimates. It is Christ acting as Jehovah, though yet personally hidden, and in behalf of Israel, among whom the angel of Jehovah walked thus appareled. It is only the cloud; the brightness which is yet there has not shone forth. Faith has to penetrate the cloud to enter the Presence-chamber. Yet is He there, and in a form that intimates His remembrance of the covenant of old, and on His own part some correspondent action.
So also the rainbow, which we last saw around the throne of God, encircles His head. Joy is coming after sorrow; refreshing after storm; the display of God’s blessed attributes at last; though in that which passes, a glory which endureth. And this is coming nearer now in Him who descends to earth. But His face is as the sun; there indeed we see Him: who else has such a face? In our sky there are not two suns: our orbit is a circle, not an ellipse.
His face is above the cloud with which He is encircled. Heaven knows Him for what He is; the earth not yet, though on the earth may be those who are in heaven’s secret. But His feet are like pillars of fire, and these are what are first in contact with the earth, the indication of ways which are in divine holiness; necessarily, therefore, in judgment; while the earth mutters and grows dark with rebellion.
Now we have what reveals to us whereto we have arrived: "And he had in his hand a little book opened." The seventh seal opens a book which had been seen in heaven; the seventh section here shows us another book now open, but, as noticed before, a little book. It has not the scope and fulness of the other. We hear nothing of how the writing fills up, and overflows the page. It is a little book which is open, until now shut up, but which is no longer shut up; a book, too, whose contents (evidently connected with the action of the angel here) have to do with the earth simply, not with heaven also, as the seven-sealed book has. We have in this what should surely lead us to what the book is; for the characteristic of Old Testament prophecy is just this, that it opens to us the earthly, not the heavenly things. Its promises are Israel’s, the earthly people (Rom 9:4) and it deals fully with the millennial kingdom, and the convulsions which are its birth-throes. Beyond the Millennium, except in that brief reference of Peter’s to the new heavens and earth, it does not go; and the new heavens are not the subject here, but the earth-heavens, the heavens of the second day, as Peter very distinctly shows. There is no heavenly city in prospect here. There is no rule over the earth on the part of Christ’s co-heirs such as we have found in the song of Revelation. All this the Christian revelation adds to the Old Testament, while in the present book the Millennium is passed over with the briefest notice. Here, for the first time indeed, we get its limits set, and see how short it is, while the main thing dwelt upon as to it is, those with whom shall be filled the thrones which Daniel sees "placed," but sees not the occupants (Dan 7:9, R.V.). Thus it is plain how the book of Old Testament prophecy is, comparatively with the New, a little book. It is fully owned and maintained that, when we look with the aid of the New Testament beyond the letter, we can find more than this. Types there are, and shadows (and that everywhere in prophecy as well as history) of greater things. Earth itself and earthly things may be and are symbols of heaven and the heavenly. The summer reviving out of winter speaks of resurrection. The very food we feed on preaches life through death, and so more evidently the Old Testament: for Revelation, completing the cycle of the divine testimony, brings us back to paradise, as type of a better one; and the latest unfolding of what had been for ages hidden, shows us in Adam and his Eve, Christ and the Church.
But this manifestly leaves untouched the sense in which Old Testament prophecy may be styled a "little book." The application here is also easy. For in fact the Old Testament prophecy as to the earth has been for long a thing waiting for that fulfilment which shall manifest and illumine it. Israel, outcast from her land, upon whom the blessing of the earth waits, all connected with this waits. We may see now, indeed, as in some measure we see their faces set once more toward their land, that other things also are ranging themselves preparatory to the final accomplishment. But yet the proper fulfilment of them is not really begun.
In the meanwhile, though the Lord is fulfilling His purposes of grace, and taking out from among the Gentiles a people for His name, as to the earth it is man’s day" (1Co 4:3, marg.). When He shall have completed this, and gathered the heavenly saints to heaven, He shall put forth His hand in order to bring in the blessing for the earth; then the day of the Lord will begin in necessary judgment, that the inhabitants of the world may learn righteousness. This day of the Lord begins, therefore, before the appearing of the Lord for which it prepares the way. The dawn of day is before the sunrise.
