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they obtain an amplitude worthy of this prophecy. In such a manner the true explanation preserves the natural arrangement of the book ; but if this is once laid aside, there is nothing which the ingenuity of man cannot divide and put together, and congratulate itself on the discovery of the truth. As far as relates to the system of the venerable D. Lange, the little season under the fifth seal, the 42 months and 1260 days in ch. xi., the 1260 days and the short time , and the (1) time, (2) times and half a time, in ch. xii., the 42 months in ch. xiii., and the short space in ch. xvii., which are periods of times, differing both in every kind of way, and widely and ele- gantly, are not only regarded by that system as equal, but are also put for one [period], and that a period of three years and a half, and the seals and trumpets are arranged in accordance with that hy- pothesis : Comm. Apoc. f. 16, 115, etc. : they who shall duly weigh the same, f. 15, 88, 95, 133, 143, etc., will perceive how many things are moved from their place and disarranged by this view. In his Epicrisis, for instance, p. 390, he has not sufficiently weighed my arguments, from a reliance on those things, which he had be- fore written.1
4. Tijv e/pijvriv rrjg yr\g) See App. The shorter reading is gene- rally the genuine one. — ha) See App. [Most dreadful wars are sig- nified.— V. g.]
5. MsXag) The Greek poets call the famine which this horseman would inflict on men, were he not withheld, a/do^a Xiju'ov, Xifibv aiavr\, that is, black, gloomy : and the Latins use the same epithets.
8. XXupoc) yXwpbg, ch. viii. 7, is green ; but here it is pale, dyjpbg, which sense is confirmed by Eustathius : as also the Septuagint renders the Hebrew p'Y’ by each of these Greek words. — s^ovoia 1<k\ ro rWaprov) There is a similar construction, hiel with an accusative, ch. xvi. 9. — sv Qavu rw) by pestilence. “QT pestilence; Septuagint, duvarog, Ex. ix. 3 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 13, and repeatedly. \_An accumulation of different calamities. — V. g.]
9. Ka /, and) The fifth, the sixth, and the seventh seals relate to invisible things ; the fifth, to those who have died well, namely, martyrs ; the sixth, to those who have died badly, kings, etc. ; comp. Ezek. xxxii. 18, and following verses ; the seventh, to angels, especially those illustrious ones, to whom the trumpets are given. — ■jffo-/.dru) With this agrees that which the seventh of the brothers
1 vtxcjv, conquering ) Shortly after the publication of the prophecy, the Roman Empire breathed nothing but victories. — V. g.
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