Revelation 8:12

ormwood falls from heaven, Rev 8:10, Rev 8:11. The fourth sounds, and the sun, moon, and stars are smitten; and a threefold wo is denounced against the inhabitants of the earth, because of the three angels who are yet to sound, Rev 8:12, Rev 8:13. Verse 1 The seventh seal - This is ushered in and opened only by the Lamb. Silence in heaven - This must be a mere metaphor, silence being put here for the deep and solemn expectation of the stupendous things about to take place, which the opening of this seal had produced. When any thing prodigious or surprising is expected, all is silence, and even the breath is scarcely heard to be drawn. Half an hour - As heaven may signify the place in which all these representations were made to St. John, the half hour may be considered as the time during which no representation was made to him, the time in which God was preparing the august exhibition which follows. There is here, and in the following verses, a strong allusion to different parts of the temple worship; a presumption that the temple was still standing, and the regular service of God carried on. The silence here refers to this fact - while the priest went in to burn incense in the holy place, all the people continued in silent mental prayer without till the priest returned. See Luk 1:10. The angel mentioned here appears to execute the office of priest, as we shall by and by see. Verse 2 The seven angels which stood before God - Probably the same as those called the seven Spirits which are before his throne, Rev 1:4 (note). There is still an allusion here to the seven ministers of the Persian monarchs. See Tobit 12:15. Verse 3 Another angel - About to perform the office of priest. Having a golden censer - This was a preparation peculiar to the day of expiation. "On other days it was the custom of the priest to take fire from the great altar in a silver censer, but on the day of expiation the high priest took the fire from the great altar in a golden censer; and when he was come down from the great altar, he took incense from one of the priests, who brought it to him, and went with it to the golden altar; and while he offered the incense the people prayed without in silence, which is the silence in heaven for half an hour." See Sir Isaac Newton. Much incense, that he should offer it - Judgments of God are now about to be executed; the saints - the genuine Christians, pray much to God for protection. The angelic priest comes with much incense, standing between the living and those consigned to death, and offers his incense to God With the prayers of the saints. Verse 4 The smoke of the incense - with the prayers - Though incense itself be an emblem of the prayers of the saints, Psa 141:2; yet here they are said to ascend before God, as well as the incense. It is not said that the angel presents these prayers. He presents the incense, and the prayers ascend With it. The ascending of the incense shows that the prayers and offering were accepted. Verse 5 Cast it into the earth - That is, upon the land of Judea; intimating the judgments and desolations which were now coming upon it, and which appear to be farther opened in the sounding of the seven trumpets. There were voices - All these seem to point out the confusion, commotions, distresses, and miseries, which were coming upon these people in the wars which were at hand. Verse 6 Prepared themselves to sound - Each took up his trumpet, and stood prepared to blow his blast. Wars are here indicated; the trumpet was the emblem of war. Verse 7 Hail and fire mingled with blood - This was something like the ninth plague of Egypt. See Exo 9:18-24: "The Lord sent thunder and hail - and fire mingled with the hail - and the fire ran along upon the ground." In the hail and fire mingled with blood, some fruitful imaginations might find gunpowder and cannon balls, and canister shot and bombs. They were cast upon the earth - Εις την γην· Into that land; viz., Judea, thus often designated. And the third part of trees - Before this clause the Codex Alexandrinus, thirty-five others, the Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Slavonic, Vulgate, Andreas, Arethas, and some others, have και το τριτον της γης κατεκαη· And the third part of the land was burnt up. This reading, which is undoubtedly genuine, is found also in the Complutensian Polyglot. Griesbach has received it into the text. The land was wasted; the trees - the chiefs of the nation, were destroyed; and the grass - the common people, slain, or carried into captivity. High and low, rich and poor, were overwhelmed with one general destruction. This seems to be the meaning of these figures. Many eminent men suppose that the irruption of the barbarous nations on the Roman empire is here intended. It is easy to find coincidences when fancy runs riot. Later writers might find here the irruption of the Austrians and British, and Prussians, Russians, and Cossacks, on the French empire! Verse 8 A great mountain burning with fire - Supposed to signify the powerful nations which invaded the Roman empire. Mountain, in prophetic language, signifies a kingdom; Jer 51:25, Jer 51:27, Jer 51:30, Jer 51:58. Great disorders, especially when kingdoms are moved by hostile invasions, are represented by mountains being cast into the midst of the sea, Psa 46:2. Seas and collections of waters mean peoples, as is shown in this book, Rev 17:15. Therefore, great commotions in kingdoms and among their inhabitants may be here intended, but to whom, where, and