Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
14. Loose the four angels ] We are reminded of the four angels of Rev 7:1, but it is hardly possible that they are the same as these. The plagues held back by them, on “the earth, the sea, and the trees,” have come already, Rev 8:7-9: moreover, these angels do not stand “on the four corners of the earth,” but in one not very remote part of it. No satisfactory explanation of their meaning has been given: nor can we be sure whether the name Euphrates is to be taken literally. We hear of it again in Rev 16:12, where the arguments for and against a literal interpretation seem almost equally balanced.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Saying to the sixth angel, which had the trumpet – See the notes at Rev 8:2.
Loose, … – This power, it would seem, was given to the sixth angel in addition to his office of blowing the trumpet. All this, of course, was in vision, and cannot be literally interpreted. The meaning is, that the effect of his blowing the trumpet would be the same as if angels that had been bound should be suddenly loosed and suffered to go forth over the earth; that is, some event would occur which would be properly symbolized by such an act.
The four angels – Compare the notes at Rev 8:2. It was customary to represent important events as occurring under the ministry of angels. The general meaning here is, that in the vicinity of the river Euphrates there were mighty powers which had been bound or held in check, which were now to be let loose upon the world. What we are to look for in the fulfillment is evidently this – some power that seemed to be kept back by an invisible influence as if by angels, now suddenly let loose and suffered to accomplish the purpose of desolation mentioned in the subsequent verses. It is not necessary to suppose that angels were actually employed in these restraints, though no one can demonstrate that their agency was not concerned in the transactions here referred to. Compare the notes on Dan 10:12-13. It has been made a question why the number four is specified, and whether the forces were in any sense made up of four divisions, nations, or people. While nothing certain can be determined in regard to that, and while the number four may be used merely to denote a great and strong force, yet it must be admitted that the most obvious interpretation would be to refer it to some combination of forces, or to some union of powers, that was to accomplish what is here said. If it had been a single nation, it would have been more in accordance with the usual method in prophecy to have represented them as restrained by an angel, or by angels in general, without specifying any number.
Which are bound – That is, they seemed to be bound. There was something which held them, and the forces under them, in check, until they were thus commanded to go forth. In the fulfillment of this it will be necessary to look for something of the nature of a check or restraint on these forces, until they were commissioned to go forth to accomplish the work of destruction.
In the great river Euphrates – The well-known river of that name, commonly called, in the Scriptures, the great river, and, by way of eminence, the river, Exo 23:31; Isa 8:7. This river was on the east of Palestine; and the language used here naturally denotes that the power referred to under the sixth trumpet would spring up in the East, and that it would have its origin in the vicinity of that river. Those interpreters, therefore, who apply this to the invasion of Judaea by the Romans have great difficulty in explaining this – as the forces employed in the destruction of Jerusalem came from the West, and not from the East. The fair interpretation is, that there were forces in the vicinity of the Euphrates which were, up to this period, bound or restrained, but which were now suffered to spread woe and sorrow over a considerable portion of the world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. Loose the four angels] These four angels bound-hitherto restrained, in the Euphrates, are by some supposed to be the Arabs, the Saracens, the Tartars, or the Turks; by others, Vespasian’s four generals, one in Arabia, one in Africa, one in Alexandria, and one in Palestine.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By these four angels, or instruments of God to execute his vengeance, I find the most valuable interpreters understanding the Turks, considered as distinct from the Saracens, and succeeding of them, whose empire began in Ottoman, Anno 1296, or thereabouts. Mr. Mede saith these four angels denote so many sultanies or kingdoms, into which the Turks were dispersed, having passed the river Euphrates, which river is famous for four things:
1. It was the boundary of David and Solomons kingdom, Deu 11:24; Jos 1:4.
2. It was that river by which Babylon stood, Jer 13:4-6.
3. It was the boundary of the Roman empire, beyond which it could never extend itself.
4. And it also was the seat of the Turks, who having some years before come over the Euphrates, first divided themselves into a tetrarchy; of which one in Asia, another at Aleppo, another at Damascus, a fourth at Antioch.
Mr. Mede gives us a table or diagram of it, Clav. Apoc. 40. p. 102. Here they were bounded for a while, but about the year 1300 they were loosed, and began further to invade Europe; which is the severe providence of God, conceived to be here foretold as the consequent of this sixth angels sounding. The Turks who, though come over the river Euphrates, had hitherto by the providence of God been bounded near unto it, not much contending to enlarge their territories, now joined together with the Saracens under Ottoman, and went further into Europe, and could by no means be stopped till they had got the empire of Constantinople.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. in, c.Greek, “epito potamo” “on,” or “at the great river.”
