“Πέμψον σου τὸ δρέπανον τὸ
, , ’ 6 ἵππων, " ἀπὸ σταδίων χιλίων ἑξακοσίων.
ass
ou,
καὶ Ptpuynoov τοὺς βότρυας τῆς ἀμπέλου τῆς γῆς,
ὅτι ἤκμασαν αἱ σταφυλαἰὶ αὐτῆς. Ig. καὶ έἔβαλεν ὁ ἄγγελος τὸ δρέπανον αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐτρύγησε τὴν ἄμπελον τῆς γῆς καὶ ἔβαλεν eis Ἱτὴν ”ληνὸν τοῦ 20. καὶ Ἱ ἐπατήθη ἡ ληνὸς " ἔξωθεν τῆς
ἐκ τῆς ληνοῦ ἄχρι τῶν χαλινῶν τῶν 1
u John xi. 18, xxi. 8 (cf. Blass, 95): at most a Latinism
1 And. (comm.), reading (with 79) χιλ. εξακ. εξ. [διακοσιων, Μ, 26, S.], explains the number symbolically as the perfection of wickedness; 1000 being the most perfect of numbers, the deluge occurring in the 600th year of Noah, and the creation (now stained and corrupted) being completed on the 6th day.
A similar representation of an angel speaking from the fire in connexion with providence occurs in Chag. 14 b.
Ver. 19. The ungrammatical τὸν µέγαν may be due to the fact that ληνός is occasionally masculine (Win. § 8. 10; Helbing, 46), or—by a rough constr. ad sensum—to apposition with τὸν θυµόν (understood).
Ver. 20. The heathen are stamped and crushed till their blood gushes out of the wine-press to the height of a horse’s bridle and to the extent of about two hundred miles. This ghastly hyper- bole, borrowed partly from Egyptian (wine=the blood of those who fought against the gods) and partly from Jewish eschatology (En. ο. 3: ‘‘and the horses will walk up to the breast in the blood of sinners, and the chariot will be sub- merged to its height”), happens to be used later by the Talmud in connexion with the carnage at Bether (cf. Schlatter’s Die Tage Trajans, p. 37; also Sib. iii. 633 f.; 4 Esd. xv. 35; Sil. Ital. iii. 704). The place is to be a veritable Senlac (sang lac).—aaé κ.τ.λ., probably a round number (see crit. note) compounded out 4 and its multiples (like 144,000 out of 12), to denote completeness (Vict. =per omnes mundi quattuor partes). After the fall of Rome (xiv. 8 f.), the rest of the world (ex hypfothesi impenitent, xiv. 6-8) is ripe for the traditional (Dan. ix. 26) judgment. The same sequence is reproduced roughly and on a larger scale in xvil.-xviii. (fall of Rome) and xix.-xx. (doom of other nations). This parallelism and the sense of the Joel passage militate against the attractive idea that xiv. r4- 16 is the ingathering of the saints (so
Alford, Milligan, Bruston, Briggs, Titius, Gilbert, and Swete).—é&w6ev κ.τ.λ. This fearful vengeance is located by Jewish tradition in some valley (of Jehoshaphat =Yah judges?) near Jerusalem (Joel), on the mount of Olives (Zech. xiv. 4), or in Palestine generally (Dan. xi. 45; of. below on xvi. 16), 7.e., as a rule in close proximity to the sacred capital, where the messiah was to set up his kingdom.
After this partial anticipation of the final catastrophe, the Apocalypse returns to a fuller and independent description of its processes (xv. 2-4=xiv. I-5, xv. I, 5-xvi.=xiv. 6-11, 14-20). The pano- rama of the prelude is once more seven- fold, but this time seven angels (under the control of God, xvi. g) drench the earth with plagues from seven bowls which are brimming with the divine anger. The vision is a poetical expan- sion of Lev. xxvi. 21 (προσθήσω ὑμῖν πληγὰς ἑπτὰ κατὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ὑμῶν, cf. 18, 24, 28). The plagues, like Hab- bakuk’s theophany, recall the Egyptian plagues (Exod. vii.-x.), but their descrip- tion is less impressive than the previous cycles of punishment. Like the seven trumpets (viii. 2-5), they are introduced by a scene in heaven (xv. 2-4); ver. 1 is merely a title or frontispiece to what follows (5 f.), since the angels do not be- come visible till 5 (cf. viii. 1-2, 6), and do not receive their bowls till 7. This θαυμαστόν (awe-inspiring) σημεῖον is the sequel (ἄλλο) to that of xii. 1 f., and the plagues are final (1 ἐσχάτας), in contrast to the trumpet-plagues (ix. 20), as they represent the wrath of God which can no longer be repressed (xvii.-xix. = the working out of these plagues, cf. xvi