The apostle, in warning the Thessalonians against the error of supposing that the day of the Lord was come (2Th 2:2), gives them what would be a sign immediately preceding it. "For that day," he says, "shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." The manifestation of the man of sin is therefore the bell that tolls in solemnly the day of the Lord. This would seem to be the opening, then, of the little book. Thenceforth the prophecies of the latter day become clear and intelligible. Now the apostasy has been shown, as it would seem, in its beginning, under the fifth trumpet, and the man of sin may well be the one spoken of there. Thus the little book may be fittingly now seen as opened; and in the continuation of the vision here we find for the first time the beast," Daniel’s "wild beast," in full activity (Dan 11:7). All, therefore, seems connected and harmonious, and we are emerging out of the obscure border-land of prophecy into the place where the concentrated rays of its lamp are found.
We see, too, how rapidly the end draws near: "And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth; and he cried with a great voice, as when a lion roareth." It is the preparatory voice of Judah’s Lion as "suddenly His anger kindles;" and the seven thunders -the full, divine voice -the whole government of God in action -answers it; but what they utter has to find its interpretation at a later time.
Meanwhile the attitude of the angel is explained: "And the angel which I saw standing upon the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven and swore by Him that liveth to the ages of ages, who created the heavens and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound," -when he shall sound as he is about to do, -then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which He hath declared by His servants the prophets."
All is of a piece here: the prophetic testimony (the testimony of the little open book) is now to be suddenly consummated, which ends only with the glories of Christ’s reign over the earth. Amid all the confusion and evil of days so full of tribulation that except they were mercifully shortened no flesh should be saved, yet faith will be allowed to reckon the very days of its continuance, which in both Daniel and Revelation are exactly numbered. How great the relief in that day of distress, and how sweet the compassion of God that has provided it after this manner! "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved" -shall find deliverance speedy and effectual, and find it in the coming of that Son of man whose very title is a gospel of peace, and whose hand will accomplish the deliverance. There has been an apparent long delay. "There shall be delay no longer." Man’s day has run to its end; and though in cloud and tempest, the day of the Lord at last is dawning. Then the mystery of God is finished -the mystery of the first prophecy of the woman’s Seed, and in which the whole conflict between good and evil is summarized and foretold. What a mystery it has been, and how unbelief even in believers has stumbled over the delay! The heel of the Deliverer bruised: a victory of patient suffering to precede and insure the final victory of power! Meantime the persistence and apparent triumph of evil, by which are disciplined the heirs of glory! Now all is indeed at last cleared up; the mystery of God (needful to be a mystery while patience wrought its perfect work) is forever finished: the glory of God shines like the sun: faith is completely justified, the murmur of doubt forever silenced.
(2) Thus the sea and the land already, even while the days of trouble last, know the step of the divine angel, claiming earth and sea for Christ. And now faith (as in the prophet) is to devour the book of these wondrous communications, sweet in the mouth, yet at present bitter in digestion, for the last throes of the earth’s travail are upon her. By and by this trouble will be no more remembered for the joy that the birth of a new day is come, a day prophesied of by so many voices without God, but a day which can only come when God shall wipe away the tears from off all faces. And it comes; it comes quickly now: the voice heard by the true Philadelphian is, "I come quickly."
The prophet begins here, therefore, what is a repetition in part of what has been already communicated by the prophets of old. He has to "prophesy again of peoples and nations and tongues and many kings." He is giving us thus, with additions certainly, what is contained in the Old Testament prophets. He is giving us the little open book.
(3) We are coming now, therefore, to the contents of the little book; and, as the numerical structure would show us here, we see how the sanctuary-worshipers are set apart to God. It is Israel’s sanctuary, of course, that is contemplated -one which has been long lying empty, and which in the days before its re-anointing becomes the sign of the most open defiance of God that has ever been witnessed upon the earth, and that can be witnessed but once. The enemy is in the sanctuary, and idolatry there rears its head in the place of the name of the God of Israel. Through this distress it is, nevertheless, that God forms and educates a people for Himself: and these pains are the throes of travail by which at length (and, as it might seem, "in a day) a nation is born." Israel’s new nation, new in spirit, has never as yet been seen. We have here God’s witness among them, by which the separation of the remnant is accomplished, which remnant, through the purgation of the judgment coming on, becomes the nation.
