Revelation 20:9

Revelation 20:9. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city. The two appellations here used are evidently intended to express only two different aspects of the same thing, although we are probably to think of the camp not as within the city, but as round about it and defending it (comp. Psalms 34:7). ‘The beloved city' can be no other than Jerusalem, and this is allowed by all commentators. But it is neither the new Jerusalem, which has not yet come down from heaven, nor the actual city of that name, which is supposed by many to play ‘so glorious a part' in the latter days. It is in the nature of things impossible that such enormous hosts should encompass one small city. The whole, too, is a vision, and must be symbolically understood. As ‘the nations' denote the enemies, ‘the beloved city' denotes the people, of God; and surely not a select number, but all the ‘saints;' all to whom the term ‘Jerusalem' in its best sense may be properly applied. It was in a similar sense that in chap. Revelation 14:1 the 144,000 stood upon Mount Zion, and that in chap. Revelation 14:20 the slaughter took place ‘without the city.'

And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. The destruction is complete even without mention of a battle being fought (comp. 1 John 5:4). The imagery is taken from Ezekiel 38:22; Ezekiel 39:6, with allusion also to such a destruction as that of 2Ki 1:10; 2 Kings 1:12; 2 Kings 1:14.