Revelation 9:14

λέγοντα. B2 reads λέγοντος; Text. Rec[331] λέγουσαν with P 1.

[331] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

14. λέγοντα. If the reading be right, rather in irregular apposition to φωνὴν than a false concord.

ὁ ἔχων τὴν σάλπιγγα. Rightly taken by the versions as in apposition to τῷ ἕκτῳ�; in another Book it would be safer to take it as a vocative, like ὁ δεσπότης, Revelation 5:10.

Λῦσου τοὺς τέσσαρας�. We are reminded of the four angels of Revelation 7:1, but it is hardly possible that they are the same as these. The plagues held back by them, on “the earth, the sea, and the trees,” have come already, Revelation 8:7-9 : moreover, these angels do not stand “on the four corners of the earth,” but in one not very remote part of it. No satisfactory explanation of their meaning has been given: nor can we be sure whether the name Euphrates is to be taken literally. We hear of it again in Revelation 16:12, where the arguments for and against a literal interpretation seem almost equally balanced.