which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. under the seventh seal are divided into seven parts; and hence seven trumpets, with which to announce those events, are placed in the hands of the seven angels. The whole, of course, is scenical. 4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. 5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth; and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, iv. 7: "The end of all things is at hand [referring unquestionably to the destruction of Jerusalem]: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” 4. Ascended up before God. At that time, especially, therefore, the prayers of Christians everywhere ascended to heaven, denoted by the words, "And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God, out of the angel's hand." 3. Another angel. This was the angel of the golden censer. — Angelology, Apoc., §9. ¶ At the altar. The altar here spoken of was unquestionably the altar of incense, as incense was about to be offered. It is mentioned Exod. xxx. 27. ¶ Golden censer. The golden censer was for the purpose of incense. The sacred vessels were many of them of gold and silver, and hence were for their value carried off into Babylon, at the captivity, and afterwards restored; Ezra vi. 5, and Dan. v. 2, 3. The censer was of pure gold; 1 Kings vii. 50; 2 Chron. iv. 22; Heb. ix. 4. ¶ Given unto him much incense. To the angel was given much incense, the occasion being an extraordinary one. ¶ That he should offer it. This he was to offer while the people were in silent prayer. He offered it during the prayers during the half hour's silence. We have already shown, on chapter v. 8, that the odors were the prayers of saints. "Let my prayer be set before thee as incense;" Psa. cxli. 2. The Jews gave themselves much to prayer, as did also the Christians; Acts vi. 4. The Jewish Christians were directed specially to praying fire from the altar to cast upon during the calamities of the nation; Matt. xxiv. 20. In fact, the believers everywhere were directed to pray in reference to that event. See Peter 5. Filled it with fire. The facts mentioned in the verse are preparatory to what is to follow, - a sort of metaphorical introduction to the threatened judgments. Fire was always burning on the altar; Lev. xvi. 12; Isa. vi. 6. It is used to signify not only the judgments which God sends upon the earth, but the purifying power of God, and ofttimes the purifying power of his judgments. It is put for the judgments of God in the verse before us. The angel filled the censer with fire from the altar, and cast it on the earth, or land of Judea, to show that further judgments were to fall on the Jews. A great commotion followed. "There were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake;" a figure of tumults, anger, great noises, frightful visitations from heaven, and a great overthrow. We think the figure of tak the earth is designed to show that the judgments originated in heaven; and are sent out from the presence of God. So the desolation of Israel was and an earthquake 6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. were cast upon the earth, and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 7 The first angel sounded, 8 And the second angel and there followed hail and fire sounded, and as it were a great mingled with blood, and they mountain burning with fire was described by Ezek. ix. and x. Ob-ferent portions of the Jews, without serve carefully x. 1, 2. 6. Prepared themselves to sound. No further delay is to be expected. All is now ready for the commencement of final action. The woes were about to come; they were just on the point of commencing; and hence it is said, the angels prepared themselves to sound. the aid of the Roman armies. The destruction being described by burning, or overthrow of the forests and herbage, or grass, is drawn also, we think, from the account of the plague of hail in Egypt, Exod. ix. 22, 25. 8. The second angel sounded. - This opens another series of calamities, - another source of woe. A great 7. Hail and fire mingled with blood. mountain burning_with_fire. — High -The figure here signified destruc-mountains and lofty hills denoted tion. What could be more expressive kingdoms, republics, states, cities, and of devastation, with loss of life added proud men that exalt themselves. thereto, than "hail and fire mingled See how Isaiah describes the fall of with blood?" The figure is borrowed the proud and lofty: "For the day from the Old Testament. One of the of the Lord of hosts shall be upon judgments upon Egypt was thunder, every one that is proud and lofty, and hail and fire; Exod. ix. 21-25. The upon every one that is lifted up; and figures of hail and fire for judgments he shall be brought low and upon originated here. See, also, Ezek. all the cedars of Lebanon, that are Xxxviii. 22: "And I will plead high and lifted up, and upon all the against him with pestilence and with oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high blood; and I will rain upon him, and mountains, and upon all the hills that upon his bands, and upon the many are lifted up;" ii. 12-14. Here it people that are with him, an over- is manifest, that by the high mounflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, tains and hills were intended those and brimstone." Third part of trees. that were proud and lofty. ¶ Cast - The third part of trees being burnt into the sea. - The figure of throwing signified that this was as yet but a down a burning mountain is borpartial destruction. This is not the rowed from Jer. li. 25: "Behold, I treading of the holy city under foot. am against thee, O destroying mounThat was to be done by the Roman tain, saith the Lord, which destroyest armies; and we have not yet come to all the earth: and I will stretch out that part of the Apocalypse in which my hand upon thee, and roll thee the approach of the Roman armies is down from the rocks, and will make described. In our judgment, what thee a burnt mountain." See Ezek. follows in the chapter before us refers xxxviii. 