(a) The remembrance that we have before us now, that which carries us back to those prophecies of Daniel with which we should now be sufficiently familiar, guides at once as to the interpretation of what is before us. The mention of the "beast," and of the precise period of forty-two months or 1260 days, that is the half-week of his last or seventieth week previous to the coming in of blessing for Israel to the earth, is by itself conclusive. This week we have seen to be, in fact, divided by the taking away of the daily sacrifice in the midst of it (Dan 9:27). It is by the direct opposition to God involved in this that the man of sin is revealed. Hence it would seem clear that it is with the last half-week that we have here to do.
A reed like a staff is now given to the prophet that he may measure with it the temple of God. In a sense, no doubt, this is symbolical; that is, that the "temple" stands for its worshipers. We are not to think literally of the temple; and yet a purely symbolical interpretation, which would make us understand, for instance, the Church as the temple of God, would lead us, as is evident, far away from the truth. God measures the temple in token of His care of it. A reed like a staff is given to the prophet, that he may do this. If a reed suggests weakness (as all that is of God lies, at the time contemplated, under such a reproach), the words "like a staff" suggest the opposite of it. God’s care for His people implied in this measurement is to unbelief indeed a mystery, for they seem exposed to the vicissitudes of other men; yet is it a staff upon which one may lean with fullest confidence. His measurement of things abides, perfect righteousness and absolute truth abiding necessarily as such. The temple is therefore, of course, the Jewish temple; not literal, but standing for Jewish worship and not Christian. Christian worship is over upon earth, and God is owning a people worshiping once more in connection with a temple, as of old. The altar as distinct from the temple proper would seem to be the altar of burnt-offering, upon which indeed for Israel all depended. It was there, too, God met with the people (Exo 29:43), although, as we contemplate things here, the mass of the nation is in rejection, the court given up to the Gentiles, the holy city to be trodden under foot by them, only a remnant of true worshipers acknowledged for whom the altar still avails. A literal rendering of things here would seem only to create the most perfect confusion. While God is owning the remnant of His people at this time, their sanctuary is yet being trodden under foot along with the holy city. Temple and altar can only thus represent the true worshipers connected with these, whom God preserves. "The holy city" can speak of but one city on earth; nor can there be justifiable doubts as to the place in prophecy of this half-week of desolation. The mixture of literal and figurative language will be no cause of stumbling to any one who has carefully considered the style of all these apocalyptic visions, which are evidently not intended to carry their significance upon their faces. All must be fully weighed, must be self-consistent, and fitting in its place, in connection with the whole prophetic plan. Thus alone can we have clearness and certainty as to interpretation.
As a man, then, who has been sunk in a long dream of sorrow, but to whom is now brought inspiriting news of a joy in which he is called to have an active part, the prophet is here bidden to rise and measure the temple of God. How speedy and thorough a relief when God is brought into the scene -and from what scene is He really absent? How animating, how courageous a thing, then, is the faith that recognizes Him!
(b) But where God is, there must be a testimony to Him. We find it, therefore, immediately in this case. "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks which stand before the Lord of the whole earth."