when these happened, or are to happen, we know not. The third part of the sea became blood - Another allusion to the Egyptian plagues, Exo 7:20, Exo 7:21. Third part is a rabbinism, expressing a considerable number. "When Rabbi Akiba prayed, wept, rent his garments, put of his shoes, and sat in the dust, the world was struck with a curse; and then the third part of the olives, the third part of the wheat, and the third part of the barley, was smitten "Rab. Mardochaeus, in Notitia Karaeorum, p. 102. Verse 9 The third part of the ships were destroyed - These judgments seem to be poured out upon some maritime nation, destroying much of its population, and much of its traffic. Verse 10 There fell a great star from heaven - This has given rise to various conjectures. Some say the star means Attila and his Huns, others, Genseric with his Vandals falling on the city of Rome; others, Eleazer, the son of Annus, spurning the emperor's victims, and exciting the fury of the Zealots; others, Arius; infecting the pure Christian doctrine with his heresy, etc., etc. It certainly cannot mean all these; and probably none of them. Let the reader judge. Verse 11 The star is called Wormwood - So called from the bitter or distressing effects produced by its influence. Verse 12 The third part of the sun - moon - stars, was smitten - Supposed to mean Rome, with her senates, consuls, etc., eclipsed by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, and Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, in the fifth century. But all this is uncertain. Verse 13 I - heard an angel flying - Instead of αγγελου πετωμενου, an angel flying, almost every MS. and version of note has αετου πετωμενον, an eagle flying. The eagle was the symbol of the Romans, and was always on their ensigns. The three woes which are here expressed were probably to be executed by this people, and upon the Jews and their commonwealth. Taken in this sense the symbols appear consistent and appropriate; and the reading eagle instead of angel is undoubtedly genuine, and Griesbach has received it into the text. Introduction The fifth angel sounds, and a star falls from heaven to earth, Rev 9:1. The bottomless pit is opened, and locusts come out upon the earth, Rev 9:2, Rev 9:3. Their commission, Rev 9:4-6. Their form, Rev 9:7-10. Their government, Rev 9:11

The Seven Trumpets. ( a. d. 95.) 7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; 9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. 10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; 11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. 12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. 13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! Observe, I. The first angel sounded the first trumpet, and the events which followed were very dismal: There followed hail and fire mingled with blood, &c., v. 7 . There was a terrible storm; but whether it is to be understood of a storm of heresies, a mixture of monstrous errors falling on the church (for in that age Arianism prevailed), or a storm or tempest of war falling on the civil state, expositors are not agreed. Mr. Mede takes it to be meant of the Gothic inundation that broke in upon the empire in the year 395, the same year that Theodosius died, when the northern nations, under Alaricus, king of the Goths, broke in upon the western parts of the empire. However, here we observe, 1. It was a very terrible storm-fire, and hail, and blood: a strange mixture! 2. The limitation of it: it fell on the third part of the trees, and on the third part of the grass, and blasted and burnt it up; that is, say some, upon the third part of the clergy and the third part of the laity; or, as others who take it to fall upon the civil state, upon the third part of the great men, and upon the third part of the common people, either upon the Roman empire itself, which was a third part of the then known world, or upon a third part of that empire. The most severe calamities have their bounds and limits set them by the great God. II. The second angel sounded, and the alarm was followed, as in the first, with terrible events: A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood, v. 8 . By this mountain some understand the leader or leaders of the heretics; others, as Mr. Mede, the city of Rome, which was five times sacked by the Goths and Vandals, within the compass of 137 years; first by Alaricus, in the year 410, with great slaughter and cruelty. In these calamities, a third part of the people (called here the sea or collection of waters) were destroyed: here was still a limitation to the third part, for in the midst of judgment God remembers mercy. This storm fell heavy upon the maritime and merchandizing cities and countries of the Roman empire. III. The third angel sounded, and the alarm had the like effects as before: There fell a great star from heaven, &c., v. 10 . Some take this to be a political star, some eminent governor, and they apply it to Augustulus, who was forced to resign the empire to Odoacer, in the year 480. Others take it to be an ecclesiastical star, some eminent person in the church, compared to a burning lamp, and they fix it upon Pelagius, who proved about this time a falling star, and greatly corrupted the churches of Christ. Observe, 1. Where this star fell: Upon a third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. 