And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
15. for an hour ] Should be “for the hour.” The article is not repeated, but plainly the one article belongs to all the nouns: they are “prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year,” when God has decreed to execute the vengeance here foretold.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the four angels were loosed – Who had this mighty host under restraint. The loosening of the angels was, in fact, also a letting loose of all these hosts, that they might accomplish the work which they were commissioned to do.
Which were prepared – See Rev 9:7. The word used here properly refers to what is made ready, suited up, arranged for anything: as persons prepared for a journey, horses for battle, a road for travelers, food for the hungry, a house to live in, etc. See Robinsons Lexicon, sub. voce Hetoimazo. As used here, the word means that whatever was necessary to prepare these angels – the leaders of this host – for the work which they were commissioned to perform, was now done, and that they stood in a state of readiness to execute the design. In the fulfillment of this it will be necessary to look for some arrangements existing in the vicinity of the Euphrates, by which these restrained hosts were in a state of readiness to be summoned forth to the execution of this work, or in such a condition that they would go forth spontaneously if the restraints existing were removed.
For an hour, … – Margin, at. The Greek – eis – means properly unto, with reference to; and the sense is, that, with reference to that hour, they had all the requisite preparation. Prof. Stuart explains it as meaning that they were prepared for the particular year, month, day, and hour, destined by God for the great catastrophe which is to follow. The meaning, however, rather seems to be that they were prepared, not for the commencement of such a period, but they were prepared for the whole period indicated by the hour, the day, the month, and the year; that is, that the continuance of this woe would extend along through the whole period. For:
(a)This is the natural interpretation of the word for – eis;
(b)It makes the whole sentence intelligible – for though it might be proper to say of anything that it was prepared for an hour, indicating the commencement of what was to be done, it is not usual to say of anything that it is prepared for an hour, a month, a day, a year, when the design is merely to indicate the beginning of it; and,
(c)It is in accordance with the prediction respecting the first woe Rev 9:5, where the time is specified in language similar to this, to wit, five months. It seems to me, therefore, that we are to regard the time here mentioned as a prophetic indication of the period during which this woe would continue.
An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year – If this were to be taken literally, it would, of course, be but little more than a year. If it be taken, however, in the common prophetic style, where a day is put for a year (see the notes on Dan 9:24 ff; also Editors Preface, p. xxv. etc.), then the amount of time (360 + 30 + 1 + an hour) would be 391 years, and the portion of a year indicated by an hour – a twelfth part or twenty-fourth part, according as the day was supposed to be divided into twelve or twenty-four hours. That this is the true view seems to be clear, because this accords with the usual style in this book; because it can hardly be supposed that the preparation here referred to would have been for so brief a period as the time would be if literally interpreted; and because the mention of so small a portion of time as an hour, if literally taken, would be improbable in so great transactions. The fair interpretation, therefore, will require us to find some events that will fill up the period of about 391 years.
For to slay the third part of men – Compare Rev 8:7, Rev 8:9,Rev 8:12. The meaning here is, that the immense host which was restrained on the Euphrates would, when loosed, spread desolation over about a third part of the world. We are not to suppose that this is to be understood in exactly a literal sense; but the meaning is, that the desolation would be so widespread that it would seem to embrace a third of the world. No such event as the cutting off of a few thousands of Jews in the siege of Jerusalem would correspond with the language here employed, and we must look for events more general and more disastrous to mankind at large.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. For an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year] We have in this place a year resolved into its component parts. Twenty-four hours constitute a day, seven days make a week, four weeks make a month, and twelve months make a year. Probably no more is meant than that these four angels were at all times prepared and permitted to inflict evil on the people against whom they had received their commission. There are some who understand these divisions of time as prophetical periods, and to these I must refer, not professing to discuss such uncertainties.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year; that is, say some, for any time whatsoever God would have them move; or for that certain time which God had determined; but Mr. Mede hath here a peculiar notion; he observeth that an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, make just three hundred and ninety-six years. In a year are three hundred and sixty-five days in a month thirty, which make three hundred and ninety-five, to which add the odd day, they make three hundred and ninety-six. The Turks began their empire under Ottoman, who began his reign Anno 1296: but their leader, Tangrolipix, upon the taking of Bagdad was inaugurated, and put on the imperial robe, Anno 1057. Constantinople was taken by them Anno 1453, between which are just three hundred and ninety-six years. In which time they slew a numberless number of men, called here
the third part.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. were“which had beenprepared” [TREGELLESrightly].