The reference here is plainly to Zec 4:1-14; but there are also differences which are as plain. There the thing itself is accomplished to which here there is but testimony; and in humiliation, though there is power to maintain it, spite of all opposition, till the time appointed. The witnesses are identified with their testimony, that to which they bear witness. Hence the resemblance. They stand before the Lord of the earth, the One to whom the earth belongs, to maintain His claim upon it; in sackcloth, because this claim is resisted; a sufficient testimony in the power of the Spirit, a spiritual light amidst the darkness, which does not banish the darkness. "And if any man desire to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed. These have power to shut the heaven that it rain not during the days of their prophecy, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they will." Here is certainly not the grace of Christianity, but the ministry of power after the manner of Elijah and of Moses, judgment which must come because grace has been ineffectual, and of which the issue shall be in blessing for more than Israel themselves. The association of Elijah with Moses, which is evident here, of necessity reminds us of their association also on the mount of transfiguration, wherein, as a picture, was presented "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2Pe 1:16-18). They are here in the same place of attendance upon their coming Lord. It does not follow, however, that they are personally present, as some have thought, and that the one has had preserved to him, while the other has had restored to him, his mortal body for that purpose! The preservation to Elijah of a mortal body in heaven seems a thought weird and unscriptural enough, with all its necessary suggestions also; but the closing prophecy of the Old Testament does announce the sending of Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. That is the day that is before us here; and is not this proof that Elijah himself must come? Naturally one would say so, but our Lord’s words as to John the Baptist, on the other hand, "If ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come," raise question. It has been answered that his own words deny that he was really Elias, and that Israel did not receive him; and so John could not be Elias to them. Both things are true, and yet do not seem satisfactory as argument. That he was not Elias literally only shows, or seems to show, that one who was not Elias could, under certain conditions, have fulfilled the prediction; while other words of the Lord, "I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed," show even more strongly that, for that day and generation, he was Elias. Why, then, could not another come, and in his spirit and power fulfil the prophecy in the future day? This, Revelation seems to confirm, inasmuch as it speaks of two witnesses who are both marked as possessing the spirit and power of Elias, and who stand on an equal footing as witnesses for God. Had it been one figure before the eyes here, it would have been more natural to say that it was Elias himself who was here, but there are two doing his work; nor can we think of a possible third behind and unnoticed, and yet the real instrument of God in this crisis. The two form this Elias ministry, which is to recall the hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the children to the fathers, and who both lay down their lives as the seal of their testimony. Put all this together, and does it not seem as if Elias appeared in others raised up of God and endued with his spirit to complete the work for which he was raised up in Israel? Much more would all this hinder the thought of any personal appearance of Moses, while there is no prediction at all of any such thing. Jude’s words (which have been adduced) as to the contention of Michael with Satan as to the body of the lawgiver, may well refer to the fact that the Lord had buried him and no man knew of his sepulchre. Satan may well for his own purposes have desired to make known his grave, just as God in His wisdom chose to hide it. Yet the appearance of Moses and Elias in connection with the appearing of the Lord as seen on the mount of transfiguration, seems none the less to connect itself with these two witnesses and their work -both caught away in like manner into "the cloud," as verse twelve really reads. And Malachi, just before the declaration of the mission of Elijah, bids them on God’s part "remember the law of Moses My servant." Moses must do his work as well as Elias, for it is upon their turning in heart to the law of Moses that their blessing in the last days depends; and thus we find the power of God acting in their behalf in the likeness of what He wrought upon Egypt. The witnesses "have power over waters to turn them to blood." It is not that Moses is personally among them, but that Moses is in this way witnessing for them; and so the vials after this emphatically declare.*
{*Doubtless this, as we have already seen in the second trumpet, is to be interpreted symbolically. -S.R.}
(c) God thus during the whole time of trouble and apostasy preserves a testimony for Himself, until at the close that final outrage is permitted which brings down speedy judgment; for "when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them and overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall be upon the street of the great city which spiritually is called ’Sodom’ and ’Egypt;’ where also their Lord was crucified." If the 1260 days of prophetic testimony agree with the last half of the closing week of Daniel, they coincide with the time of the beast’s permitted power, and the death of the witnesses is his last political act. That a certain interval of time should follow before his judgment, which takes place under the third and not the second woe, does not seem to conflict with Rev 13:5, where it should read, "Power was given to him to practise" -not "continue" -"forty and two months." The last act of tyranny may have been perpetrated in the slaying of the witnesses and indeed it seems a thing fitted to be the close of power of this kind permitted him. With this the storm-cloud of judgment arises which smites him down shortly after.
If the duration of the testimony were supposed to be for the first half of the week, then the power of the beast would begin with the slaughter of the witnesses, and the three and a half years’ tribulation follow; which does not seem to consist with the judgment and its effects, three and a half days afterwards.
