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of the smoke of the pit.

I have not the seal of God in their

3 And there came out of the foreheads. smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a

4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither man. any green thing, neither any

6 And in those days shall

tree; but only those men which men seek death, and shall not

seems to be the same general strain of metaphor both in the prophets and in the prophecy of our Lord, in regard to the destruction of Jerusalem. The revelator follows them; but is more metaphorical than either. No reader, however, can fail to see the similarity in their style.

5. Should not kill them. This language is not to be understood too strictly, for undoubtedly some were slain by the Roman armies at their first approach. Nevertheless, this was not the time when the great slaughter took place. Tormented five months. They were, however, greatly tormented, and were driven to the greatest straits for the want of the necessaries of life, and for the dangers caused by their animosities among themselves, and the threatening of the Roman armies. Torment of a scorpion. Thus was their torment, "as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man." Josephus states that very few of the Jews were slain during the invasion of their

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3. Came out of the smoke locusts. And what do these locusts represent but the first approach of the Roman army? "Locusts," (says Dr. Lancaster, in his abridgment of Daubuz,) "fly in such prodigious numbers, as that they form a great cloud and darken the sky; and then falling upon the earth, make a most terrible havoc of all the fruits thereof; and so are a proper symbol to signify AN ARMY of enemies coming in vast multi-cities by Cestius Gallus, although tudes," &c. &c. -(Quoted in Tower's Illustrations of Prophecy.) But that they did signify an army will be rendered absolutely certain as we proceed. They had more than a locust's power; they had the power of scorpions.

4. Should not hurt the grass. If they had been locusts in reality, what would have been more natural than that they should have devoured the grass, and any green thing? But they were symbolical; they represented an army of men, who were to make havoc of their fellow-men. Those servants of God, however, who were sealed in their foreheads, Rev. vii. 3, they could not harm; they had power only to hurt those who had not the seal.

they suffered much. - [De Bell. Jud., Book II., chap. xx., sec. 9.] Cestius lay before Jerusalem one whole summer, says Adam Clarke, or about five months; and this may be the time referred to by the words, "they should be tormented five months;" verses 5, 10.

6. Shall men seek death. - This was owing to the greatness of their sufferings, arising from their commotions within and enemies without. Christ and his apostles forewarned men of the "great tribulation ;" and we have no doubt that many longed for death as a relief from their terrible sufferings. It is not uncommon for people to suffer so severely as to long for death. Job spoke of those in his day, who "longed for death, but it came

find it; and shall desire to die, | hair of women, and their teeth and death shall flee from them.

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8. As the hair of women. Their hair, or some ornament of their caps, was as the hair of women; and their teeth were like lions' teeth.

9. Breast-plates of iron. - They had breast-plates also, which is surely descriptive of soldiers. ¶ Sound of their wings.-The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots and many horses running to battle. How exactly this agrees with the description given of the invasion of Jerusalem by the prophet Joel. It seems impossible to avoid the impression, that the revelator drew his figures from that prophet. "A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle-array;" Joel ii. 3-5. There

were as the teeth of lions.

9 And they had breast-plates, as it were breast-plates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were

can be no doubt that the prophet and revelator spake of the same event. What other interpretation can be given of the chapter now before us, that presents such claims to belief? Every one must see the very striking resemblance between the description of Joel and that of the revelator; in fact, they are almost the self-same thing. Why then ought we not to be guided by the prophet in applying the dark passages of the Apocalypse? The description is evidently that of an army well supplied with cavalry; and for that species of force the Romans were eminent.