for an hour, and a day, and amonth, and a yearrather as Greek, “for (that is,against) THE hour, andday, and month, and year,” namely, appointed by God. The Greekarticle (teen), put once only before all the periods, impliesthat the hour in the day, and the day in the month, and the month inthe year, and the year itself, had been definitely fixed by God. Thearticle would have been omitted had a sum-total of periods beenspecified, namely, three hundred ninety-one years and one month (theperiod from A.D. 1281,when the Turks first conquered the Christians, to 1672, their lastconquest of them, since which last date their empire has declined).
slaynot merely to”hurt” (Re 9:10), asin the fifth trumpet.
third part(See on Re8:7-12).
of mennamely, ofearthy men, Re 8:13,”inhabiters of the earth,” as distinguished from God’ssealed people (of which the sealed of Israel, Re7:1-8, form the nucleus).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the four angels were loosed,…. The time being come, fixed by the decrees of God, making use of the Turks for the destruction of the eastern empire, the restraints of divine Providence were taken off from them, and they were suffered to pass the river Euphrates; they were let loose like so many furies, and in a little time overran and destroyed the whole empire, and settled their own, now called the Turkish or Ottoman empire; and which was done about the year 1301.
Which were prepared for an hour and a day, and a month, and a year,
for to slay the third part of men; which may in general denote their readiness, vigilance, and quick dispatch: they lay for a good while hovering over the banks of the river Euphrates, as if they were waiting for an order, or a commission to go over it: they were ready not only at a year’s, a month’s, a day’s, but at an hour’s warning, and all of them together; and as soon as ever they had the divine permission, they lost no time; they improved every opportunity, every year, every month, every day, every hour, to settle and enlarge their dominions to the ruin of others; and in a very short time did they accomplish what they desired: though others think this refers to a certain time fixed by God, in which they should be employed in killing men; and the sense is, that these people were prepared in the purposes and decrees of God, or were appointed for such a length of time here signified, by several dates, in which they should destroy a large multitude of men, by way of punishment for their idolatries, murders, sorceries, fornication, and thefts, Re 9:20. An hour, which is the twenty fourth of a day or year, in the prophetic style, is fifteen days, and a day is a year, and a month is thirty years, and a year is three hundred sixty five years and a quarter, or ninety one days; in all, three hundred and ninety six years, and a hundred and six days; which is the precise time between A. D. 1057, when the Turkish empire begun, the empire of the Saracens being entirely demolished by Togrul Beg, or Tangrolipix, and A. D. 1453, in which year Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and an end put to the eastern Roman empire, signified by the third part of men; or else this space of time may be reckoned from the date of Ottoman’s reign, May 19, 1301, which, to September 1, 1697, is just this term of time, when Prince Eugene obtained a remarkable victory over the Turks, the effect of which was the peace at Carlowitz the next year, since which time the Turks have done but little in Europe: and by this it should seem that their time of killing men here is over, and that their own destruction is hastening on. Mr. Daubuz rejects these computations, since a prophetic year consists of 360 days or years, and not 365, as those suppose; and thinks there is no mystery in these dates, and only signify the angels’ unanimous execution of their commission at once.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Were loosed (). First aorist (ingressive) passive indicative of , “were let loose.”
Which had been prepared ( ). Perfect passive articular participle of , to make ready (), in a state of readiness prepared by God (Rev 12:6; Rev 16:12; Matt 25:34).
For the hour and day and month and year ( ). For this use of with see 2Ti 2:21. All preparation over, the angels are waiting for the signal to begin.
That they should kill ( ). The same idiom in verse 5 about the fifth trumpet, which brought torture. This one brings death.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
For an hour and a day and a month and a year. This rendering is wrong, since it conveys the idea that the four periods mentioned are to be combined as representing the length of the preparation or of the continuance of the plague. But it is to be noted that neither the article nor the preposition are repeated before day and month and year. The meaning is that the angels are prepared unto the hour appointed by God, and that this hour shall fall in its appointed day and month and year.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the four angels were loosed,” (kai eluthesan hoi tessares angeloi) “And the four angels (having been over the Euphrates) were released, loosed,” as the sixth angel was directed from the throne to release them, and as they had formerly been restrained for a time (until the proper time) to execute vengeance Rev 9:1-4; Rev 9:13-14.
2) “Which were prepared for an hour,” (hoi hetoimas menoi eisten horan) “The four who had been prepared for (with reference to) the hour,” but held in waiting, restrained from their part in bringing sudden death to the human race until their hour, period of executing divine judgment should come.
