Revelation 8:8-9

Revelation 8:8-9. These two verses contain the second trumpet, at the sounding of which what resembled a great mountain, as it were a great mountain burning with fire was east into the sea. There is nothing in this part of the description to remind us of the plagues of Egypt, but in Jeremiah 51:25 we read of a ‘burnt mountain.' It may be doubted, however, whether there is any reference to this, and the image may be only intended to convey to us the idea of a judgment frightful to behold, and terrible in its effects. That we are not to think of any particular object is evident from the want of all direct correspondence between the instrument of judgment and its effects. The casting of a burning mountain into the sea has no tendency to turn its waters into blood. In the description of the effect produced we are reminded of the first plague of Egypt (Exodus 7:20-21). As before, and no doubt for the same reason, it is a third part of the sea, and of the creatures which were in the sea and of the ships, that suffers. The first becomes blood, the second die, the third are destroyed. The ships appear to be thought of apart from their crews.

This trumpet is distinguished from the first by its containing judgments on the sea instead of the land, but both sea and land can only be regarded as together making up the surface of the earth. They are not separately symbolical, the one of the mass of the Gentile nations, the other of the Jews.