Revelation 9:16-17

Revelation 9:16-17. A further part of the vision is unfolded, in which we are introduced to horsemen, as if we were already familiar with them, although nothing had been said of them before. The number of the horsemen was so great that they could not be counted: St. John only heard the number of them. A fuller description both of the horses and of their riders follows. The latter, not the former, had breastplates of fire, and of hyacinth stone, and of brimstone. The hyacinth stone is of a dull dark-blue colour resembling that produced by flaming brimstone; and thus the colours of the breastplates are those of the things that in the next words issue out of the mouths of the horses. The breastplates also are more than mere weapons of defence. With the brimstone blueness of their colour they inspire the beholder with terror. It is possible that the colours are only the reflexion, on the breastplates of the riders, of the ‘fire and smoke and brimstone' that come forth from the horses' mouths. This idea is in keeping with the general strain of the passage, which seems to attach all the terror to the horses and to keep the horsemen in the background; but there is no direct evidence in its support, and it is unnecessary to resort to it. Having spoken of the riders the description turns to the horses. To the Jew the horse, even considered by itself, was an object of terror, not of admiration. It was connected only with war, a living and swift weapon of destruction. As, however, the locusts of the fifth trumpet were more terrible than the locusts of the earth, so the horses of the sixth have their terror enhanced by the addition of new features not found in the horses of this world. Their heads were as the heads of lions (comp. on chap. Revelation 4:7).

And out of their months cometh forth fire and smoke and brimstone; that is, all the three elements of woe issue from the mouth of each horse of the whole host, a frightful substitute for foam.