2. What effect it had upon them; it turned those springs and streams into wormwood, made them very bitter, that men were poisoned by them; either the laws, which are springs of civil liberty, and property, and safety, were poisoned by arbitrary power, or the doctrines of the gospel, the springs of spiritual life, refreshment, and vigour to the souls of men, were so corrupted and embittered by a mixture of dangerous errors that the souls of men found their ruin where they sought for their refreshment. IV. The fourth angel sounded, and the alarm was followed with further calamities. Observe, 1. The nature of this calamity; it was darkness; it fell therefore upon the great luminaries of the heaven, that give light to the world— the sun, and the moon, and the stars, either the guides and governors of the church, or of the state, who are placed in higher orbs than the people, and are to dispense light and benign influences to them. 2. The limitation: it was confined to a third part of these luminaries; there was some light both of the sun by day, and of the moon and stars by night, but it was only a third part of what they had before. Without determining what is matter of controversy in these points among learned men, we rather choose to make these plain and practical remarks:—(1.) Where the gospel comes to a people, and is but coldly received, and has not its proper effects upon their hearts and lives, it is usually followed with dreadful judgments. (2.) God gives warning to men of his judgments before he sends them; he sounds an alarm by the written word, by ministers, by men's own consciences, and by the signs of the times; so that, if a people be surprised, it is their own fault. (3.) The anger of God against a people makes dreadful work among them; it embitters all their comforts, and makes even life itself bitter and burdensome. (4.) God does not in this world stir up all his wrath, but sets bounds to the most terrible judgments. (5.) Corruptions of doctrine and worship in the church are themselves great judgments, and the usual causes and tokens of other judgments coming on a people. V. Before the other three trumpets are sounded here is solemn warning given to the world how terrible the calamities would be that should follow them, and how miserable those times and places would be on which they fell, v. 13 . 1. The messenger was an angel flying in the midst of heaven, as in haste, and coming on an awful errand. 2. The message was a denunciation of further and greater woe and misery than the world had hitherto endured. Here are three woes, to show how much the calamities coming should exceed those that had been already, or to hint how every one of the three succeeding trumpets should introduce its particular and distinct calamity. If less judgments do not take effect, but the church and the world grow worse under them, they must expect greater. God will be known by the judgments that he executes; and he expects, when he comes to punish the world, the inhabitants thereof should tremble before him.

And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten - Or struck. After the emperor Theodosius died, and the empire was divided into the eastern and the western, the barbarous nations poured in as a flood. The Goths and Hunns in the years 403 and 405 fell upon Italy itself with an impetuous force; and the former, in the year 410, took Rome by storm, and plundered it without mercy. In the year 452 Attila treated the upper part of Italy in the same manner. In 455 Valentinian the Third was killed, and Genseric invited from Afric. He plundered Rome for fourteen days together. Recimer plundered it again in 472. During all these commotions, one province was lost after another, till, in the year 476, Odoacer seized upon Rome, deposed the emperor, and put an end to the empire itself. An eclipse of the sun or moon is termed by the Hebrews, a stroke. Now, as such a darkness does not come all at once, but by degrees, so likewise did the darkness which fell on the Roman, particularly the western empire; for the stroke began long before Odoacer, namely, when the barbarians first conquered the capital city. And the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so that the third part of them was darkened - As under the first, second, and third trumpets by "the earth," "sea, " and "rivers," are to be understood the men that inhabit them; so here by the sun, moon, and stars, may be understood the men that live under them, who are so overwhelmed with calamities in those days of darkness, that they can no longer enjoy the light of heaven: unless it may be thought to imply their being killed; so that the sun, moon, and stars shine to them no longer. The very same expression we find in Ezekiel 32:8. "I will darken all the lights of heaven over them." As then the fourth seal transcends the three preceding seals, so does the fourth trumpet the three preceding trumpets. For in this not the third part of the earth, or sea, or rivers only, but of all who are under the sun, are affected. And the day shone not for a third part thereof - That is, shone with only a third part of its usual brightness. And the night likewise - The moon and stars having lost a third part of their lustre, either with regard to those who, being dead, saw them no longer, or those who saw them with no satisfaction. The three last trumpets have the time of their continuance fixed, and between each of them there is a remarkable pause: whereas between the four former there is no pause, nor is the time of their continuance mentioned; but all together these four seem to take up a little less than four hundred years.

