Revelation 14:10

drink of the wine of the wrath of God Psalms 75:8 (9); Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 25:15 sqq.

poured out without mixture Lit. mixed unmixed: there is prob. nothing meant but the sense of the A. V., the "pouring out" of wine being usuallya process of "mixing." But the paradoxical form of expression comes from the LXX. of Psalms 75:8, where the word "red" (or perhaps "foaming," "fiery") is translated by "unmixed," proving that St John knows and uses the LXX. version, though he corrects it when necessary.

with fire and brimstone Perhaps rather in. See Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8.

in the presence, &c. It is impossible to translate these words otherwise: they prove that the holy angels, and the Lamb Himself, acquiesce or something more in the justice and necessity of God's awful judgements. This being so, we dare not give weight to sentimental or à prioriarguments against their possibility, though to our present faculties God's future treatment of sin may be as hard to reconcile with His known attributes as His permission of its origin in the past. We are forcedto pass over the one difficulty: faith and humility will pass over the other.