Revelation 10:1-11

It can hardly be doubted that the whole of chap. 10 and the first part of chap. 11 (Revelation 10:1-11) are episodical, after the same manner and with the same purpose as chap. 7. The sixth Trumpet, or the second Woe, seems obviously to close at chap. Revelation 9:21; the two visions contained in the passage upon which we enter are of a tone entirely distinct from that of a Woe; and the seventh Trumpet only begins at chap. Revelation 11:15. These considerations are sufficient to determine the character of the visions before us. It has indeed been urged that the words of chap. Revelation 11:14 are conclusive against this view, and that they indicate the continuation of the second Woe to that point. The insertion of these words, however, in the place where we find them may be explained without our so entirely mistaking the nature of the passage between chaps. Revelation 10:1 and Revelation 11:13 as to suppose that it forms the continuation of a Woe. The word ‘quickly' is the emphatic word in chap. Revelation 11:14, denoting as it does that climax in judgment which is to be made known under the seventh Trumpet. But to have introduced it at chap. Revelation 9:21 would have led to the impression that the third Woe was immediately to follow. It was necessary therefore to postpone the statement that the second Woe was past and the third at hand, until the moment when the latter was to be introduced. Thus the two consolatory visions of chaps. Revelation 10:1 to Revelation 11:13 are interposed between the end of the second Woe and the declaration that the third is about to begin.