PART III. SECTION IV. The fifth Trumpet, and first IVoc. 1 Καὶ ὁ τέμπλο αγ γελῶ ἐσάλπισε, και εἶδον ἀφέξα ἐκ τῆ ἐξανε πεπιωκότα εἰς τὴν γῆν· καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ ἡ κλεῖς τὸ Φρίκιος τῆς ἀδύσσε. 2 Καὶ ἄνοιξε τὸ φρέας τῆς αβύσσε καὶ α νέβη καπνὸς ἐκ τῶ Φρέατο, ὡς καπνὸς καμίνες μεγάλης καὶ ἐσκολίσθη ὁ ἥλιος καὶ ὁ αὴς ἐκ τα καπν 3 rỡ qętaros. Kai ἐκ τῶ καπνᾶ ἐξῆλθον ακρίδες εἰς τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐταῖς ἐξεσία, ὡς ἔχεσιν ἐξεσίαν οἱ σκορπίοι 4 Tüs yñs. Kai ippτῆς γῆς. Καὶ CHAP. ix. VER. 1-12. 1 And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star from heaven fall to the earth and to him was given the key of the pit of the bot2 tomless deep. And he opened the pit of the bottomless deep. And there arose smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun was darkened, and the air, by the 3 smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the 4 earth have power. And it was commanded them, that they should not injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree; but only the men whosoever have not the seal of God upon 5 their foreheads. And it was given them not 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened, by reason of the smoke 3 of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth 4 have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their 5 foreheads. And to them it was given that θη αὐταῖς, ἵνα μὴ αποκλείνωσιν αὐτὸς, ἀλλ ̓ ἵνα βασανιστ θῶσι μῆνας πέντε καὶ ὁ βασανισμός αὐτῶν ὡς βασανιστ μὸς σκορπία, ὅταν παίσῃ ἄνθρωπον 6 Καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ζητήσωσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι τὸν θάνατον, καὶ ἢ μὴ εὐρήσεσιν αὐτόν· καὶ ἐπιθυμήσεσιν ἀποθα νεῖν, καὶ φεύξεται ὁ θάνατος ἀπ' αὐτῶν· * Καὶ τὰ ὁμοιώματα τῶν ἀκρίδων ὅμοια ἵπποις ἡτοιμασμέ νοις εἰς πόλεμον καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν ὡς σέφανοι χρυσοῖ, καὶ τὰ πρό σωπα αὐτῶν ὡς πρόσωπα ανθρώπ 8 πων. Καὶ εἶχον τρίχας ὡς τρίχας γυναικῶν, καὶ ὀδόνες αὐτῶν ὡς λεόνων ή9 σαν. Καὶ εἶχον θώ ξακας σιδηρᾶς· καὶ ἡ φωνὴ τῶν πλεύγων αὐτῶν ὡς φωνὴ ἁρμάτων, ἵππων πολλῶν τρεχόντων 10 εἰς πόλεμον. Καὶ ἔχεσιν ἐρὰς ὁμοίας σκορπίοις, και κέντρα ἦν ἐν ταῖς ἐραῖς αὐτ τῶν· καὶ ἡ ἐξεσία αὐτῶν ἀδικῆσαι τὰς they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a 6 man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto to kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and the torment of them is as the torment of a scorpion, when it 6 striketh a man. And in those days shall the men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the appearances of the lo- 7 custs were like horses prepared for battle: and upon their heads, 7 8 as it were, crowns of gold; and their faces as the faces of men: And they had hair, as it were, the hair of women; and their teeth 9 were as of lions. And they had breast-plates, as it were, breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings as the sound of chariots, of many horses 10 rushing to battle. And they have tails like to scorpions; and stings were in their tails. And their power was to injure the men five 11 months. They have over them a king, the angel of the bottomless deep; his name in He Β Β 2 horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the 8 faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the 9 teeth of lions. And they had breast-plates, as it were breast-plates of iron; and the sound of their wings. was as the sound of chariots of many horses 10 running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails and their power was to hurt men five 11 months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of ἀνθρώπες μήνες 11 πένιε. Ἔχεσιν ἐφ ̓ αὐτῶν βασιλέα τὸν ἄγελον τῆς ἀδύσε στ' ὄνομα αὐτῷ 'ECçaisi 'Acabour, καὶ ἐν τῇ ̓Ελληνική ὄνομα ἔχει ̓Απολα 12 λύων. Η καὶ ἡ μία ἀπῆλθεν ἰδὲ, ἔςχονται ἔτι δύο καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα, brew is Abaddon; and in the Greek he hath a name, Apollyon. 