10. They had tails like unto scorpions.- The meaning is, they had a scorpion's power to inflict pain. It agrees precisely with what is said verse 3, "Unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power." The scorpion is the largest and most malignant of all the insect tribe. Its bite is terrible, not so much for the death it sometimes occasions, as for the pain it causes, which is worse than death. The torment of the bite of the scorpion of the east is thus described, according to Mr. Taylor, by Dioscorides: "When the scorpion has stung, the place becomes inflamed and hardened; it reddens by tension, and is painful by intervals, being now chilly, now burning. The pain soon rises high, and rages sometimes more, and sometimes less. A sweating succeeds, attended by a shivering and trembling; the extremities of the body become cold; the groin swells; the hair stands on end; the members become pale; and the

stings in their tails; and their | name Apollyon.
power was to hurt men five
months.

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his

skin feels throughout it the sensation of a perpetual prickling, as if by needles." Such is "the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man;" ver. 5. When men are in this awful condition, they long for death, and death seems to flee away from them only to protract their torments. In order to give the fact, that the Roman armies would cause the most intense anguish on the unbelieving Jews, it is said that the locusts, which represented those armies, had tails like scorpions, armed with stings. Hurt men five months. The locust season lasted about five months; the animal comes, ravages, and passes away in about that time. It is also said, that Cestius Gallus lay before Jerusalem about that time. See on ver. 5.

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11. They had a king.. This was necessary to be said, because locusts in general have no king. See Prov. Xxx. 27: "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands." The revelator was obliged, therefore, to add, that the forces of which he spoke, under the metaphor of locusts, had a king, or commander. The movements of armies were described by the prophets by the progress of locusts. "As the running to and fro of locusts, shall he run upon them;" Isa. xxxiii. 4. Locusts represent especially large armies. "Make thyself many as the locusts." * * "Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers;" Nahum iii. 15, 17. The angel of the bottomless pit. As the host was said to ascend out of the pit or abyss, so

12 One woe is past; and behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

their commander was said to be the angel of that abyss, the principal personage. And as he caused great loss and devastation, his name is DESTRUCTION, for such is the meaning of the Hebrew word Abaddon, and the Greek Apollyon signifies a Destroyer. Pickering defines Abaddon, destruction, devastation, destroyer; Apollyon, the destroyer, devastation. Donnegan defines the verb Apollumi, to destroy utterly, and he says Homer uses it mostly of persons slain in battle. Liddell and Scott say that Apollumi signifies to destroy utterly, kill, slay, murder; and they refer to Homer, who used it to signify death in battle; and when applied to things, he used it to mean to demolish, to lay waste. How appropriate, then, according to these high authorities, to term the commander of a destroying army, Abaddon, or Apollyon.

12. One woe is past. - One of the three woes mentioned viii. 13, has now been described. Two more remain. Let us turn our attention to the next woe. The three woes were

to come at the sounding of the fifth, sixth, and seventh angels. The first woe we have noticed under the sounding of the fifth angel, ix. 1, and now we come to the sounding of the sixth angel.

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14 Saying to the sixth angel | loosed, which were prepared for which had the trumpet, Loose an hour, and a day, and a month, the four angels which are bound and a year, for to slay the third in the great river Euphrates. part of men.

15 And the four angels were 16 And the number of the

from the golden altar, which could not with propriety have been said after the temple and the altar were demolished.

14. Loose the four angels, &c.—meant by the loosing of the angels in The command is to loose the four the Euphrates, viz., the calling the angels which are bound in the great Roman commanders, who were enriver Euphrates. The great river. camped in different provinces in the The Euphrates is a great river, and vicinity of that river, to bring their was more especially so in the estima- forces to the city. In the interim betion of the ancients. Its banks were tween the withdrawal of Cestius and the seat of many noble cities; and the approach of Vespasian, the Christowering above all in importance was tians had an opportunity to escape Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms, the from the ill-fated city; and in this beauty of the Chaldees' excellency." way the 144,000 who had been sealed The Euphrates, or the region thereof, in their foreheads fled away, and was the eastern boundary of the were saved; Rev. vii. 3, 4. This all Roman empire, and that river flowed transpired before the temple was dethrough a vast extent of populous stroyed, because the voice that comcountry. Being far removed frommanded to loose the four angels came the capital of the empire, and the nations bordering upon it being hard to govern, it was expedient to keep armies there, under experienced generals. The first efforts of the Romans to obtain possession of Jerusalem having failed, it became necessary for them to draw their forces together. Dr. Hammond says, "It is said by Josephus, (lib. 5, ch. 6,) that the Syrian legions of the Roman army lay as far as Euphrates; and Philo in his Embassy mentions the armies reaching to Euphrates." What, then, does the loosing of the four angels bound in the great river signify, but a call upon the Roman commanders in that region, who had been detained there by previous orders, to repair to Jerusalem with their forces? Vespasian may perhaps be regarded as one of those angels, for he was a leader of the Syrian army, and repaired to Jerusalem after the former leader, Cestius Gallus, had failed to subdue the rebellious Jews. It was by this army that he was nominated as emperor, at which he repaired to Rome, and was succeeded by Titus, his elder son, who prosecuted the war in Judea. This, then, is what is