Euphrates(Compare Re16:12). The river whereat Babylon, the ancient foe of God’speople was situated. Again, whether from the literal region of theEuphrates, or from the spiritual Babylon (the apostate Church,especially ROME), fourangelic ministers of God’s judgments shall go forth, assembling anarmy of horsemen throughout the four quarters of the earth, to slay athird of men, the brunt of the visitation shall be on Palestine.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet,…. The sixth trumpet, which was given him, and he had prepared himself to sound, and had sounded:
loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates; not the four angels in Re 7:1; they stood upon the four corners of the earth; these were in, or at the river Euphrates; they held the four winds, that they should not blow, or restrained the savage nations, that they should not hurt; these are bound themselves, that they might not do mischief; nor are angels by nature at all intended; not evil angels, though they are bound in chains of darkness, and are reserved to judgment, they are admitted indeed to rove about in the air and earth, but are under the restraints of the power and providence of God; nor good angels, who are at the divine beck, and go in and out, and are detained and sent forth according to the pleasure of God, and are sometimes employed in killing great numbers of men; see 2Sa 24:15; but men are here meant, as appears from Re 9:16, and particularly the Turks, as most interpreters agree; who dwelt on the other side the river Euphrates, and were let loose, or suffered to pass over that river into the eastern empire, to ruin and destroy it, as they did: these are called “angels”, because of their might and force, their power and strength, with which they bore all before them; and for their great swiftness and rapidity in the victories and conquests which the Ottoman family obtained; who, from very small beginnings, raised themselves, in a very little time, to a large monarchy, and founded the Turkish empire, which, from them, is to this day called the Ottoman empire. Ottoman the First subdued great part of Bithynia, and fixed the seat of his kingdom at Prusa; or rather his son Urchanes, who conquered Mysia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Caria, and the rest, to the Hellespont, and the Euxine sea. Amurath his son took Callipolis, Hadrianople, and the adjacent provinces. Bajazet added to the empire Thessalia, Macedonia, Phocis, Attica, Mysia, and Bulgaria; and Mahomet the Second took Constantinople itself, and thereby put an end to the eastern empire; and all this was done in a very few years: it is said of this last, that he conquered two empires, and twelve kingdoms, and above two hundred cities a. And these Ottoman Turks may be called angels, or messengers, because they were the messengers and executioners of God’s wrath upon the eastern empire: they are signified by “four angels”, either, as some think, because of the four names of Saracens, Turks, Tartars, and Arabians, though all Mahometans, under which they went, before they were united under one emperor, Ottoman; or rather because of the four principalities, or governments, into which they were divided, while they were upon the banks of, or near to the river Euphrates; the seat of one being at Iconium, another at Bagdad, a third at Aleppo, and a fourth at Damascus; and chiefly because, when they passed the river Euphrates, they had four princes at the head of them, Soliman Shak, and his three sons. Soliman himself, as he passed, not knowing the fords of the river, was drowned in it; at which his sons being so affrighted, two of them, Sankur Zengi, and Gun Tugdi, returned to Persia, but the third, Ortogrules, with his three sons (which made “four” again) Condoz, Sarubani, and Othman, or Ottoman, continued, to whom Aladdin, sultan of Iconium, gave them some land among the mountains of Armenia b; and from hence, by degrees, as before observed, a large empire was raised. Now these are said to be “bound in the great river Euphrates”; which river is to be literally understood, and is the same with that which is so called in Ge 2:14, and ran through Mesopotamia and Chaldea, and was the boundary of the Roman empire; so it was fixed by Hadrian c; and beyond which the Turks, before this time did rarely go, and if they did, retired again: for till this time, as the historian says d, the Turks had Asia, , “within Euphrates”, and the Arabians Coelo-Syria and Phoenicia. Now here these were bound; they were not suffered to pass the river, or to make any inroads of any consequence further into the Roman empire; they were restrained, by the decree of God, from proceeding any further till this time; which, as he fixes a decreed place for the sea, that its waves should come thus far, and no further, so he restrains princes from their enterprises, and settles the bounds of empires, as long as he pleases; and they were kept back by the power of God from pouring in upon the empire, and pouring forth their fury upon it, who causes the wrath of men to praise him, and restrains the remainder of it; and they were also prevented from coming any further, as yet, through the internal divisions among themselves, and by the victories of the Christians in Palestine.
a Petav. Rationem. Temp. par. 1. l. 9. c. 7. b Pocock, Supplem. Hist. Dynast. Abulpharaji, p. 41, 42. c Rufi Fest. Brev. p. 368. Eutrop. Hist. Roman. l. 8. p. 502. d Nicephor. Gregor. Hist. Roman, l. 2. p. 29.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
One saying to the sixth angel ( ). Accusative masculine singular active participle of , personifying and agreeing with it in case, though not in gender. This voice speaks to the sixth angel (dative case).