urth angel sounded. Rev 8:6, Rev 8:7. And the third part of the sea was smitten. On the phrase the third part, Rev 8:7. The darkening of the heavenly luminaries is every, where an emblem of any great calamity-- as if the light of the sun, moon, and stars should be put out. Rev 6:12, Rev 6:13. There is no certain evidence that this refers to rulers, as many have supposed, or to anything that would particularly affect the government as such. The meaning is, that calamity would come as if darkness should spread over the sun, the moon, and the stars, leaving the world in gloom. What is the precise nature of the calamity is not indicated by the language, but anything that would diffuse gloom and disaster would accord with the fair meaning of the symbol. There are a few circumstances, however, in regard to this symbol, which may aid us in determining its application. (1.) It would follow in the series of calamities that were to occur. (2.) It would be separated in some important sense--of time, place, or degree--from those which were to follow, for there is a pause here, ( Rev 8:13 ) and the angel proclaims that more terrible woes are to succeed this series. (3.) Like the preceding, it is to affect "one third part" of the world; that is, it is to be a calamity as if a third part of the sun, the moon, and the stars were suddenly smitten and darkened. (4.) It is not to be total. It is not as if the sun, the moon, and the stars were entirely blotted out, for there was still some remaining light: that is, there was a continuance of the existing state of things--as if these heavenly bodies should still give an obscure and partial light. (5.) Perhaps it is also intended by the symbol, that there would be light again. The world was not to go into a state of total and permanent night. For a third part of the day, and a third part of the night, this darkness reigned: but does not this imply that there would be light again--that the obscurity would pass away, and that the sun, and moon, and stars would shine again? That is, is it not implied that there would still be prosperity ill some future period? Now, in regard to the application of this, if the explanation of the preceding symbols is correct, there can be little difficulty. If the previous symbols referred to Alaric, to Genseric, and to Attila, there can be no difficulty in applying this to Odoacer, and to his reign--a reign in which, in fact, the Roman dominion in the West came to an end, and passed into the hands of this barbarian. Any one has only to open the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to see that this is the next event that should be symbolized if the design were to represent the downfall of the empire. These four great barbarian leaders succeed each other in order, and under the last, Odoacer, the barbarian dominion was established; for it is here that the existence of the Roman power, as such, ended. The Western empire terminated, according to Mr. Gibbon, (ii. p. 380,) about A.D. 476 or 479. Odoacer was "King of Italy" from A.D. 476 to A.D. 490.--Gibbon, ii. 379. The Eastern empire still lingered; but calamity, like blotting out the sun, and moon, and stars, had come over that part of the world which for so many centuries had constituted the seat of power and dominion.--Odoacer was the son of Edecon, a barbarian, who was in the service of Attila, and who left two sons--Onulf and Odoacer. The former directed his steps to Constantinople; Odoacer "led a wandering life among the barbarians of Noricum, with a mind and fortune suited to the most desperate adventures; and when he had fixed his choice, he privily visited the cell of Severinus, the popular saint of the country, to solicit his approbation and blessing. The lowness of the door would not admit the lofty stature of Odoacer; he was obliged to stoop: but in that humble attitude the saint could discern the symptoms of his future greatness; and addressing him in a prophetic tone, 'Pursue,' said he, 'your design; proceed to Italy; you will cast away the coarse garment of skins; and your wealth will be adequate to the liberality of your mind.' The barbarian, whose daring spirit accepted and ratified this prediction, was admitted into the service of the Western empire, and soon obtained an honourable rank in the guards. His manners were gradually polished, his military skill improved, and the confederates of Italy would not have elected him for their general unless the exploits of Odoacer had established a high opinion of his courage and capacity. Their military acclamations saluted him with the title of king; but he abstained during his whole reign from the use of the purple and the diadem, lest he should offend those princes, whose subjects, by their accidental mixture, had formed the victorious army which time and policy might insensibly unite into a great nation."