Revelation 20

Guar. XX. Ver. 1—3. The Millennium.—‘‘ The removal | Chap. XX. Ver. 1. The bottomless pit.—See note on (Revelation 9:1). | Ver. 2. Laid hold on the dragon.—|‘This appears to be an emblematical representation of the restraints that would be laid on Satan, and the consequent reign of piety, peace, and righteousness on the earth. Multitudes will then be raised up, as if animated with the souls of the martyrs, and live and reign on earth in victory, honour, holiness, and joy; but ‘the rest of the dead will not live till the thousand years be ended’’—they will have no successors of the same persecuting spirit till Satan is loosed after the Millennium.]—Bagster.~— A [some] sober commentators take this literally; the hypothesis which makes these 360,000 years, (a day for a year,) we think most extravagant, and unwarranted by analogy. Ver. 4. I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, &c.— Which had not worshipped the Compare Chap. xiii, 12, 15. them—i. e. the souls of the mar. beast, neither his image, &c.— Ver. 8. Four quarters—i. e. the cardinal points of the compass.—Gog and Magog.—Those who date the conversion and return of the Jews within this period, consider this as an attack upon them by the Tartars. [Gog and Magog from “the four quarters of the earth;” and the events in Ezekiel’s prophecy relate to the times previous to the Millennium, while this refers to the transactions subsequent to that period.]—Bagster. Ver.

10. Where the beast and the false prophet are.—See (Revelation 19:20). Ver. 11. A great white throne.—Compare (Daniel 7:9). |

Notes on the verses

Magog seem to have been anciently the name of the northern nations of Europe and Asia, as the Scythians have been since, and Tartars are at present; but this seems to refer to a different nation from that mentioned by Ezekiel, which was to come exclusively from ‘‘the north quarters,” while this comes Ver. 9. Went up on the breadth.—This seems to us to imply a globular form of the earth, and to represent persons as rising from the under hemisphere on every side.—And fire came down, &c.—This is an evident allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Genesis 19:24-25).