Then, too, "the second woe is past" (ver. 14), and the third announces the kingdom of Christ as having come. It seems plain, therefore, that divine power maintains the testimony of the witnesses in spite of the reign of terror during the beast’s usurpation, and that only at the end is it permitted to be, according to appearance, extinguished utterly. It is the time of the apparently perfect triumph of evil, and thus the dwellers upon the earth rejoice over them and make merry, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the earth. Here, then, for the first time, the beast out of the abyss comes plainly into the scene. In Daniel and in Rev 13:1-18 he does not come out of the abyss, but out of the sea; but in the seventeenth chapter he is spoken of as "about to come up out of the abyss;" showing undeniably that it is the same "beast" as Daniel’s fourth one -the Roman empire. In the first case, as coming out of the sea, it has a common origin with the other three empires, -the Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian, -out of the heaving deep of Gentile nations. Then we find in Revelation what from Daniel we should never have expected, but what, in fact, has certainly taken place -that the empire which is to meet its judgment at the coming of the Lord does not continue uninterruptedly in power till then. There is a time in which it ceases to be, (and we can measure this time of non-existence already by centuries) after which it comes back in a peculiar form, as from the dead: "the beast that was, and is not, and shall be present" (Rev 17:8). This rising again into existence we would naturally take as its coming up out of the abyss, out of the death-state, and think that we were at the bottom of the whole matter. The truth seems to be not quite so simple, but here is not the place to go into it further. For the present it is enough to say that the coming up out of the abyss is, in fact, a revival out of the death-state, but, as a comparison with the fifth trumpet may suggest, revival by the dark and demon-influences which are there represented as in attendance upon the angel of the abyss. It is the one in whom is vested the power of the revived empire who concentrates the energy of his hatred against God in the slaying of the witnesses.
The place of their death is clearly Jerusalem: "Their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called ’Sodom’ and ’Egypt,’ where also their Lord was crucified." Certainly no other place could be so defined: and thus defined and characterized for its lusts as Sodom, for its cruelty to the people of God as Egypt, it is not now called the "holy," but the "great" city -great even in its crimes. In its street their bodies lie, exposed by the malice of their foes which denies them burial, but allowed by God as the open indictment of those who have thus definitively rejected His righteous rule. The race of the prophets is at an end, which has tormented them with their claim of the world for God, and the men of the earth rejoice and send gifts to one another. Little do they understand that, when His testimony is at an end, there is nothing left but for God Himself to come in, and to manifest a power before which man’s power will be extinguished as flax before the flame.
And the presage of this quickly follows. "After the three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which beheld them, and they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them."*
{*"The triumphing of the wicked is short." This seems suggested by the brief period of dishonor permitted to these witnesses. The correspondence with the three years and a half of the great tribulation is suggestive. Evil has but that brief period to assert itself, but in reality its real triumph shrivels up into days. -S.R.}
If this is the time of the addition of the saints martyred under the beast’s persecution to the first resurrection, of which the vision in the twentieth chapter speaks, then it is plain that we are arrived at the end of the beast’s power against the saints, and of the last week of Daniel. Two is the number of valid testimony, and these two witnesses may, in a vision like that before us, stand for many more, nay, for the whole martyred remnant in Israel. We cannot say it is so, but we can as little say it is not so; but even the suggestion has its interest: for this appendix to the sixth trumpet seems designed to put in place the various features of Daniel’s last week, the details of which are opened out to us in the seven chapters following, with many additions. And this we might expect in the connected chain of prophecy which stretches on to the end: for under the seventh trumpet the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ, and "the time of the dead to be judged" is at least contemplated.
The resurrection of the witnesses is not all: a great earthquake follows, and the tenth part of the city fell; and there were killed in the earthquake 7,000 persons -"names of men," as it is put here (significantly enough in a history of doom for those who are asserting their greatness upon the earth); "and the rest were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven."