Which had the trumpet ( ). Nominative case in apposition with (dative), the same anomalous phenomenon in Rev 2:20; Rev 3:12; Rev 14:12. Swete treats it as a parenthesis, like Rev 4:1; Rev 11:15.
Loose (). First aorist (ingressive) active imperative of , “let loose.” Another group of four angels (7:1) like Ac 12:4, described here “which are bound” ( ). Perfect passive articular participle of , evidently the leaders of the demonic horsemen (9:15ff.) as the four angels let loose the demonic locusts (7:1ff.), both quaternions agents of God’s wrath.
At the great river Euphrates ( ). A regular epithet of the Euphrates (Rev 16:12; Gen 15:18; Deut 1:7). It rises in Armenia and joins the Tigris in lower Babylonia, a total length of nearly 1800 miles, the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire next to Parthia.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
In the great river [] . Rev., more correctly, at.
Euphrates. The Euphrates was known as the great River, the River, the Flood. It rises in the mountains of Armenia, breaks through the Taurus range and runs south and southeast until it joins the Tigris in lower Babylonia Its total length is from 1, 600 to 1, 800 miles, and it is navigable for small craft twelve hundred miles from its mouth. It was the boundary – line of Israel on the northeast (Gen 14:18; Deu 1:7; Jos 1:4. Compare 2Sa 8:3 – 8; 1Ki 4:21). It thus formed the natural defense of the chosen people against the armies of Assyria. The melting of the mountain snows causes an annual flood, beginning in March and increasing until May. These floods became an emblem of the judgments inflicted by God upon Israel by means of Babylon and Assyria. The brook of Shiloah which flowed past Zion and Moriah was a type of the temple and of its mighty and gracious Lord; and the refusal of allegiance to God by the chosen people is represented as their rejection of the waters of Shiloah which flows softly, and their punishment therefor by the bringing in of the waters of the mighty and great river (Isa 8:5 – 8; compare Jer 17:13). To the prophets the Euphrates was the symbol of all that was disastrous in the divine judgments.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Saying to the sixth angel,” (legonta to hekto angelo) “Saying to the sixth (of the seven) angel,” as presented, Rev 8:1-2. The Divine order coming from the voice presiding over the four-horn, golden altar was that of Jesus Christ, judge of the quick and the dead, issuing instructions, 2Ti 4:1.
2) “Which had the trumpet,” (ho echon ten salpinga) “The one who was holding the trumpet,” the sixth trumpet of the seven that were to announce judgments yet to come upon the earth, to execute vengeance upon those who know not God and have disobeyed all his commandments that they did know, Deu 32:35; Luk 21:22; Rom 12:19; 2Th 1:6-9.
3) “Loose the four angels,” (luson tous tessaras angelous) “Loose thou or let loose the four angels, turn the quartet loose; perhaps the same four angels who were formerly instructed not to administer judgment on the earth or the sea until after the sealing of the 144,000 Israelite servants of God against physical death, Rev 7:1-4; Rev 12:6.
4) “Which are bound in the great river Euphrates
(tous dedemenous epi to potamo to megalo Euphrate) “Those that have been held, bound or contained upon (at) the great river Euphrates,” a line of defense until this time against the kings, rulers, and armies of the East.
It appears that at this time, the Tribulation the Great is to begin in a rising crescendo of terror, known also as the Battle of Armageddon, which is to occur after the Special living Israel saints are sealed in their foreheads against death during the following 42 months, Rev 12:6-14. Note also that this idea seems to be confirmed, Rev 16:12-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. The great river Euphrates Literal Greek, in the river, the great Euphrates. Alford notes that this river-symbol has been the puzzle of commentators. It certainly will be insoluble to any one who looks to the literal Euphrates, or to any Eastern locality, for the meaning. It was upon that great real river, illustrious in profane and sacred history, that Babylon was founded. But in our Apocalypse, Babylon is symbolically antichrist’s capital. And we are expressly told that the waters upon which Babylon “sitteth” “are,” (Rev 9:15,) “peoples and nations.” That is, they are the human supporters of antichrist universally, without regard to locality. And thus while the locustine influences come upon the earth from the bottomless pit and from Abaddon, the tumults and blood-sheds of war spring up from the masses of men; from the lust of the flesh and the wild ambitions of the depraved heart. The four angels are the war-spirits in and among those “peoples and nations.” They are four, the cosmical number, implying that no particular war is meant, but the sum total of wars during the Christian ages. These are bound by divine restraint until the hour determined by divine justice. Then the word goes forth, Loose! and the four war- angels spring in all directions on their mission of vengeance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
Ver. 14. Loose the four angels ] That is, those four potent peoples, the Arabians, the Saracens, the Tartars, and the Turks, that they may march out against Christendom, to murder and massacre the third part of men. These are called angels, because sent of God to revenge the quarrel of his covenant.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 9:14 . The sixth angel takes part in the action. The Euphrates had been the ideal Eastern boundary of Israel’s territory: it now formed the frontier between Rome and her dreaded neighbour, the Parthian Empire (Philo, leg. ad C [913] ii.; Verg. Georg . i. 509; Tac. Hist. iv. 51).
