Revelation 8:13

Revelation 8:13. The first four trumpets are over, and we might have expected to pass, as in the case of the seals, directly and without interruption, to the fifth. But we are dealing with a higher potency of judgment than that which met us under the seals; and at this point therefore, when a transition is to be made from the earthly to the spiritual world, our attention is specially called to the judgments that are to follow.

And I saw, and I heard one eagle flying in mid-heaven. The reading of the Authorised Version ‘angel' instead of ‘eagle' is undoubtedly a mistake of copyists, and the word ‘one' ought to be given effect to, as at chaps. Revelation 9:13 and Revelation 19:17. Nor can there be much hesitation in determining why the eagle is thus fixed on as the bird of all others to proclaim woe. Most commentators indeed allow without hesitation that here at least, as so frequently in the Old Testament, the eagle is thought of as the bird of rapine and prey (Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22; Ezekiel 17:3; Hosea 8:1; Zechariah 1:8; Matthew 24:28; comp. also note on Revelation 4:7). That this eagle flew in ‘mid-heaven' is easily explained. It was there that he could best be seen, and thence that his voice could most easily be heard by men.

His cry is Woe, woe, woe to them that dwell on the earth, by reason of the remaining voices of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. By them ‘that dwell on the earth' are to be understood the ungodly alone (comp. on chap. Revelation 3:10). The solemn warning has been given, and all is ready for the sounding of the fifth trumpet.