Thus the sixth trumpet ends in a convulsion in which judgment takes, as it were, the refused tithes from a rebellious people. There is a marked similarity here between the trumpets and the vials, which end also in an earthquake and judgment of the great city, as to which we may see further in its place. The rest that are not slain give glory to the God of heaven. It is the unacceptable product of mere human fear, which has no practical result; for God is claiming the earth, not simply heaven, and for the affirmation of this claim His witnesses have died. They can allow Him heaven who deny Him earth. And judgment takes its course. The second woe ends with this, and the third comes quickly afterward.
4. The third woe is the coming of the kingdom! Yes; that to greet which the earth breaks out in gladness, the morning without clouds, the day which has no night, and the fulfilment of the first promise which fell upon man’s ears when he stood a naked sinner before God to hear his doom, the constant theme of prophecy -now swelling into song and now sighed out in prayer -that kingdom is yet, to the "dwellers upon earth," the last and deepest woe!
The rod of iron is now to smite, and Omnipotence it is that wields it. The seventh angel sounds, and there follow great voices in heaven, saying, "The world-kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ has come, and He shall reign to the ages of ages."
Few words and concise, but how pregnant with blessed meaning! The earth that has rolled from its orbit is reclaimed. Judgment has returned to righteousness. He who has learnt for Himself the path of obedience in a suffering which was the fruit of tender interest in man, has now Himself the sceptre; nor is there any power that can take it out of His hand.
There are no details yet; simply the announcement, which the elders in heaven answer with adoration, prostrate upon their faces, saying, "We give Thee thanks, O Lord God the Almighty, who art and who wast, that Thou hast taken Thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and those that fear Thy name, small and great; and to destroy those that destroy the earth."
There is nothing difficult here in the way of interpretation, except that "the time of the dead to be judged" seems to connect with the period of earthly judgments which introduce millennial blessing. It does not take place just then, as the twentieth chapter gives full proof. The explanation is that we have here the setting up of the kingdom in its full results, and that the order is one of thought, and not of time. The judgments of the quick (or living) and of the dead are both implied in the reign of our Lord and His Christ, though they are not executed together. God’s wrath is mentioned first because it is, for the earth, the pre-requisite of blessing, and because judgment is not what He rests in, but in His love. It is therefore put first, that the realization of the blessing may come after, and not give place to it. But this wrath of God which meets and quells the nations’ wrath, goes on and necessitates the judgment of the dead also. Death is no escape from it. The coming One has the keys of death and hades.
With this the holiness of God is satisfied, and the love in which He rests is free to show itself in the reward of prophets and saints and those who fear His name, little as well as great. This seems as general in its aspect as the judgment of the dead, on the other side, unquestionably is. The foremost mention of the prophets as those who have stood in testimony for God on earth is in perfect keeping with the character of the whole book before us, and the destruction of those who destroy the earth is not noticed here apparently as judgment, so much as to assure us of the reparation of the injury to that which came out of His hands at first, and in which He has never ceased to have tender interest, despite the permitted evil of man’s day.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
These herald woes upon the ungodly and idolatrous, inflicted both by demonic and by human agency.
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1-12. The fifth trumpet initiates the first of the three woes. A star fallen to the earth, i.e. an angel who has descended from heaven (cp. Rev_1:20), not necessarily an evil angel (Rev_9:1), opens the pit of the abyss. The 'abyss' is the abode of evil spirits or demons, and the 'pit' is the shaft which was supposed to lead to it. St. John uses this Jewish idea, which may have been derived from volcanoes, as a figure of spiritual things. At the opening of the pit smoke pours forth (Rev_9:2), and from the smoke issue evil spirits with the appearance of locusts (Rev_9:3). They are not to hurt green things, for they are not really locusts; but, besides being like locusts in their numbers and their devastating power, they are to be like scorpions in that they give pain to men, but only for a limited period—a visitation of locusts was usually limited to five months, from May to September. They are to afflict those who are not sealed: see on Rev_7:1. (Rev_9:4.). The description of the locusts is partly taken from Joe_1:6; Joe_2:1. No special significance need be sought in the details, which probably are only meant to increase the vivid terror of the picture (Rev_9:7.). Unlike the locusts of Pro_30:27 they have a king, Abaddon or Apollyon, i.e. 'Destroyer' (cp. Job_26:6 RV; Pro_15:11 RV): names which at first signified the place of the lost, and afterwards, as here, the ruler of the hosts of evil (Rev_9:11). This vision may be regarded as a picture of the mental and spiritual misery which follows sin. It is a contrast to the fifth seal; cp. Rev_9:6, 'seek death and in no wise find it,' with Rev_6:11, 'rest': cp. Isa_48:22.