15. An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year.· That is, they were prepared and ready at all times for any length of service; they were instant in season and out of season; they were ready at any warning for the work of destruction. They were to take part in the destruction of the Jews, and do their share in slaying that misguided people.

16. Two hundred thousand thousand. - This is a certain number for an uncertain. It was a custom of the ancients, and is still retained by the moderns, to express an uncertain number by a certain one. The demons were called legion, not because the exact number of them was known, but because they were many. We might say of a vast host, "there was a million of them," without intending that exact number. So when it is said, the number of the horsemen were "two hundred thousand thousand," or two hundred millions, the only idea intended to be eonveyed was that there were a large number.

army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breast-plates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions;

The expression is surely hyperbolical.
The Roman armies assembled around
Jerusalem were very numerous.

and out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for

When highly excited, he drives his
breath with great force through his
nostrils, and we say he snorts. By
this noise, he is sometimes described
as being heard at a distance.
"The
snorting of his horses was heard from
Dan: the whole land trembled at the
sound of the neighing of his strong
ones: for they are come, and have
devoured the land, and all that is in
it; the city, and those that dwell
therein;" Jer. viii. 16. The horses
which John saw breathed fire and
smoke from burning brimstone. It
is customary in our day, in a painting
of the excited horse, to show him with
head uplifted, ears put forward, eyes
all kindled with animation, and phos-

17. And thus I saw. - - That is, I am now about to describe more particularly the appearance of the horses and the horsemen, which I have mentioned as passing before me in my vision. Breast-plates of fire, and of jacinth, and of brimstone. It is but a matter of small importance to settle, whether these breast-plates were worn by the horses or the riders. They were of fire, jacinth and brimstone; i. e., they were in appearance like these articles. A breast-plate very highly polished, and reflecting brilliantly the rays of the sun, or of the camp fires, would seem like a breast-phorescence at his nostrils. So saith plate of fire. The jacinth was a precious stone; it is mentioned, Rev. xxi. 20, as one of the garnitures of the foundation of the New Jerusalem. Some of the breast-plates looked like a bril-ness and power of destruction, the liant of this description; and others revelator describes them as breathing had the appearance of brimstone, i. e., out flames, like the flames that pro(we think,) burning brimstone. As ceed from burning brimstone. the heads of lions. They were fierce, fearless; their manes were like lions' manes; they had the appearance of great majesty and strength. The best horses are trained to war; and the nations around the Euphrates, from whom this cavalry came, abounded in the best of horses.

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Job: "The glory of his nostrils is terrible ;" xxxix. 20. To give the horses of the eastern cavalry the appearance of great animation, fierce

18. By these three. That is, "by the fire, by the smoke, and by the brimstone." The power described by them is meant. By this power did the cavalry its part in the work of destruction.

19. In their mouth and in their tails. - Here lay their power, to which we have referred under the preceding verse. The revelator's object is still the same, viz., to represent the cavalry to be as fearful as possible. In his picture, the horses breathed fire and smoke and brimstone. So much for the mouths. He still wished to

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