Chapter 9:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGee
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Jude Genesis
Revelation 9
Verse 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star - Far different
from that mentioned, chap. viii, 11. This star belongs to the
invisible world. The third woe is occasioned by the dragon cast
out of heaven; the second takes place at the loosing of the four
angels who were bound in the Euphrates. The first is here brought
by the angel of the abyss, which is opened by this star, or holy
angel. Falling to the earth - Coming swiftly and with great force.
And to him was given - when he was come. The key of the
bottomless pit - A deep and hideous prison; but different from
"the lake of fire."
Verse
2. And there arose a smoke out of the pit - The locusts, who
afterwards rise out of it, seem to be, as we shall afterwards see,
the Persians; agreeable to which, this smoke is their detestable
idolatrous doctrine, and false zeal for it, which now broke out in
an uncommon paroxysm. As the smoke of a great furnace - where
the clouds of it rise thicker and thicker, spread far and wide, and
press one upon another, so that the darkness increases continually.
And the sun and the air were darkened - A figurative expression,
denoting heavy affliction. This smoke occasioned more and more
such darkness over the Jews in Persia.
Verse
3. And out of the smoke - Not out of the bottomless pit, but from
the smoke which issued thence. There went forth locusts - A
known emblem of a numerous, hostile, hurtful people. Such were
the Persians, from whom the Jews, in the sixth century, suffered
beyond expression. In the year 540 their academies were stopped,
nor were they permitted to have a president for near fifty years. In
589 this affliction ended; but it began long before 540. The prelude of it was about the year 455 and 47iv, the main storm came on in the reign of Cabades, and lasted from 483 to
532. Toward the beginning of the sixth century, Mar Rab Isaac,
president of the academy, was put to death. Hereon followed an
insurrection of the Jews, which lasted seven years before they
were conquered by the Persians. Some of them were then put to
death, but not many; the rest were closely imprisoned. And from
this time the nation of the Jews were hated and persecuted by the
Persians, till they had well nigh rooted them out. The scorpions of
the earth - The most hurtful kind. The scorpions of the air have
wings.
Verse
4. And it was commanded them - By the secret power of God. Not
to hurt the grass, neither any green thing, nor any tree - Neither
those of low, middling, or high degree, but only such of them as
were not sealed - Principally the unbelieving Israelites. But many
who were called Christians suffered with them.
Verse
5. Not to kill them - Very few of them were killed: in general,
they were imprisoned and variously tormented.
Verse
6. The men - That is, the men who are so tormented.
Verse
7. And the appearances - This description suits a people neither
throughly civilized, nor entirely savage; and such were the
Persians of that age. Of the locusts are like horses - With their
riders. The Persians excelled in horsemanship. And on their heads
are as it were crowns - Turbans. And their faces are as the faces of
men - Friendly and agreeable.
Verse
8. And they had hair as the hair of women - All the Persians of old
gloried in long hair. And their teeth were as the teeth of lions -
Breaking and tearing all things in pieces.
Verse
9. And the noise of their wings was as the noise of chariots of
many horses - With their war-chariots, drawn by many horses,
they, as it were, flew to and fro.
Verse
10. And they have tails like scorpions - That is, each tail is like a
scorpion, not like the tail of a scorpion. To hurt the unsealed men
five months - Five prophetic months; that is, seventy-nine
common years So long did these calamities last.
Verse
11. And they have over them a king - One by whom they are
peculiarly directed and governed. His name is Abaddon - Both
this and Apollyon signify a destroyer. By this he is distinguished
from the dragon, whose proper name is Satan.
Verse
12. One woe is past; behold, there come yet two woes after these
things - The Persian power, under which was the first woe, was
now broken by the Saracens: from this time the first pause made a
wide way for the two succeeding woes. In 589, when the first woe
ended, Mahomet was twenty years old, and the contentions of the
Christians with each other were exceeding great. In 591 Chosroes
II. reigned in Persia, who, after the death of the emperor, made
dreadful disturbances in the east, Hence Mahomet found an open
door for his new religion and empire. And when the usurper
Phocas had, in the year 606, not only declared the Bishop of
Rome, Boniface III., universal bishop, but also the church of
Rome the head of all churches, this was a sure step to advance the
Papacy to its utmost height. Thus, after the passing away of the
first woe, the second, yea, and the third, quickly followed; as
indeed they were both on the way together with it before the first
effectually began.
Verse
13. And the sixth angel sounded - Under this angel goes forth the
second woe. And I heard a voice from the four corners of the
golden altar - This golden altar is the heavenly pattern of the
Levitical altar of incense. This voice signified that the execution
of the wrath of God, mentioned verses 20, 21, ver. 20, 21 should, at no intercession, be delayed any
longer.