14-23, where the reader to the tumults among the Jews them- will find a train of metaphors very selves, which broke out in different similar to those which occur in the places, some in the country, some on chapter before us. See, also, Amos the coast, near the sea, and some in vii. 4, and Rev. xvi. 3. The burning the holy city, endangering the very mountain may well have represented city itself, which was threatened to some proud, ambitious, influential be destroyed by the quarrels of dif- and seditious person, claiming to be a cast into the sea: and the third | part of the sea became blood. 9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. 10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon a third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; Our Christ, or a prophet, leading multi-reader may think, it would have been tudes astray, and causing their de- much better, if the writer of the Apocstruction. He falls in the midst of a alypse had seen fit to use plain lanblaze of divine judgments. What guage, which would have been more would more fitly represent such an easily understood. We reply, this individual, than a great mountain style of writing has a very different burning with fire?" and what would appearance to us from that which it more fitly represent his fall, in answer presented to the people to whom it to the faith and prayers of the Chris- was addressed. They were used to tians, than the fall of the mountain it; and instruction could well be coninto the sea? Jesus told his follow-veyed to them by such means. ers, if they had faith, "ye shall say object is not to find fault with the unto this mountain, Be thou removed, style of the Apocalypse, but to exand be thou cast into the sea; it shall plain it, according to the best of our be done;" Matt. xxi. 21. Does not means and ability, by the help of the reader see, that the judgments other parts of the word of God. Stars, coming on the Jews, being represent- we said, are sometimes used to reped by a mountain removed from its resent good men and sometimes bad. base, agrees precisely with the meta- At one time the star signifies a conphorical language of the sixth chap-queror; Numb. xxiv. 17: "There shall ter, which, in point of subject, is the predecessor of this: "And every mountain and island were moved out of their places;" 14. There is a congruity in the metaphors through this whole connection. - 9. Third part of the creatures.. The judgment was yet a partial one, preliminary to the great and final overthrow of the nation. See Exod. vii. 19-21 for an account of the events which probably gave rise to these metaphors. 10. The third angel sounded. We now proceed to another woe described in the highly metaphorical language of the revelator. There fell a great star.- How well comports this with vi. 13. "And the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." This metaphor also is borrowed from the prophets. Stars are sometimes used 10 represent good men, and sometimes bad men. It is quite possible, the come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth." At another it signifies the_rulers of the church; Rev. i. 20, "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." Wicked apostates are said to be "wandering stars," that go from light into outer darkness. The fall of the King of Babylon was represented as the fall of a star from heaven. The figure is very striking. He was proud and aspiring: he exalted himself greatly, even "above the stars of God;" he said, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." But he was brought down to destruction; and after his debasement it was said to him, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [or morning star] how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations;" Isa. xiv. 12. The fall of the star 11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. mentioned in Rev. viii. 10, 11, may well represent the overthrow of some leader, some false Christ, some principal one among the seditious, or the zealots, who led his followers into bitter suffering and death. The Jews were the prey of the ambition of such unprincipled men, and had been for some time before. See Acts xxi. 38: "Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?" ¶ Third part of the rivers. - The destruction is a partial one, preliminary (as we have before said) to the great and final overthrow of the nation. Our Saviour assured his followers that previous to the great event, false Christs should arise, and lead the people astray. They should "show great signs and wonders;" Matt. xxiv. 24; they should be greatly lifted up; and if the fall of bad rulers and wicked men from eminent places was represented in prophetic style by the fall of stars, [as it surely was,] why may not the fall of some leader, among these false Christs, be represented by the fall of a star from heaven? But the judgment as yet was only partial. 