Commentators on the Second Woe

Heinrich Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

ἐυφράτῃ. The article τοὺς τέσσ. ἀγγ. has its definite reference, as Revelation 8:2, to the following τοὺς δεδ., κ. τ. λ., but throughout does not indicate the identity, adopted by Beda, etc., of the angel here named with that mentioned in Revelation 7:1 sqq. That the four angels are wicked angels, not good, also not “corruptible,”—as De Wette and Ebrard say, when they uncertainly remark that we must not think directly of wicked angels,—is to be derived from their being bound, from their position on the Euphrates, and from the fact that they lead an army of an infernal kind, in which respect they are to be compared with the star which fell from heaven, Revelation 9:1, as well as with the angel of the abyss, the king of the locusts, Revelation 9:11.

The number four of the angels does not correspond to the four parts of the army led by them, for of this the text says nothing, but indicates that the army is to be led on all four sides of the earth, in order to slay the third of all men. Ebrard, in the interests of his allegorical explanation, emphasizes the number four of the angels leading the army, Revelation 9:16 sqq., in contrast with the one king of the locusts, Revelation 9:11. Thus in the one case there is a monarchical and in the other a democratical constitution; with which it also harmonizes, that in Revelation 9:17 nothing is said of crowns as in Revelation 9:7. Nevertheless, Ebrard does not expect the elucidation of the sixth as well as of the fifth trumpet-vision until its future fulfilment: the “spiritual mercenary hosts of superstition” are only foretokens of the still impending plagues. [See Note LIX., p. 293.] ἐπὶ τῷ ποταμῷ τῷ μεγάλῳ ἐυφράτῃ. This local designation has been received literally; and the application has been made, that the Parthian armies, so perilous to the Romans, mentioned in Revelation 9:16 sqq., came from the neighborhood of the Euphrates, or it is said that the Roman legions indicated in Revelation 9:16 sqq. moved from the Euphrates against Jerusalem. The latter is without any truth; Grot. already was therefore compelled to explain: The armies of the Roman commanders, i.e., the four angels, extended to the Euphrates! But it is a valid objection to the view of Ewald, as well as that of Herder, that the armies portrayed in Revelation 9:16 sqq. are by no means human armies, but just as certainly of a supernatural kind, as the locusts of Revelation 9:1 sqq., in their way. If the language of Revelation 9:16 sqq., concerning actual martial bands, were to be interpreted therefore allegorically, Vitr., Beng., and many older expositors would be justified, who understood the army (16 sqq.) of the Tartars and Turks, and likewise, in connection with this, took the mention of the Euphrates in its proper geographical sense. But, unless we charge John with great confusion, we dare not say that “the bound angels” are allegorical, Parthian, Roman commanders, or Turkish caliphs,—the “Euphrates” on which they are bound literal, and the troops led by them again allegorical. Such confused inconsistency the purely allegorical explanation indeed avoids; but it also appears here so untenable and visionary, that, as it itself rests on no foundation, it offers no point whatever where it can be met by a definite counter argument. Wetst. says that the Euphrates is the Tiber, just as Babylon, ch. 14 sqq., is Rome; but in that passage it is explained, in the text itself, as to how Babylon is meant, while here nothing whatever concerning Babylon is said. With entire indefiniteness, Beda: “The power of the worldly kingdom, and the waves of persecutors.”

The context itself offers the correct conception, by recalling in the formal expression τ. ποταμῷ τῷ μεγἀλῷ εὐφρ. the O. T.; combining with this local designation, to be comprehended from the O. T. history, the description of an army whose dreadfulness far surpasses every thing of a human character, and actual historical experience, but, besides, has an allegorical meaning as little as the locusts, Revelation 9:1 sqq. The mention of the Euphrates is schematical; i.e., John designates with concrete definiteness the district whence the supernatural army-plague is to traverse the world, by naming the precise region whence, in O. T. times, the divinely sent plagues of Assyrian armies came upon Israel. An entirely similar schematical sense would have occurred if John had called the place whence the locusts went forth, Egypt. That the Euphrates is the boundary of the land of Abraham and David, is to be urged here as little as that it was the boundary of the Roman Empire; the only matter of consequence is, that from the Euphrates formerly “the scourges of God” proceeded. It is also irrelevant to this schematical idea, that the subject of consideration is now a plague for all men, while previously the scourges of God were sent against Israel: the mode of view of the writer of the Apocalypse is only indicated as rooted in the O. T., in the fact that this concrete local designation appears before his gazing eyes. [See Note LX., p. 293.] ἡτοισαμένοι. Cf. Revelation 8:6, where also ἵνα follows. They were already prepared; only, up to the present, the bands held them In Revelation 9:16, therefore, the description of the army breaking forth under their command directly follows; the released angels immediately put themselves in motion with their armies.

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καὶ αἱ κεφ., κ. τ. λ. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, possibly similar to lion heads in the size of the mouths and the length of the manes; it is a definite, monstrous appearance, that is represented, and not in general that the heads of the horses are “fierce and terrible,” which, of course, is suited better to the allegorical explanation.