ftL 10). The :immber 19, of eoune, not to be -ihingll mentioned. • Tha,.thW .pUt ~ taken litenlly, but as lliirniMug an e.xeeed- again a large. but. DOt. :the largtet,· pa!l al lng gnat multitude. bd. I heard the llllDlber of them. Omit "11o11d." St. John mankind <- on eh. viii. 7). Th& 1ooaatl were forbidden to .lnll(ver. 5);,lhese,.hone- "heard the number" possibly from one of men are permitted to do .BO. Bach judgmeat the: eldera, who had before instmcted him of the trumpet-visions appean tQ · inareue ( of. eh. vii, IS). He states this, since 80 in severity. We may here aee portrayed.the van a multitude cwould be innumerable. terrible and deatruotive charaeter of the Ver. 17.-And thus I saw ths hones in reault& o£sin. .. Such NSUlta are ta;periau.d the villlon, and them that sat on them. to the full by the third part of men, the That is, aocording to the description follow- large class who "repent not of their murders, ing, not "thus, in suoh nnmben1 88 I have nor of their sorceries," eto. (ver. 21). descnbed." lla.ving breastplates of 11.re, Ver. 19.-For their power i1 in their and of jacinth, and brimstone. 'Exon,u, mouth, and in their tails; fur t/16 poUHn' of "having," probably refers to both horses and the horaea ie, · • ,Another example of dis- riders, though it may refer to the riders agreement between Erasmus and e.11 the only. The Revised Version rendersjacinth Greek manuscripts (see on ver. 10). l'or more exactly as hyacinth. Alford .translates, their, tan.. were like unto serpents, and had " brea,tplat,ea, fiery-red, fuliginous; and sul- headil, 11.nd with them they do hurt. " Are p'tmreou&" It,seems to berightlyconoln!led lilte," and "have . heads," in t~a. present ~hat. the hyqointhine hue answers to the teri.ae. Here (unlike ver. 10) the tm"ls are "smokii" further on in the verse. " The like serpents themselves. The image is not eitpreSBion, • of jacinth,' applied to the breast- uncommon ·among the ancients. We may plate, is descriptive simply of a hyaomthine, paraphrase the paseit.ge thus: '' Their power 1.e. dark-purple colour" (Smith's 'Dic- is for the. most pan in their mouth; but tionary of. the Bible'). The d8Bllription also, to some extent, in their tails: for their intensifiea ihe tenible nature of the vision, tails are like i!OfP8Ut&," etc. An endleu and. it ,is d~btful whether these detaije variety of interpretations have been given Bhould be pressed to a particular interpre- to these details, which are pro'\Jably ppt ui,tio11- If the_y bear any m.eaning foi. all, intended to bear any distinct..s~nifloation. they seem to· point to the doom in wait for Bengel refers to a species of serpent in which tl\e -iyicked, wh,ose portion iB fire and brim~ the bead and tail were so alike as to be stone (of. Ps. xi, 6). And the he&dl of the with difficulty distinguiahed; which he hones wero aa the he&dl of lions; and out thinks may have suggested the image. ·of theil' mouths; issued fire and smoke and Many apply it (though 'in different ways) to bmutone; iwocudeth fire, eto. (Reviffll the Turkiah horse, who fight as they ieveat. Version). Here,·_81J in the preoeding clause, etc. the intention is evidently to enhance the Ver. 20.-,.AJul the rest of the mflD whieh terrible appea.m.noe of the v:i&ion. The were not killed by thue plagues; UM nld " smoke " corresponds to the h'JJaeintJ,, hue, of mankind (Revised . Version). Tljat ii, mentioned in th.e~previous .part of the. verse , the two-thirds (ver. 18). Some understand (1'ide '1.!Fa). .'.l'~ horses, in e.ooordance '' these plagues" to refer to tlu~ ·:llret , six with a well-known poeJic figure, are said trumpets. It may be so, but it seems'more to breathe out "fire and smoke." Brim- correct to Tunit it to the Bii:th, as the. same .ii tone is mentioned 'in addition, in order to phraee, which ooouis in ver. 18, must be eo aet forth plainly the fact that their acts are limited. Mankind must be taken to ·mean directed against the wicked (of. Gen. xix. the worldly only. Of the ungodly, some 24: Job xviii. 15: Ps. xi. 6: Ezek. :u.xviii. are killed (the third part), the rest yet do 23; Isa. xu. SS: Luke xvii. · 29). Liou' not repent. The vil!ion is not ooDCeJDed teeth are mentioned1 in the description of with the fate of the righteous. Yet repented. the loeusts, with the same purpose (ver. 9), not of ths works of their hands, that they It is difficult to see. why Alford Bhould lhould not wonhip devilB, and idoll of golcl, imagine that the jlre, mwke, and brimatcmt, and silver, and brus, and stone, and of ~eed separately from different divisions wood: whioh neither ean see, nor hear, nor of the host : itwas not so in the case of the walk. "The works of their hands" 'refera breastplates. : . . to idolatry, as shown by the succeeding Ver. 18.-By 'the■e three waa the third words. This verse begins to prepare ·lll part of men killed, by the fire, 11.21.d by the for the seventh judgment. · Men will DOC; 1mokej and by the brimltone, whioh issued repent; therefore the laBt final judgment out of their mouthB; bg thUI! three plague, (aa becomes neOOil88lY· The absuniity of idolll- in Revised V enion) •.• UM brimstons, taMoh trom worahip is t're1uently thm aet forth ~ Altliough the last clause teohni- by Old 'featament wrUers (of. Ps. sv. 4: il&lly is atiaahed to " bi:imstone" only, yet cuxv. 15; Isa. ii. 8; Ezek. :uii. 4; Hoa. iae delloti.ptioll applie& to all three of \he mtl. 2). See &1s9 the deaoriftion in Dan. v. 268 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. [cu. tt. 1-2L
28, which 188!111 1o,, have mggeetecl the magic, witchcraft, and enohsntmen~ i8;f, wording of. tbiB part of the villion. le hu the magic of the Egyptian magioiana (Exod. been well remarked that in this verse men- vii. 22). Sorcery is mentioned in Gal. v. 00 tion is made of sins against God; in the (where it is ,desoribed as " witchcraft ") in following verse man's sins against his connection with idolatry. Fornication (of. neighbours ue detailed. Bengel, ".Other crimes ere perpetrated by Ver. lU.-Reither repented they of their men at intervals; there is one continual mmdera, nor of their soroeries, nor of their fornication within thOlle who 111'6 wanting in tomieation, nor of their theftl. Sorwiu; purity of heart").
HOMILETICS, See homiletic section, oh. 'Yiii.