11. Name of the star is called Wormwood. The star of which we are speaking, was called "Wormwood," to show its effect. It brought the deepest bitterness of anguish upon the people when it fell. Perhaps the figure of bitterness was originally drawn from Exod. xv. 23, 24. Idolatry was a root of bitterness or wormwood to the Jews, and brought upon them severe judgments. See Deut. xxix. 18. In describing to young men the lips of the strange woman, Solomon says, they "drop as a honey 12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, comb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword;" Prov. v. 3, 4. God threatened the Jews, before he sent his judgments upon them, "I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink;" Jer. ix. 15; xxiii. 15. How appropriate then, in an address to the Asiatic churches, to describe the overthrow of a leader, who was to involve many others in his fate, as the fall of a star, whose name was Wormwood. Wise men early learned to give names to stars; in fact, God himself is said, in the style of the ancients, "to call them all by their names;" Psa. cxlvii. 4; Isa. xl. 26. 12. Third part of the sun. Under the sounding of the fourth angel, the woes seem to be still more tremendous and alarming. It is not now the destruction in part of the trees, or the grass, or the fountains of water; but greater far than that, it is the destruction of the third part of the sun, the moon and the stars. These stand for the highest earthly dignitaries, and the most glorious places. What, then, may this represent more fitly than the tumults in the very city, and in the temple, the holy place; which we know were carried on there before and during the siege by the Roman armies? It had been represented, in the preceding chapter, that "the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth;" verses 12, 13; which we interpreted to signify great civil and political changes. In the verse before us, as we have said, it is the third part of the sun, moon and stars that are smitten. Without, -- and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. 13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying, with a therefore, being presumptive in the application, we think it perfectly safe to say, that this denotes, not the full destruction of the high powers of the Jewish state, but commotions among them, so that their power was partly stricken down, and they were thereby more easily made the prey of their enemies without the city. We shall have occasion to show, before we close our examination of the part of the Apocalypse which relates to the Jews, that, so far as human judgment can decide, had it not been for the contentions among the Jewish leaders, both in church and state, their city never could have been overthrown. loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! trates endeavored by stripes and torture to restrain him; but he still cried with a mournful voice, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" This he continued to do for seven years and five months together, and especially at the great festivals; and he neither grew hoarse, nor was tired; but went about the walls and cried with a loud voice, Let it Woe, woe to the city and to the temple;" and as he added at last, “Woe, woe also to myself," it happened that a stone from some sling or engine immediately struck him dead. be observed, that the woes denounced by him were not those which had happened under the first four trumpets, but those which were to happen under the last three. "Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are YET to sound." Notwithstanding, however, the close similarity between the angel and this personage in Jerusalem, it is by no means certain he was referred to by the revelator. In the scenery of the chapter, the angel may have been introduced merely to show that three out of the seven woes remained to be fulfilled. This will introduce us to the THREE WOE TRumpets. 13. Angel flying through the midst of heaven. The term angel is applied, in the Bible, to any being, or thing, sent out of God for a special purpose. To fly in the midst of heaven, may signify flying in the air, between heaven and earth, or it may signify moving about among the powers of heaven, which had been mentioned in the preceding verse. "Saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe."The figure of the angel, in this case, may have been introduced merely to announce that three woes remained to be fulfilled; or possibly it may have reference to a singular Jewish personage, who appeared in Jerusalem, in the midst of the greatest tumult, a description of whom we 1. And the fifth angel sounded. — take from Josephus. What that his- Of the seven angels who were to torian reckoned the most horrible of sound their trumpets, as described in all, was one Jesus, an ordinary fel- the seventh seal, viii. 3, the sounding low, who came to the feast of taber- of four has been mentioned in the nacles, and ran crying up and down preceding chapter. Three more woes the street day and night, "A voice remain, as mentioned in the last verse from the east, a voice from the west, a of that chapter, "Woe, woe, woe, voice from the four minds, a voice against the inhabiters of the earth, by reason Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against of the other voices of the trumpet of the bridegrooms and the brides, a voice the three angels, which are yet to against all the people." The magis-sound." We have hitherto followed CHAPTER IX. to |