The Fifth Trumpet. First Woe. Chap. 9 Revelation 9:1-12 1. _fall from heaven_ Rather, FALLEN. St John does not say that he witnessed the actual fall. _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 identi... [ Continue Reading ]
_the scorpions of the earth_ i.e. common natural scorpions: these infernal locusts are able to hurt men, as common scorpions are, but common locusts are not.... [ Continue Reading ]
_that they should not hurt the grass_, &c. i.e. _not_to do the damage that natural locusts do these natural objects having been plagued already, Revelation 8:7 but other damage, still more directly distressing the sinful world. _the seal of God_ See Revelation 7:3 and note.... [ Continue Reading ]
_five months_ It has been conjectured that this period is named, as being the time for which a plague of the literal locusts is liable to last. But more probably the period is to be reckoned on the same principle whatever that be as the other periods of time indicated in this book.... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall flee_ Lit. FLEETH.... [ Continue Reading ]
_like unto horses_ See Joel 2:4. _Probably_that passage is only a highly idealised description of a natural swarm of locusts, and the verse cited refers to the resemblance in shape of the locust's head, and perhaps the legs, to a horse's. It is doubtful whether the words " PREPARED UNTO BATTLE " (mo... [ Continue Reading ]
_as the hair of women_ It is said that, in Arabic poetry, the same comparison is used of the antennæ of the natural locust: but more probably this is one of the supernatural features of the description. _teeth of lions_ Joel 1:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_breastplates of iron_ This probably _is_an idealisation of the structure of the natural locust. _chariots_ Joel 2:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they had … in their tails_ Read, AND THEY HAVE TAILS LIKE UNTO SCORPIONS, AND STINGS: AND IN THEIR TAILS [IS] THEIR POWER, TO HURT," &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they had a king_ Whereas "the (natural) locusts have no king," Proverbs 30:27. In Amos 7:1 the LXX. has the curious mistranslation or corrupt reading, "and behold one locust grub [was] Gog the king;" which possibly arose from, or suggested, a superstition that St John uses as an image. _the an... [ Continue Reading ]
_One woe_ Of the three denounced by the eagle, Revelation 8:13. A decided majority of orthodox commentators understand this vision as foretelling the Mahometan conquests some taking the fallen star of Revelation 9:1 of Mahomet himself. The last is scarcely credible unless one should adopt the view,... [ Continue Reading ]
The Sixth Trumpet. Second Woe, Revelation 9:13-21 13. _a voice_ Lit. ONE VOICE: see on Revelation 8:13. The word "four" just afterwards should probably be omitted: else "one voice from the four horns" would give the numeral a special meaning.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Loose the four angels_ 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 corner... [ Continue Reading ]
_for an hour_ Should be "for THE hour." The article is not repeated, but plainly the one article belongs to all the nouns: they are "prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year," when God has decreed to execute the vengeance here foretold.... [ Continue Reading ]
_of the horsemen_ It is implied that the _way_the four angels will slay the third part of men will be by means of a vast invading army. The word rendered "horsemen" is not here plural but collective, as we should say "the cavalry." But it is not that he gives the number of one arm only of an army co... [ Continue Reading ]
_having breastplates_ This must be understood of the riders chiefly, but perhaps not exclusively: comparing Revelation 9:9 we cannot be sure that St John would not use the word "breastplate" of the defensive armour of a horse, if he had such in his mind. In fact, the word is used in later Greek of d... [ Continue Reading ]
_By these three_ Read, BY (lit. _from_) THESE THREE PLAGUES WERE THE THIRD PART OF MEN KILLED, BY THE FIRE, AND THE SMOKE, AND THE BRIMSTONE, &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For their power_ Read, FOR THE POWER OF THE HORSES. For the use of the word "power" (the same as is sometimes elsewhere translated "authority" or "licence"), cf. Revelation 6:8; Revelation 9:3: St Luke 22:53 illustrates the meaning of the word in such a context.... [ Continue Reading ]
_that they should not worship … idols_ This verse gives us the only clue we have to the interpretation. It is a plague on _idolaters_that is here described neither on unfaithful Christians, nor on antichristian infidels of a more refined type unless the latter shall in the last days, as in the age o... [ Continue Reading ]
_sorceries_ Fitly mentioned between "murders" and "fornication," and in connexion with "idolatry;" cf. Galatians 5:20, and note on Revelation 21:8.... [ Continue Reading ]