As usual, interpretation has run wild as to the seven thunders. As a few illustrations may be cited Vitringa, the seven crusades ; Daubuz, the seven kingdoms which received the Reformation ; Elliott, the bull fulminated against Luther from the seven-hilled
city, etc. 4. To write. According to the injunction in ch. i. 11.
5. His hand. Add tiv Sefsdy the right, and see on ver. 2. On lifting the hand in swearing, see Gen. xiv. 22; Exod. vi. 8 (margin) ; Deut. xxxii. 40.
6. Sware by (apocev ev). Lit., “sware in,’ a Hebrew idiom.
Should be time no longer (xpdvos ov« éorast ér). Rev., correctly, shall be, ete. The meaning is not, as popularly un- derstood, that time shall cease to exist, but that there shall be no more delay (so Rev., in margin) before the fulfilment of the divine purposes respecting the Church on earth. Possibly with allusion to the cry how long (ch. vi. 10).
7. Shall begin to sound (uéAry carmiterr). Wrong. Rev., correctly, when he is about to sound.
The mystery (7d pvorrpov). See on Matt. xiii. 11.
Declared (eimyyéducev). The word used of declaring the good news of salvation. Here of declaring the mystery of the kingdom.
8. Spake unto me. Render, as Rev., “I heard it again speaking.”
9. | went (dr\9ov). The preposition d7rd has the force of away. I went away from the place where I was standing.
Eat it up. Compare Ezek. iii. 1-3; Jer. xv. 16.
CHAPTER XI. 1. A rod. See on ch. ii. 27.
And the angel stood. Omit. The insertion of these words furnishes a subject for the agreement of the participle Aéywv, which is irregular in construction. Literally the correct text reads, “there was given me a reed, saying.” Accordingly Wordsworth refers the speech to the reed as an inspired med- ium of speech. Rev., better, and one sard.
The temple (rv vadv). See on Matt. iv. 5.
The altar. Of incense, as that alone stood in the sacred place.
Them that worship. Note the peculiar expression, meas- uring the worshippers with a reed.
2. The court which is without the temple. Not merely the outer court, or Court of the Gentiles, but including all that is not within the vads, the Holy and Most Holy places.
Leave out (éBare é€w). Lit., throw out, i.e., of the meas- urement.
Unto the Gentiles (rots é9vecw). See on Luke ii. 32. Rev., nations.
Forty and two months. A period which appears in three forms in the Apocalypse: forty-two months (ch. xiii. 5) ; twelve- hundred and sixty days (ver. 3, ch. xii. 6); @ time, tomes and. half a time, or three years and a half (xii, 14, compare Dan. vil. 25; xii. 7).
3. Power. Omit.