3) “And a day, and a month, and a year,” (kai hemeran kai mena kai eniauton) “And (also having been prepared for a day, a month, and a year; This means until God’s time schedule for them was ready. Even our Lord, as a man, often said “Mine hour is not yet come,” Joh 2:4; Joh 17:2; Gal 4:4-5. There is a time and a season for everything under the sun; God alone knows all details of his future purpose in time, Ecc 3:1; Ecc 3:7; Act 1:7.
4) “For to slay the third part of men,” (hina apokteinosin to triton ton anthropon) “in order that they should slay (kill) the third part of men, one third of those who had not the seal of God in their foreheads, Rev 7:1-4; It appears that one year, one month, one day and one hour is the length of time period that the wicked city of Babylon on the great river Euphrates may be besieged by the armies of the kings of the East (the rulers of the Far East) as Armageddon swords flash, brimstone fires burn, and smoke stifles to death men by the millions who go into do battle, wave after wave of the columns, Rev 16:12-21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(15) And the four angels . . .Better, And there were loosed the four angels who had been made ready unto (or for, i.e., ready for) the (not an hour, but the) hour, and day, and month, and year, that they should slay the third part of mankind. The English version reads as though the hour, day, month and year were to be understood as the length of time over which this plague of war should last. This idea has been adopted by many of the historical school of interpreters, and great ingenuity has been exercised to find some period which exactly corresponds with this, and during which disastrous wars prevailed. But the expression (made ready unto the hour, &c.) is not to be taken to imply that such was the duration of the plague; it implies that the loosing of the angels would take place at a definite period, the year, month, day and hour of which were known; the expression corresponds somewhat with our Lords words, Of that day and hour knoweth no man. It reminds us that there is a periodan unknown period, but nevertheless a certain periodat which the latent powers of retribution wake and begin to avenge themselves, at which the restraints which have withheld the long-deserved scourges are removed. Men and nations little think of this. Peace they cry, where there is no peace, for they have been by their sins mining the ground under their feet, or dwelling in that abode of false security which Bunyan might have called the city of Meanwell, and that abode is built on the sands; and when the angels of judgment are loosed, and the restraining influences of public opinion broken, the tempest is abroad, the frail house of formal religion falls, and the time of testing leaves its inmates unsheltered. Happy only are they who are ready for the hour of the Lords return. The angels are made ready that they should kill the third part of mankind. The way in which this slaughter is to take place is explained in Rev. 9:17-18 : it is a wide and devastating slaughter carrying away a large portion of the human race.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. For an hour Our version gives the indefinite article instead of the definite the, and thus misleads some interpreters into a very devious course. They have taken these notes of time as telling how long the war was to last, and then, having calculated, symbolically, the length of the period, have endeavoured to find a war of the exact length in actual history. But these time-words indicate not the length of any one war, but the precise instant when, by divine permission, they commence. At the right hour, in its due place in month and year, the minister of vengeance springs forth.
For to slay The error-demons only torment; the war-demons slay.
Third part of men The divine number three indicates, like the five months of Rev 9:5, (where see note,) a divinely-fixed limitation. It of course implies no literal fulfilment as to number.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the four angels were loosed who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men.’
God’s timing is always exact. Here it is fixed with computer like precision, to the very hour, with the aim of releasing on the earth at that point in time four murderous angels who had been prepared for this very purpose. Their aim was the slaughter of ‘the third part of men’, in other words a sizeable minority. There is only one definite article with respect to ‘the hour and day and month and year’, stressing that the four elements of time must be seen together as indicating the defining moment, detailed step by step. They are to have their hour. The slaughter is to be considerable, ‘the third part of men’ in that region. We are not told how long they would be operating. The aim was rather to bring out the evil forces at work against the world, and to bring out that God had them under control, only allowing their release on His timing.
The area in question has always been noted for its bloody wars. In John’s day the Parthian menace lay beyond those borders, ever threatening the security of the Roman Empire. Later it would be the centre of the hordes of Islam, and they continue today with different Muslim nations ever active in bloodshed, whilst the whole restlessness of the area makes it a growing threat as they develop nuclear weapons and germ and chemical warfare and suicide terrorists. It has erupted again and again with horrific consequences. It is constantly erupting today. Thus the area of the River Euphrates has regularly produced something like this, and we can see in it the activity of Satanic forces.
