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violently disjointed. — rrjg <sd Xniyyog, of the trumpet) The singular number, put distributively for the plural, of the trumpets .
1. ToD ppsurog ) ^psap, as it were the orifice of the abyss.
2. K ai sffxortffdr} 6 yXiog xai 6 drip, and the sun was darkened and the air) It is an instance of sv did dvoTv , as ch. i. 14, His head and His hair: ch. xix. 16, His vesture and His thigh. The air was obscured? in so far as it is illuminated by the sun ; the sun, in so far as it trans- mits its light through the air to men. Hence htfjiorfadii is used, not iffxoriffOrifiuv. Wherefore there is no need to inquire separately here, what the sun is, and its obscuring ; what the air is, and its obscuring. The darkness, which arose to the Jews in Persia, is here pointed out. [Cent, vi.]
5, 10. Batfa viffOSnrr dhiMi<sui) The one fact is expressed in a twofold manner, passively and actively. The locusts ddixouci, hurt: men fiaffav/^ovrai, are tormented . So, to slay and to he slain , ver. 15, 18 ; to have those who nourish , and to he nourished, ch. xii. 6, 14.
5. Myvag Ksvrs) Some Lat. MSS. have six months. I was long ago, but easily added to V. The number five is’ repeated, ver. 10. Five months in prophecy are 79 complete ordinary years, from A. 510 to 589. The men who were tormented were Israelites, who had not received the Divine seal : the locusts were Persians, who dreadfully harassed them.
8. 'fLg rpiyag yvvatxojv, as the hair of women) that is, hair growing long. Thus the Arabians in Pliny : and thus the Persians were in former times. Hilschylus, according to Athena3us, 1. xiv. f. 627, fiu.Qwfcuirrizig [^hog. The Persians were called by the Delphic oracle Tcofirirai. — Herodotus 1. vi. f. 176. See altogether Thom. Hyde Hist. Relig. of the ancient Persians, p. 369. The kingdom of the Persians, Dan. vii. 5, is represented as a shaggy hear.
9. Tpe^ovroiv) That the construction may be plain, the ap/tara /Wwv noKku v rpe%ovra ilg cr oXifiov have <pwvy)v, a sound. Andreas here calls them upiMTCL m\i[jjixd. The running horses draw the chariot : but the chariots themselves in their course strictly and closely cause the noise ( u sound”). See Joel ii. 5.