Revelation 14:20

Revelation 14:20. And the winepress was trodden without the city. In the words ‘without the city' we can hardly fail to see another instance of the lex talionis: our Lord had suffered ‘without the gate.'

And blood came out of the winepress even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs. The juice of the grape here passes into the reality, blood, which it was intended to represent (comp. Isaiah 63:1-3). It is difficult to say what may be the exact meaning of the first part of the description of the great sea of blood that its depth was ‘to the bridles of the horses.' There is nothing to suggest the idea that the horses represent the ‘chiefs of the people.' Commentators generally abandon such an interpretation, but substitute none of their own, occupying themselves rather with the inquiry, whether these horses are those of the angels of chap. Revelation 9:15 or those of the host that come up to the destruction of Jerusalem. May the words of Zechariah 14:20 supply the needed explanation, ‘In that day shall there be upon the bells (bridles) of the horses, HOLINESS unto the Lord'? The thought of the Seer may be that the blood could not be so deep as to touch these holy words. The extent of the sea of blood is less difficult to determine. We may at once dismiss the idea that it is taken from the superficial area of the Holy Land or of the old territories of the Pope, or that the expression denotes simply ‘great extent.' We must start from the fact that we have to deal with a judgment by which the whole ungodly world is overtaken, and that four is the number of the world. This number is first squared for completeness, and then multiplied by 100, a number, as we have seen, belonging to the wicked, while 1000 belongs rather to the good. Thus we have 4 x 4 x 100, representing the whole surface of the earth, wherever the ungodly are to be found.