Verse
14. Loose the four angels - To go every way; to the four quarters.
These were evil angels, or they would not have been bound. Why,
or how long, they were bound we know not.
Verse
15. And the four angels were loosed, who were prepared - By
loosing them, as well as by their strength and rage. To kill the
third part of men - That is, an immense number of them. For the
hour, and day, and month, and year - All this agrees with the
slaughter which the Saracens made for a long time after
Mahomet's death. And with the number of angels let loose agrees
the number of their first and most eminent caliphs. These were
Ali, Abubeker, Omar, and Osman. Mahomet named Ali, his
cousin and son-in-law, for his successor; but he was soon worked
out by the rest, till they severally died, and so made room for him.
They succeeded each other, and each destroyed innumerable
multitudes of men. There are in a prophetic Com. Years. Com.
Days. Hour 8 \ Day 196 \ in all 212 years. Month 15 318 / Year
196 117 / Now, the second woe, as also the beginning of the third,
has its place between the ceasing of the locusts and the rising of
the beast out of the sea, even at the time that the Saracens, who
were chiefly cavalry, were in the height of their carnage; from
their, first caliph, Abubeker, till they were repulsed from Rome
under Leo IV. These 212 years may therefore be reckoned from
the year 634 to 847. The gradation in reckoning the time,
beginning with the hour and ending with a year, corresponds with
their small beginning and vast increase. Before and after
Mahomet's death, they had enough to do to settle their affairs at
home. Afterwards Abubeker went farther, and in the year 634
gained great advantage over the Persians and Rom. in Syria.
Under Omar was the conquest of Mesopotamia, Palestine, and
Egypt made. Under Osman, that of Afric, (with the total
suppression of the Roman government in the year 647,) of Cyprus, and of all Persia in 651. After Ali was dead, his son Ali Hasen, a peaceable prince, was driven out by Muavia;
under whom, and his successors, the power of the Saracens so
increased, that within fourscore years after Mahomet's death they
had extended their conquests farther than the warlike Roman did
in four hundred years.
Verse
16. And the number of the horsemen was two hundred millions -
Not that so many were ever brought into the field at once, but (if
we understand the expression literally) in the course of "the hour,
and day, and month, and year." So neither were "the third part of
men killed" at once, but during that course of years.
Verse
17. And thus I saw the horses and them that sat on them in the
vision - St. John seems to add these words, in the vision, to
intimate that we are not to take this description just according to
the letter. Having breastplates of fire - Fiery red. And hyacinth -
Dun blue. And brimstone - A faint yellow. Of the same colour
with the fire and smoke and brimstone, which go out of the
mouths of their horses. And the heads of their horses are as the
heads of lions - That is, fierce and terrible. And out of their mouth
goeth fire and smoke and brimstone - This figurative expression
may denote the consuming, blinding, all-piercing rage, fierceness,
and force of these horsemen.
Verse
18. By these three - Which were inseparably joined. Were the
third part of men - In the countries they over-ran. Killed - Omar
alone, in eleven years and a half, took thirty-six thousand cities or
forts. How many men must be killed therein!
Verse
19. For the power of these horses is in their mouths, and in their
tails - Their riders fight retreating as well as advancing: so that
their rear is as terrible as their front. For their tails are like
serpents, having heads - Not like the tails of serpents only. They
may be fitly compared to the amphisbena, a kind of serpent,
which has a short tail, not unlike a head from which it throws out
its poison as if it had two heads.
Verse
20. And the rest of the men who were not killed - Whom the
Saracens did not destroy. It is observable, the countries they over-
ran were mostly those where the gospel had been planted. By
these plagues - Here the description of the second woe ends. Yet
repented not - Though they were called Christians. Of the works
of their hands - Presently specified. That they should not worship
devils - The invocation of departed saints, whether true, or false,
or doubtful, or forged, crept early into the Christian church, and
was carried farther and farther; and who knows how many who
are invoked as saints are among evil, not good, angels; or how far
devils have mingled with such blind worship, and with the
wonders wrought on those occasions? And idols - About the year
590, men began to venerate images; and though upright men
zealously opposed it, yet, by little and little, images grew into
manifest idols. For after much contention, both in the east and
west, in the year 787, the worship of images was established by
the second Council of Nice. Yet was image worship sharply
opposed some time after, by the emperor Theophilus. But when
he died, in 842, his widow, Theodoura, established it again; as did
the Council at Constantinople in the year 863, and again in 871.
Verse
21. Neither repented of their murders, nor of their sorceries -
Whoever reads the histories of the seventh, eighth, and ninth
centuries, will find numberless instances of all these in every part
of the Christian world. But though God cut off so many of these
scandals to the Christian name, yet the rest went on in the same
course. Some of them, however, might repent under the plagues
which follow.
Chapter 9:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGee
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Jude Genesis
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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