Revelation 9

Chap. IX. Ver. 1-12. The fifth, or first wo trumpet.—In consistency with our interpretation of the first four trumpets, we refer the events of this trumpet to the rise of the Mahometan imposture, and the Saracen invasions. Many Protestant writers have taken this falling star to mean the Pope himself, and the locusts to be his monks and friars: while, on the other hand, Dr. Walmsley and the Rhemish annotators apply the image to Martin Luther and his heretical disciples, as they are pleased to call them. Dr. Doddridge, Mr. Wesley, and others, conceive the reference to be to some celestial being, whose flight was with the rapidity of a falling meteor, and who was commissioned to open the infernal pit, and to allow a portion of that blackness of darkness which it contains, to visit and to plague the earth; while others think that Satan himself, who is properly a fallen star, may be hereby intended.

Mr. Fuller remarks—‘Looking at this dreadful irruption of darkness and desolation, we perceive the necessity there was that they have no king, ((Proverbs 30:27),) which marks another distinction be and accordingly, from the time that Mahomet began to propagate his imposture, A. D. 612, to the building of Bagdad, when they ceased from their rava- Arabia Deserta, Chaldea, and Mesopotamia, and falls into the Persian Gulf. taking of Cameniec from the Poles, A. D. 1672, which was the last conquest by which their dominion was extended, is exactly that period.’—B

Notes on the verses

Chap. IX. Ver. 1. The bottomless pit.—Woodhouse, “The pit of the bottomless deep.” That this refers to the pit or abyss of hell, see (Revelation 20:1-3); and 2 Peter ii. 4. et Ver. 3. Unto them was given power, as the scorpions.—Locusts, it is well known, never attack man, but only the fruits of the earth, on which he lives: scorpions, on the other hand, do not attack the fruits of the earth, but animals only; and their sting is seldom fatal, except in the hottest climates, particularly Africa. ‘These circumstances all agree to those mystical locusts—the Saracens. Ver. 4. But only those men, &c.—Corrupt and idolatrous Christians; against whom the Saracens chiefly prevailed. Lowman says, ‘The military laws of the Mahometans make a distinction between the Harbi, including both atheists and idolaters; and the “people of a book,” including Jews and Christians. ‘These were to be compelled to embrace Mahometanism, or to pay a tribute, and then to be allowed to follow their own religion; but the Harbi had no toleration. Ver. 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them.—Wesley and Woodhouse, “Not that they should kill them, but,” &c. [Should not kill them as a political body, state, or empire; and accordingly, however they desolated the Greek and Latin churches, they could not extirpate them nor gain possession of the empire.—Five months.—Five prophetical months, each consisting of 30 days, and each day denoting a period of 150 years; e.g., A. D. 763, are just 150 years.]—Bagster. Ver. 9. Chariots of many horses—* Chariots and many horses rushing to Ver.

11. And they had king over them.—Agur says of the literal locusts, between the literal and angelic locusts.—Abaddon and Apollyon both signify ‘a destroyer,’ as in the English margin. Ver. 14. The four angels that are bound in—Doddridge, “by;” Woodhouse, “at”—the great river Euphrates—A famous river, which had its rise in Paradise, ((Genesis 2:14),) and runs through the frontiers of Cappadocia, Syria, Ver. 17. Having breast-plates of fire.—(This appears to point out the scarlet, blue, and yellow colours, for which the Turks have always been remarkable. The “four angels bound in the Euphrates” denote their four sultanies bordering on that river, where they were confined till after the period of the Crusades.

‘The time for which they were prepared, ‘an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year,’ computing a year for each day, amounts to 391 years 15 days: and from their first conquest over the Christians, A. D. 1281, to the Ver. 19. And had emcee re se “having heads;” i.e. in their tails, So Pliny describes the amphisbena; but this seems to have been a mistake. Ver. 20. Worship devils.—Gr. “demons;” i.e. according to Lowman, ‘angels and the souls of departed men’—sinners, we fear, as well as saints. Ver. 21. Nor of their sorceries.—We know that, in the middle ages, what is called the black art, was much studied and practised in all its branches. But Lowman understands this of poisonings is