But as this second woe (and sixth trumpet) is connected with chapters 10 & 11 which deal with the last days of the age and the summing up of God’s purposes, it may well be seen as an intensification of the fifth trumpet occurring in the final period leading up to the end (compare the sixth seal and the sixth bowl, both precursors of the end).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
Ver. 15. And the four angels were loosed ] As fierce and fell creatures out of a cave, now set upon spoil and rapine. They have a proverb in the eastern parts, Where the Great Turk once setteth his foot, there never grows grass again; he blasts and desolates all.
For an hour and a day ] At any time whensoever God shall command them out, and bid them fall on; they are at an hour’s warning, in arms at an instant. Mr Brightman gathereth from this text, that the Turkish empire shall determine about the year 1696.
The third part of men ] Mahomet I was in his time the death of 800,000 men. Selymus II, in revenge of his loss received at the battle of Lepanto, would have put to death all the Christians in his dominions, who were in number infinite. (Turk. Hist.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 9:15 . This quartette of angels (= complete ruin, Zec 1:18 f.) has been kept in readiness, or reserved for this occasion, though they are not to be connected (as by Spitta) with the four moments of time hour, day, month , and year . Like the use of , , and , this touch of predestined action brings out the strong providential belief running through the Apocalypse. On the rle of destructive angels in Jewish eschatology cf. Charles on Slav. En. x. 3 and for the astrological basis (En. lxxvi. 10 f.) of this tradition see Fries in Jahrb f. d. klass. Alterth . (1902) 705 f. Probably the author means that the angels set in motion the hordes of cavalry (two hundred million) described in the semi-mythical, semi-historical pageant of the next passage. But he does not directly connect the two, and it is evident that here as at Rev 7:1 f., we have “dream-like inconsequences” (Simcox), or else two fragments of apocalyptic tradition, originally heterogeneous, which are pieced together (at Rev 9:16 ). The four angels here do not correspond in function or locality to the four unfettered angels of Rev 7:1 ; they rather represent some variation of that archaic tradition in which four angels (perhaps angel-princes of the pagan hordes) were represented as bound (like winds?) at the Euphrates a geographical touch due to the history of contemporary warfare, in which the Parthians played a rle similar to that of the Huns, the Vikings, or the Moors in later ages. Since the first century B.C. a Parthian invasion of some kind had formed part of the apocalyptic apparatus so that there is no particular need to allegorise the Euphrates into the Tiber or to find the four angels in Psa 78:49 (LXX). The bloody and disastrous Parthian campaign of 58 62 ( cf. on Rev 6:2 ) may account for the heightened colour of the scene, whether the fragment was composed at that period, or (as is most probable) written with it in retrospect. But the entire vision is one powerful imaginative development of a tradition preserved in a Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra (published by Baethgen) which may be based on old Jewish materials: “and a voice was heard, Let those four kings be loosed, who are bound at the great river Euphrates, who are to destroy a third part of men. And they were loosed, and there was a mighty uproar.” Could this be reckoned as proof of an independent tradition it would help to illumine the application of the idea in John’s Apocalypse, especially if one could accept with Khler the attractive conjecture of Iselin that represents a confusion (or variety of reading, cf. 2Sa 11:1 , 1Ch 20:1 ) between (= .) and in a Hebrew original of Rev 9:15 ( Zeits. aus der Schweis , 1887, 64). The conjecture (Spitta, de Faye, J. Weiss) (= hosts, as in Mal 3:18Mal 3:18 , etc.) is less likely, and in cannot be taken with (Bruston). Cavalry formed a standing feature of the final terror for the Jewish imagination ever since the Parthians loomed on the political horizon (Ass. Mos. iii. 1). The whole passage was one of those denounced by the Alogi as fantastic and ridiculous ( cf. Epiph, Haer. li. 34). Gaius also criticised it as inconsistent with Mat 24:7 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
were = had been.
for. Greek. eis. App-104.
an = the
hour, day, month, year. A fixed point of time, not a period of duration. The four notes of time being under one article and one preposition show that the occasion is one particular moment appointed by God.
for = in order. Greek. hina.
third part. See Rev 8:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 9:15. ) The article removes the distributive force, as E. Schmid teaches in his Notes on the New Testament, f. 806; wherefore it is not any hour, day, month, year, whatever that is meant, but a definite period of times; that is, a period of about 207 years, if it seem correct, from A. 629 to A. 836, or from A. 634 to A. 840, that is, from the last time of Abubeker[100] to the death of Motassem.[101] See especially the Saracenic Chronicle of Drechsler enlarged by Reiske, pp. 14-37, and Hottinger Eccl. Hist. Sec. vii. viii. and ix., and Comp. Theatr. Orient. Part i. ch. 3.