1. Fall from heaven] RV 'from heaven fallen.'
1, 2. Bottomless pit] RV 'pit of the abyss.'
9. RV inserts a comma after chariots.
10. And there were stings, etc.] RV 'and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months.'
11. RV 'They have over them as king the angel of the abyss,' etc.
13-21. The sixth trumpet sounds, and a voice from the altar answers the prayers of the martyrs crying for vengeance, cp. Rev_6:9. (Rev_9:13), by commanding the four angels, bound at the Euphrates, to be loosed (Rev_9:14). Immense armies of horsemen issue forth, and kill the third part, i.e. a large number, but not the whole, of the ungodly: cp. Rev_9:20. The Euphrates is the river of Babylon, and Babylon in this book represents Rome. Perhaps, therefore, this vision speaks of devastation caused by Roman armies, possibly in the civil wars that followed the death of Nero.
In the 'four angels bound,' St. John uses a familiar Jewish apocalyptic idea. Each country was supposed to have its angel or angels (cp. Dan_10:13, Dan_10:20), 'Prince of Persia,' 'Prince of Greece,' and see on Rev_1:20. The four angels would be the invisible representatives of the hosts of 'Babylon,' i.e. Rome, and their 'binding' or 'loosing' would represent the spiritual cause of the restraint or letting loose of the armies. The angels were held in leash until the exact moment foreordained by God (Rev_9:15). As with the locusts, the details of the description probably have no special meaning.
14. In] RV 'at.'
15. Were prepared] RV 'had been prepared.' An hour, etc.] RV 'the hour and day and month and year.'
17. Jacinth] RV 'hyacinth,' i.e. smoky blue.
20. Works of their hands] i.e. idols: cp. Psa_115:4; Isa_17:8; Dan_5:3.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angel
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Rev 9:1-12.
CHAPTER 9
Rev 9:1-12.
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The remaining three trumpets have a “woe” attached to each. This is announced in the last verse of the preceding chapter, where the word angel should be “eagle.” An eagle, the bird of prey, proclaims the threefold woe. He acts thus as a herald of great judgments (Mat 24:28, Rev 19:17-18). The fifth trumpet is a special judgment upon apostate Israel: because those who suffer are they “which have not the seal of God on their foreheads” (Rev 9:4). The great tribulation in the second half of the week, comes now into prominence. If we turn to Rev 12:12 we read something similar to the eagle’s message of woe. “Woe unto the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
Preceding the sounding of the fifth trumpet the eagle proclaimed the woe upon the inhabiters of the earth. The star which is seen fallen from heaven with the key of the pit of the abyss is Satan himself cast out of heaven. The details of this event we learn in the twelfth chapter. He has the key to the pit of the abyss, the same word “deep,” used in Luk 8:31. “And they (the demons) besought Him that He would not command them to go out into the deep (abyss).” He unlocks the prison house of the fallen angels and the most awful satanic agencies come forth to begin their “dread” work of torment. The smoke first, symbolical of darkening; the locusts next, symbolical of these demon powers. Awful darkness prevails and the most diabolical delusions, producing fearful torments among apostate Israel and the inhabiters of the earth. It is the time of the strong delusion (2Th 2:4-11) which has come. And over them is a king. His name is given in Greek and Hebrew, showing that it is both Jew and Gentile that come under His power. Both names mean destruction.
Rev 9:13-21.