--Gibbon, ii. 379, 380. In another place Mr. Gibbon says, "Odoacer was the first barbarian who reigned in Italy, over a people who had once asserted their superiority above the rest of mankind. The disgrace of the Romans still excites our respectful compassion, and we fondly sympathize with the imaginary grief and indignation of their degenerate posterity. But the calamities of Italy had gradually subdued the proud consciousness of freedom and glory. In the age of Roman virtue, the provinces were subject to the arms, and the citizens to the laws, of the republic; till those laws were subverted by civil discord, and both the city and the provinces became the property of a servile tyrant. The forms of the constitution which alleviated or disguised their abject slavery were abolished by time and violence; the Italians alternately lamented the presence or the absence of the sovereigns whom they detested or despised; and the succession of five centuries inflicted the various evils of military license, capricious despotism, and elaborate oppression. During the same period the barbarians had emerged from obscurity and contempt, and the warriors of Germany and Scythia were introduced into the provinces, as the servants, the allies, and at length the masters of the Romans, whom they insulted or protected," ii. 381, 382. Of the effect of the reign of Odoacer, Mr. Gibbon remarks: "In the division and decline of the empire, the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn; the numbers of the inhabitants continually decreased with the means of subsistence; and the country was exhausted by the irretrievable losses of war, famine, and pestilence. St. Ambrose has deplored the ruin of a populous district, which had been once adorned with the flourishing cities of Bologna, Modena, Regium, and Placentia. Pope Gelasius was a subject of Odoacer; and he affirms, with strong exaggeration, that in AEmilia, Tuscany, and the adjacent provinces, the human species was almost extirpated. One third of those ample estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, was extorted for the use of the conquerors," ii. 383. Yet the light was not wholly extinct. It was "a third part" of it which was put out; and it was still true that some of the forms of the ancient constitution were observed--that the light still lingered before it wholly passed away. In the language of another, "The authority of the Roman name had not yet entirely ceased. The senate of Rome continued to assemble as usual. The consuls were appointed yearly, one by the Eastern emperor, one by Italy and Rome. Odoacer himself governed Italy under a title--that of Patrician --conferred on him by the Eastern emperor. There was still a certain, though often faint, recognition of the supreme imperial authority. The moon and the stars might seem still to shine in the West, with a dim, reflected light. In the course of the events, however, which rapidly followed in the next half century, these too were extinguished. After above a century and a half of calamities unexampled almost, as Dr. Robertson most truly represents it,* in the history of nations, the statement of Jerome--a statement couched under the very Apocalyptic figure of the text, but prematurely pronounced on the first taking of Rome by Alaric--might be considered at length accomplished: 'Clarissimum terrarum lumen extinctum est'--'The world's glorious sun has been extinguished;' or, as the modern poet Byron (Childe Harold, canto iv.) has expressed it, still under the Apocalyptic imagery- "She saw her glories star by star expire," till not even one star remained to glimmer in the vacant and dark night."--Elliott, i. 360, 361. I have thus endeavoured to explain the meaning of the four first trumpets under the opening of the seventh seal, embracing the successive severe blows struck on the empire by Alaric, Genseric, Attila, and Odoacer, until the empire fell to rise no more. I cannot better conclude this part of the exposition than in the words of Mr. Gibbon, in his reflections on the fall of the empire. "I have now accomplished," says he, "the laborious narrative of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, from the fortunate age of Trajan and the Antonines to its latest extinction in the West, about five centuries after the Christian era. At that unhappy period, the Saxons fiercely struggled with the natives for the possession of Britain; Gaul and Spain were divided between the powerful monarchies of the Franks and the Visigoths, and the dependent kingdoms of the Suevi and the Burgundians; Africa was exposed to the cruel persecution of the Vandals, and the savage insults of the Moors; Rome and Italy, as far as the banks of the Danube, were afflicted by an army of barbarian mercenaries, whose lawless tyranny was succeeded by the reign of Theodosia, the Ostrogoth. All the subjects of the empire, who, by the use of the Latin language, more particularly deserved the name and privileges of Romans, were oppressed by the disgrace and calamities of foreign conquest; and the victorious nations of Germany established a new system of manners and government in the western countries of Europe. The majesty of Rome was faintly represented by the princes of Constantinople, the feeble and imaginary successors of Augustus."--Vol. ii. pp. 440, 441. "The splendid days of Augustus and Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance, [a fine illustration of the language 'the third part of the sun was smitten, and the day shone not, and the night likewise;'] and the barbarians subverted the laws and palaces of Rome."--Ibid, p. 446. Thus ended the history of the Gothic period, and, as I suppose, the immediate symbolic representation of the affairs of the Western empire. An interval now occurs ( Rev 8:13 ) in the sounding of the trumpets, and the scene is transferred, in the three remaining trumpets, to the Eastern parts of the empire. After that, the attention is directed again to the West, to contemplate Rome under a new form, and exerting a new influence in the nations, under the Papacy, but destined ultimately to pass away in its spiritual power, as its temporal power had yielded to the elements of internal decay in its bosom, and to the invasions of the Northern hordes. * "If we were called on to fix a period most calamitous, it would be that from the death of Theodosius to the establishment of the Lombards." -- Charles V., pp. 11, 12. (a) "sun" Isa 13:10, Jer 4:21, Eze 32:7,8, Joel 2:10, Amos 8:9 Verse 13. And I behe