[913] . Codex Ephraemi (sc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
in. Greek. epi. App-104.
Euphrates. Connected with the judgments of the great day. See Jer 46:4-10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 9:14. [98]) See App. In what manner is said, will be plain from the note on ch. Rev 20:2.-) I have said that this frequent epithet of the Euphrates is more necessary at ch. Rev 16:12 than at ch. Rev 9:14. Wolf thinks that it is equally adapted to the two passages: but the greatness, or the width and depth of the river, certainly increases the miraculousness of its being dried up: Psa 74:15. But here the same greatness of the river does not so greatly apply to the angels who are bound in the river: nay, it is even more inappropriate, if the angels were bound in that quarter, where that river is less; a matter which no one can either affirm or deny. However it is, the commentary of Apringius is added to the authorities which are without this adjective.[99] The great river Euphrates is also read, Deu 1:7; Jos 1:4; but it is the river Euphrates, Deu 11:24, in the Hebrew: for in that place also in the Greek is added. Nor is the article repeated without reason, ; for thus we read, Gen 19:9, . In Ezek. it is often read, . It is Apposition.
[98] , AB. , Rec. Text. Vulg. Cypr. h, qui habebat (h, portabat.-E.
[99] A Vulg. h, Cypr. 322, support , with Rec. Text.-E.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
angel
(See Scofield Heb 1:4).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
to the: Rev 8:2, Rev 8:6
loose: Rev 9:15, Rev 16:12
the great: Gen 2:14, 2Sa 8:3, Jer 51:63
Reciprocal: Isa 27:13 – the great 1Co 15:52 – last Rev 7:1 – four angels Rev 10:1 – another
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, {12} Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
(12) As if he should have said, these till now have been bound by the power of God, that they could not freely run over all men as they lusted, but were held and restrained at that great river of Euphrates, that is, in their spiritual Babylon (or this is a paraphrase of the spiritual Babylon, by the limits of the visible Babylon long since overthrown) that they might not commit those horrible slaughters, which they long breathed after. Now go to it, let loose those four angels, that is, administers of the wrath of God, in that number that is convenient to the slaughtering of the four quarters of the world: stir them up and give them the bridle, that rushing out of that Babylon of theirs, which is the seat of the wicked ones, they may fly over all the world, therein to rage, and most licentiously to practise their tyranny, as God has ordained. This was done when Gregory the ninth by public authority established as Law, his own Decretals, by which he might freely lay traps for the life of simple men. For who is it that sees not that the laws of Decretal, most of them are snares to catch souls with? Since that time (O good God) how many great slaughters have there been? How many great massacres? All history is full of them: and this our age abounds with most horrible and monstrous examples of the these.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This angel instructed the angel who had blown the sixth trumpet to release the four angels who were bound at the Euphrates River. These are evidently four angels that John had not seen before. They must be fallen angels since good angels are not bound (cf. Rev 20:1-3; 2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6). God had a purpose for them to fulfill and ordered their release to accomplish His will (cf. Rev 9:1-11). Scripture does not record when or why God bound these angels, but evidently He restricted them as punishment. Perhaps He imprisoned them when Satan rebelled against Him. [Note: Cf. Smith, A Revelation . . ., p. 147.]
The Euphrates River undoubtedly refers to just that. This river, including the whole Mesopotamian region that it drains, had been the border between Israel and its enemies to the northeast, namely, Assyria and Babylonia. It was also the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in John’s day.
"In the first century people would have thought of the Parthians, the world’s most dreaded cavalry, for they came from this region and filled men with foreboding." [Note: Morris, p. 133. Cf. Swete, p. 121.]
The Parthians were the only warriors the Romans could not and did not defeat.