Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

“Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have sealed the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

“Mt 24:34; "this generation (the Jewish nation) shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled," which implies that Israel can no more pass away before Christ's advent, than Christ's own words can pass away (the same Greek), Mt 24:35.”

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel:

“A thousand implies the world perfectly pervaded by the divine; for it is ten, the world number, raised to the power of three, the number of God.”

And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

“It is their continuing, ceaseless employment. Salvation--literally, "THE salvation"; all the praise of our salvation be ascribed to our God. At the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, the type, similarly "salvation" is the cry of the palm-bearing multitudes.”

And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God,

“The angels, as in Re 5:11, in their turn take up the anthem of praise. There it was "many angels," here it is "all the angels." stood--"were standing" [ALFORD].”

saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

“Greek, "The blessing, the glory, the wisdom, the thanksgiving, the honor, the power, the might [the doxology is sevenfold, implying its totality and completeness], unto the ages of the ages."”

“Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in…

“There, however, their number was waiting to be completed, but here it is completed, and they are seen taken out of the earth before the judgments on the Antichristian apostasy; with their Lord, they, and all His faithful witnesses and disciples of past ages, wait…”

‘Never again will they hunger, and never will they thirst; nor will the sun beat down upon them, nor any scorching heat.’

“(Isa 49:10). hunger no more--as they did here. thirst any more-- (Joh 4:13). the sun--literally, scorching in the East. Also, symbolically, the sun of persecution. neither . . . light--Greek, "by no means at all . . . light" (fall). heat--as the sirocco.”

Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.

“It is not the saints who give the angel the incense; nor are their prayers identified with the incense; nor do they offer their prayers to him. Christ alone is the Mediator through whom, and to whom, prayer is to be offered.”

Then the second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood,

“The overthrow of Jericho, the type of the Antichristian Babylon, after which Israel, under Joshua (the same name as Jesus), victoriously took possession of Canaan, the type of Christ's and His people's kingdom, is perhaps alluded to in the SEVEN trumpets, which end in the…”

a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

“The symbolical interpreters take the ships here to be churches. For the Greek here for ships is not the common one, but that used in the Gospels of the apostolic vessel in which Christ taught: and the first churches were in the shape of an…”

The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter like wormwood oil, and many people died from the bitter waters.

“The symbolizers interpret the star fallen from heaven as a chief minister (ARIUS, according to BULLINGER, BENGEL, and others; or some future false teacher, if, as is more likely, the event be still future) falling from his high place in the Church, and instead of…”

Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck.

“This partial obscuration, therefore, comes between the prayers of the martyrs under the fifth seal, and the last overwhelming judgments on the ungodly under the sixth seal, at the eve of Christ's coming.”

Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the…

“The last three trumpets of the seven are called, from Re 8:13, the woe-trumpets. fall--rather as Greek, "fallen." When John saw it, it was not in the act of falling, but had fallen already.”

And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.

“upon--Greek, "unto," or "into." as the scorpions of the earth--as contrasted with the "locusts" which come up from hell, and are not "of the earth." have power--namely, to sting.”

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

“Therefore, not natural and ordinary locusts. Their natural instinct is supernaturally restrained to mark the judgment as altogether divine. those men which--Greek, "the men whosoever." in, &c.--Greek, "upon their forehead."”

They were ruled by a king, the angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek it is Apollyon.

“But A, B, and Aleph, omit "and." had--Greek, "have." a king . . . which is the angel--English Version, agreeing with A, Aleph, reads the (Greek) article before "angel," in which reading we must translate, "They have as king over them the angel," &c.”

The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to follow.

“Greek, "The one woe." hereafter--Greek, "after these things." I agree with ALFORD and DE BURGH, that these locusts from the abyss refer to judgments about to fall on the ungodly immediately before Christ's second advent.”

And the number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number.

“The hosts here are evidently, from their numbers and their appearance (Re 9:17), not merely human hosts, but probably infernal, though constrained to work out God's will (compare Re 9:1, 2). and I heard--A, B, Aleph, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and CYPRIAN omit "and."”

A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that proceeded from their mouths.

“By these three--A, B, C, and Aleph read (apo for kupo), "From"; implying the direction whence the slaughter came; not direct instrumentality as "by" implies. A, B, C, Aleph also add "plagues" after "three." English Version reading, which omits it, is not well supported.”

For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; indeed, their tails were like snakes, having heads with which to inflict harm.

“Mohammed, doubtless, is a forerunner of him, but not the exhaustive fulfiller of the prophecy here: Satan will, probably, towards the end, bring out all the powers of hell for the last conflict (see on Re 9:20, on "devils"; compare Re 9:1, 2, 17, 18).”

Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands.

“Especially the idols made by their hands. Compare Re 13:14, 15, "the image of the beast" Re 19:20. that they should not--So B reads. But A, C, and Aleph read "that they shall not": implying a prophecy of certainty that it shall be so.”

Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft.

“The worship of images was established in the East in A.D. 842. fornication--singular: whereas the other sins are in the plural. Other sins are perpetrated at intervals: those lacking purity of heart indulge in one perpetual fornication [BENGEL].”

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head.

“18:1). feet as pillars of fire-- (Re 1:15; The angel, as representative of Christ, reflects His glory and bears the insignia attributed in Re 1:15, 16; The pillar of fire by night led Israel through the wilderness, and was the symbol of God's presence.”

When the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to put it in writing.

“Though heard by John, they were not to be imparted by him to others in this book of Revelation; so terrible are they that God in mercy withholds them, since "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."”

And he swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it…

“The appointed season or time of delay is at an end (the same Greek is here as in Re 6:11, chronus). Not as English Version implies, Time shall end and eternity begin.”