Revelation 6:12

The Sixth Seal, Revelation 6:12-17

12. a great earthquake Earthquakes follow wars, famines, and pestilences in Matthew 24:7, as the earliersigns of the approach of Christ's Coming. But here it is coupled with the darkening of the sun and fall of the stars which, ibid. 29, precede His Coming immediately:whence Alford says, that here it is more than the earth that quakes that it is a fulfilment of Haggai 2:6, cf. Hebrews 12:26 sqq.

black as sackcloth The image is used in Isaiah 50:3.

the moon became Read, the moon wholly became, or, the whole [i.e. full] moon became.

as blood From Joel 2:31, "the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood." The image, no doubt, is suggested by the phenomena of natural total eclipses, when the sun disappears entirely, but the moon, though ceasing to be luminous, does not in general become invisible, but assumes a dull reddish colour. We are told of "signs in the Heaven" before the fall of Jerusalem which, if natural, must be assigned to this last cause, and in any case may be regarded as partial fulfilments of these prophecies, and types of their final fulfilment. See Jos. B. J.VI. Revelation 6:3; Tac. Hist.V. xiii. 1.