12 The first woe is past; behold there come yet two woes after these things. the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his 12 name Apollyon. One wo is past, and behold there come two woes more hereafter. Verses 1-11. And the fifth angel sounded; &c.] In these eleven verses is contained a very particular description (and indeed the first particular description occurring in the Apocalypse) of the prevalence of Anti-Christianity. For, the prophecies of the six Seals do not descend to any minute delineation; and those of the four first Trumpets are, each of them, comprized in a very narrow compass; in one, or at the most, two short verses. Now the prospect enlarges into a more exact display of the warfare. Upon the blast of this Trumpet, which is woeful to the inhabitants of the earth, a star is seen to fall, or just to complete its fall, from heaven to earth: for, such seems to be the sense of WETTWHOтa t. The descent of such a star was seen under the third Trumpet; this leader of iniquity had begun his evil ministry by embittering, by corrupting the Waters of Life. This corruption, in which we have seen him Ch. viii. 13. + Præsens-perfectum. Annot. S. Clarke, S. T. P. in Hom. Iliad. lib. i. lin. 37. 1 Ch. viii. 10. consult the note. successfully he successfully employed, produced those beginnings of darkness, ignorance, and superstition, which were disclosed under the fourth Trumpet. Upon the blast of the fifth Trumpet, this evil increases. To these beginnings of darkness, he is permitted to add the smoke and machinations of hell*. It is by permission, that opens this source of infinite mischief: for, the keys of death, and of hell, belong to another power, even to the Lord of Life t. But "the Spirit of God will "not always strive with man." The wilful and reprobate are at length given up to the just consequences of their wilfulness. The key of the great infernal deep, (whence are the ßa T calava, the depths of Satan §, those black corruptive doctrines, which destroy the purity and splendour of the Church,) is given to the fallen star, to the fallen angel; to "the "prince of the power of the air; the power of darkness; that spirit which worketh in the children of "disobedience ||." He is an angel, for so he is expressly called, (v. 11.) " the angel of the bottomless "deep," and surely an evil angel and in this description, as also in his fall from heaven, his evil character will be found to correspond with that of the chief of our infernal enemies, called Satan in the twelfth chapter: who, under the symbol of a fiery dragon, is there described as having fallen from heaven. There can be little or no doubt therefore, but that the Prince of Darkness, Satan, or, which * For abuccos is certainly used to signify that part of ‘Adns, or hell, which is to be the place of punishment to the wicked. Compare ch. xx. 1-3. and 2 Pet. ii. 4. + Ch. i. 13. Gen vi. 3. § See note, ch. ii. 24. Eph, ii. 2. Luke xxii. 58. Col. ii. 15. See also John xii. 31. 46. xiv. 30. Acts xxvi. 18. Eph. vi. 12. Heb. ii. 14. will amount nearly to the same thing, one of his ministers, is the agent who opens the infernal deep. Upon the opening of this pit, vast clouds of sinoke are seen to ascend, darkening the sun and air. Ignorance and superstition, frequently described in Scripture under these figures, invade the Christian atmosphere t. Under covert of these clouds, and engendered in these "depths of Satan ‡," locusts come forth. Locusts are described by profane as well as sacred, by ancient and by modern authors, as committing the most extraordinary depredations in the eastern regions; the horror of which is represented as beginning with a deprivation of light. Solem obumbrant, "they darken "the sun," says Pliny §. "At that time, Syria suffered "from a scarcity of food for cattle of all kinds, and "of corn, occasioned by a multitude of locusts, sa great, as had never before been seen in the memory of man; which, like a thick cloud, flying about "in mid-day, and obscuring the light, devoured the "products of the fields on every side ." Suddenly "there came over our heads a thick cloud, which "darkened the air, and deprived us of the rays of "the sun; we soon found, that it was owing to a "cloud of locusts T." But the locusts, seen in this * Jude 6. + Prov. ii. 13. Joel ii. 10. John xii. 35. 46. Eph. v. 8. 11, &c. Ch. ii. 24. § Nat. Hist. xi. 29. Laborabat eo tempore pabuli omnis generis et annonæ inopiâ Syria, ob locustarum nusquam hominum memoriâ tantam visam multitudinem: quæ dense nubis instar, die in mediâ, luce obscuratâ, volitantes, agrum circumquaque depasta sunt. Thuanus, clxxxiv. vii. p. 364. tom. v. Adamson's Voyage to Senegall, p. 127. See also Bochart, on Joel. ii. 10; and Chandler, on the same place. These quotations are collected by Archbishop Newcome. And to these add the following, from Holy Scripture; Exod, x. 12, 6. Jer. li. 27, &c. Nahum iii. 15. vision, |
