INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION 9 This chapter gives an account of the blowing of the fifth and sixth trumpets, and of the effects following upon them. The fifth angel blows his trumpet, and a star falls; the key of the bottomless pit is given to him, which being opened by it, out of it comes smoke to t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE FIFTH ANGEL SOUNDED,.... His trumpet: AND I SAW A STAR FALL FROM HEAVEN UNTO THE EARTH: some take this star to be Jesus Christ, the bright and morning star; and understand by falling, no other than his descending from heaven to earth, in which sense the word is used in Genesis 14:10; and th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE OPENED THE BOTTOMLESS PIT,.... With the key that was given him; he made use of his universal power over all bishops and churches, enacted laws, issued out decrees, made articles of faith, and imposed them on men's consciences, and obliged all to submit to his hellish principles and practices;... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE CAME OUT OF THE SMOKE LOCUSTS THE EARTH,.... Not literally, for these locusts might not meddle with the grass, nor any green thing, or tree, as locusts do, only men, Revelation 9:4; and had a king over them, Revelation 9:11; which locusts have not, Proverbs 30:27, though the allusion is to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT WAS COMMANDED THEM,.... The locusts, by Christ, who has a sovereign power over all men, and lays them under the restraints of his providence: THAT THEY SHOULD NOT HURT THE GRASS OF THE EARTH: true Christians, private believers, it may be those of the lower class; who for their numbers, and f... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TO THEM IT WAS GIVEN THAT THEY SHOULD NOT KILL THEM,.... As the power of the locusts was limited with respect to the persons they should hurt, so with regard also to the mischief they should do; for even those whom they were suffered to annoy they might not kill, that is, utterly root out and de... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IN THOSE DAYS MEN SHALL SEEK DEATH,.... Or desire to die, as Job did: AND SHALL NOT FIND IT; or shall not die: AND SHALL DESIRE TO DIE, AND DEATH SHALL FLEE FROM THEM; death will be preferred to a miserable life; it will be chosen rather than life, Jeremiah 8:3. The ravages of the Saracens, th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SHAPES OF THE LOCUSTS [WERE] LIKE UNTO HORSES,.... The heads of locusts, especially of some of them, are very much like the heads of horses: and here they are compared to horses PREPARED UNTO BATTLE; as they are in Joel 2:4. The horse is a warlike creature, swift, strong, and courageous, Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY HAD HAIR, AS THE HAIR OF WOMEN,.... Some locusts have smooth, others hairy heads n: this fitly points at the Arabians or Saracens, who, as Pliny says o, used to wear long hair without cutting it, and attired as women, and have their names also from women: they were called Hagarenes, from Ha... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY HAD BREASTPLATES, AS IT WERE BREASTPLATES OF IRON,.... Alluding to the hard skin of the locusts, with which nature has fenced it q; see Joel 2:8; and denotes the armour with which the Saracens were accoutred: and if to be understood of the western locusts, the hardness of their hearts, thei... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY HAD TAILS LIKE UNTO SCORPIONS,.... Locusts are said to have the tail of a serpent, and of the vipers of the earth u; Revelation 9:3, Revelation 9:5. And there were stings in their tails; either in the baser sort of them, the Saracens and Papists; or in their doctrines, the prophet being t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY HAD A KING OVER THEM,.... Which natural locusts have not, Proverbs 30:27; by whom is meant the false prophet Mahomet, who was at the head of the Saracens, and led them on to commit the outrages they did; and is believed in by the Turks to this day, as the great prophet of God, and by them p... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE WOE IS PAST,.... One of the three woe trumpets, the first of them; that is, in the vision which John had of it, not the thing itself designed by it: [AND] BEHOLD THERE COME TWO WOES MORE HEREAFTER; under the blowing of the sixth and seventh trumpets.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SIXTH ANGEL SOUNDED,.... His trumpet: AND I HEARD A VOICE FROM THE FOUR HORNS OF THE GOLDEN ALTAR, WHICH IS BEFORE GOD; the allusion is not to the altar of burnt offering, which was covered with brass, but to the altar of incense covered with gold; and hence here, and elsewhere, it is calle... [ Continue Reading ]
SAYING TO THE SIXTH ANGEL WHICH HAD THE TRUMPET,.... The sixth trumpet, which was given him, and he had prepared himself to sound, and had sounded: LOOSE THE FOUR ANGELS WHICH ARE BOUND IN THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES; not the four angels in Revelation 7:1; they stood upon the four corners of the eart... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE FOUR ANGELS WERE LOOSED,.... The time being come, fixed by the decrees of God, making use of the Turks for the destruction of the eastern empire, the restraints of divine Providence were taken off from them, and they were suffered to pass the river Euphrates; they were let loose like so many... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE NUMBER OF THE ARMY OF THE HORSEMEN,.... This shows that the four angels before mentioned were men, and design generals of armies, or armies of men, even of horsemen; and manifestly point at the Turks, who were not only originally Persians, and had their name, as some say e, from Turca in Per... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THUS I SAW THE HORSES IN THE VISION, AND THEM THAT SAT ON THEM,.... In such numbers, and with horsemen on them, and in such order, and in appearance, as follows: HAVING BREASTPLATES OF FIRE, AND OF JACINTH AND BRIMSTONE; which may be understood either literally of their external breastplates, w... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BY THESE THREE WAS THE THIRD PART OF MEN KILLED,.... The Alexandrian copy, and some others, the Complutensian edition, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, read, "by these three plagues": as the western Roman empire is in the preceding chapter frequently expressed by the third part... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEIR POWER IS IN THEIR MOUTH,.... In what proceeded out of their mouth, or seethed to do so; in their guns, and what came out of them: AND IN THEIR TAILS; which may design their foot soldiers, which were as the tail to their horse, and who sometimes did great service; or their way of fighting... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE REST OF MEN WHICH WERE NOT KILLED BY THESE PLAGUES,.... By whom are meant the western antichristian party; and such of them as were not plagued, harassed, and destroyed by the Turks, as in Germany, at least some parts of it, France, Spain, Italy, c. YET REPENTED NOT OF THE WORKS OF THEIR HA... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER REPENTED THEY OF THEIR MURDERS,.... Of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, with whose blood the western antichrist is made drunk, and which will be found in her, and for which she is answerable. Now, though the western parts of the empire escaped the scourge of the Turks, yet this did not bring... [ Continue Reading ]