The sixth angel is commanded by a voice from the horns of the golden altar to loose the four angels who are found at Euphrates, and as a result an innumerable company of horsemen is released. (Greek: twice ten thousand times ten thousand, that is, 200 million. The number would indicate the immense, uncountable hordes.) They are prepared for a specific time to do their work. Euphrates is once more mentioned under the pouring out of the sixth vial. We believe the sixth vial judgment gives the key to these horsemen here. Euphrates does not mean the Turkish Empire, as we shall more fully show when we come to the sixth vial. This river was both the boundary line of the old Roman Empire and the land of Israel. Restraining influences held back the tide of nations on the other side of the river, this restraint is now removed and therefore a great invasion takes place. As the land of Israel is nearest it will suffer first, but the revived Roman empire will be the objective of these invading hordes. The “third part” stands for the Roman Empire, the coming European confederacy. This invasion is under the king of the north. It is seen in its beginning here and is consummated under the sixth vial. There the “kings of the sunrise” are included. And under the sixth vial they are more specifically gathered for the great day of God Almighty.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 12, 17 The Sounding of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets.
The Sounding of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets.
The falling of the star:
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v. 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
v. 2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
v. 3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power.
v. 4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Here is a picture which presents extraordinary convulsions in nature in order to teach the coming of great upheavals in the Church: And the fifth angel sounded his trumpet; and I saw a star fallen out of heaven to the earth, and to him was given the key of the pit of the abyss. John saw this star, not in the course of falling, but as having fallen, as ready to begin his fearful work of destruction. He was given the key to a fearsome cavity, to the pit of the abyss, the abode of the devil and his angels; he received the power to bring men into this abode of darkness and damnation.
John now relates that the fallen angel made use of his power: And he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun was darkened, and the air, from the smoke of the pit. The pernicious activity of the wicked fallen star is here shown, by which dark and poisonous vapors from the abyss of hell were unloosed. It was not a small and temporary phenomenon, but one which brought forth such a dense cloud of hellish smoke as to obscure the sun himself and to render the entire air murky. This evil was afterward made still worse: And out of the smoke there came forth locusts upon the earth, and to them was granted power as the power which the scorpions of the earth wield; and it was told them that they must not injure the grass of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, but only those men that do not bear the seal of God upon their foreheads. So the dense and poisonous vapor resolved itself into a swarm of infernal spirits in the form of locusts, which were rendered more dangerous by the additional power of stinging like scorpions. The enemies of the believers, of the Church of Christ, are often compared to locusts, both on account of their great number and because of their destructiveness, Jer 46:23; Amo 7:1-17; Joe 1:1-20. However, their power was not unlimited, since they were expressly told that they must not injure the vegetation which the Lord had still permitted to stand, and since they were not allowed to harm the elect of the Lord, who bear the seal of the heavenly Father and of the Lamb on their foreheads, Rev 7:3.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 18, 20 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
The fifth of the seven angels begins to sound his trumpet.
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I saw a star from heaven that had fallen
John saw the star after it had fallen. He did not watch if fall.
the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit
"the key that unlocks the shaft of the bottomless pit"
the shaft of the bottomless pit
Possible meanings are 1) "shaft" is another way of referring to the pit and describes it as long and narrow, or 2) "shaft" refers to the opening of the pit.
the bottomless pit
This is an extremely deep narrow hole. Possible meanings are 1) the pit has no bottom; it continues to go down further forever or 2) the pit is so deep that it is as if it had no bottom.
like smoke from a huge furnace
A huge furnace gives off a great amount of thick, dark smoke. AT: "like the great amount of smoke that comes from a huge furnace" (See: Simile)
turned dark
"became dark"
translationWords
angel
trumpet
heaven
earth
pit
furnace
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20 9:1-21 The fifth and sixth trumpets demonstrate how God’s…
9:1-21 The fifth and sixth trumpets demonstrate how God’s judgment affects the people of the world and detail how futile it is to resist God. While these judgments should lead to repentance, they do not. Sin has such control over people that they choose to worship the evil forces that torture and murder them rather than repent and turn to God.
9:1-12 The fifth . . . trumpet, the first of the three terrors (8:13), brings the judgment of locusts from the bottomless pit, a place of horror. Ancient cultures viewed the oceanic depths, or the “abyss,” as a dwelling place of demonic forces (see study note on Gen 1:2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.