Commentators on the Second Woe

James Madison MacDonald (1812-1876). The life and writings of St. John (1880) pp. 208-210.

The Sixth Trumpet, or Second Woe. Continued Invasion; the Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem under Titus.

Rev. 9:13-21
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet. Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. [1] And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, [2] and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third [3] part of men. And the number [4] of the army of the horsemen was two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, [5] and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third [6] part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: [7] for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, [8] and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented [9] they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

1. The Euphrates was the region which, from time immemorial, had sent its desolating hordes down upon Palestine. See Isa. vii. 20. Whilst it was the Roman power which was to lay waste Judaea, and which had begun its ravages when this book was written, it was nevertheless to be expected, and was a matter of actual occurrence, as we are distinctly informed by Josephus, that the Romans "would draw their supplies of troops from the neighbouring oriental countries under their sway" (Wars, iii. 1 (3); 4 (2)). In the four angels we may perhaps find a reference to the four generals, Vespasian, Titus, Agrippa, and Trajan, who commanded the invading armies. In that they are called angels, we have the truth, that the hosts they lead do but fulfil a Divine commission.

2. The definite period at which the angels were to be loosed is meant. They had been prepared in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God for this exact time or epoch in history. Not merely the year and month, but the very day and hour, were determined.

3. The number of the Jewish people who perished during the invasion of Judaea and the siege of Jerusalem, by the sword, famine, and pestilence, is summed up by Archbishop Usher, from Lipsius, out of Josephus, and amounts to 1,337,490. Taking this as one third, the entire nation would number at the time not far from 4,000,000. It was never estimated at the most prosperous period to number more than 5,000,000.

4. A mighty force, sufficient to overrun and devastate Palestine, is represented by this innumerable host in the vision. The army of invasion numbered less than 100,000 men. Titus brought from Alexandria tha famous fifth and tenth legions, and united them with the fifteenth, already with his father Vespasian. Troops of horse- men came from Syria. Auxiliaries came from the kings Antiochus, Agrippa, and Sohemus. The king of Arabia sent horsemen, and footmen who were archers. The whole army, says Josephus, "amounted to 60,000, besides the slaves, who, as they followed in vast numbers, so because they had been trained up in war with the rest, ought not to be distinguished from the fighting men." (Wars, iii. 4 (2).)

5. The orientals delighted in imagery like this, of horses breathing out fire and smoke. We are not to forget that we have here merely the symbols of a vision. We have a kind of nota bene, says Hengstenberg, in the expression "in the vision." It is a description of the Roman legions and of those wild bands of oriental cavalry which constituted the main body of the invading force.

6. The number killed is referred to, as in ver. 15. For the third part of a nation composed of several millions to perish in war is a ratio almost without parallel in history. (Jos. Wars, vi. 9 (4).)

7. Their tails resembled serpents with the head at the extremity. As in the scorpions we found the symbol of the terrible factions among the Jews, that did more to precipitate the destruction of Jerusalem than the Romans, so perhaps we are to find a corresponding symbol here in these serpent tails.

8. John has already, in this book, once referred to the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan: chaps, ii. 9 and iii. What could the worship of the Zealots of Jerusalem, the Sicarii of Galilee, and the Idumeans, who were half heathen, have been but the worshipping of devils? Even if there were no ground for the charge of actual idolatry against the Jews, the language we are considering, like similar language elsewhere, might naturally receive a figurative interpretation. 1 Sam. xv. 23.

9. Josephus, in the closing chapters of the Jewish War, relates the continued hostility of the Sicarii, and their assembling to the number of nearly a thousand in the fortress Masada, where, after making a desperate resistance, when they were convinced the Romans would soon effect an entrance, rather than fall into their hands, they agreed to destroy their wives and children, and then one another, the last survivor to kill himself. The plan was executed, and but two women and five children, who had concealed themselves, escaped.