[100] Abubeker, the friend and successor of Mahomet.-T.
[101] Motassem, the last of the Caliphs.-T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
angels
(See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
for: or, at
an hour: Rev 9:5, Rev 9:10
for to: Rev 9:18, Rev 8:7, Rev 8:9, Rev 8:11, Rev 8:12
Reciprocal: Gen 41:32 – established by Eze 4:6 – each day for a year Hos 6:5 – I have Rev 6:8 – over Rev 9:14 – loose
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 9:15. The hour, day, month and year are exact periods of time when literally considered, but they are to be understood in the same light as “five months” in verse 5 which the reader should see. Likewise he should see the comments at chapter 8:9 for the meaning of third part.
Rev 9:16. The number of the army-is another exact figure if taken literally, but the meaning is that a great army was serving the interests of the evil institution. And I heard the number of them. The conjunction and is not in all copies and it is unnecessary, for the sentence means that John was not sizing up the army personally but the number was announced to him.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verses 15-16.
The cavalry legion: “The four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, a day, a month, a year, to slay third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them”–Rev 9:15-16.
The four angels loosed: The voice in verse 14 commanded the angel of the sixth trumpet to loose the four angels. In verse 15 the sixth angel obeyed the voice, “and the four angels were loosed” to go unrestrained to execute the mission suspended in Rev 7:3.
Prepared, hour, day, month, year: It is noted that “an” hour is the article “the”–it is the hour, used with hour only, not with day, month and year. Hence, “the hour and day and month and year” denoted the suspension time, the period of intervention, during which these four agents of evil were “prepared”–their armies massed for attack, waiting for the time of Rev 7:3 to be over, and for the directive, in military parlance, to unleash the armies, the dogs of war.
To slay the third part of men: The sounding of the trumpets was accompanied by the announcement of three woes. With the fifth trumpet, John interposed that “one woe is past, and behold there come two woes hereafter.” (Verse 12) In Rev 11:14, John interrupts the vision again to say “the second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly.”
In chapter 9 the apocalypse envisioned the armies of the Euphrates under the imagery of swarms of locusts numbering twice ten thousand times ten thousand. It was a figure of overwhelming military might that descended on Judea and Palestine. The apocalypse presented a two-fold catastrophe: 1. the tormenting locusts which brought the demonic plagues; 2. the armies of the Euphrates which brought the demonic wars. The swarms of locusts were said to hurt men; while the armies of the Euphrates were said to kill men. The two-fold vision of destruction symbolized famine and sword. The first part of the vision to hurt men was accomplished in the ravages of pestilence by famine; the second part of the vision to kill men was executed in the devastations of war by the sword. The terrible atrocities of the armies of Titus, Cestius Gallus and Vespasian, were recorded in the historical annals of eye-witnesses, who saw the armies overrun Judea and who witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, such as Josephus and Pliny; and in the works of the near-contemporary historians, Tacitus and others.
Since the judgments contained in the trumpets are divided into three woes, each directive is accordingly applied to “a third part” of the mission, which expression is repeated with each extension of the sixth scene. In Rev 6:8, where the judgments were symbolized in the opening of the seals, the division was called “the fourth part of the earth” in contrast with “the third part of men,” in Rev 9:15. The division of the parts is made proportionate with the pronouncements of judgments or woes.
The scene consisted of a series of four judgements in chapter 6 and of three woes in chapter 9; hence, “the fourth part of the earth” and “the third part of men” proportionately.
Two hundred thousand thousand: At this point the vision transforms “the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth . . . to whom it was given to hurt the earth” into the immense army of two hundred thousand thousand, or twice ten thousand times ten thousand, which counted literally would compute the figure of two hundred million. This was not a numerical count of the conscripts composing this army, but the symbolic description of immensity so overwhelming as to make human resistance impossible.
And I heard the number of them: The number of this mighty army was proclaimed to John, not in visionary form, but as being audible–“I heard the number.” It was another interposed statement, as of verse 12, containing the overtones of an overpowering onslaught.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 9:15. A new circumstance connected with the four angels is added in this verse. They had not only been bound: they had been kept ready for an appointed moment. They had been prepared unto the hour and day and month and year. The translation of these last words in the Authorised Version conveys an altogether false idea of their meaning, suggesting as it does that we are to put together the four periods mentioned, and to regard the sum as indicating the length of time during which either the preparation had been going on, or the plague was to continue. It is to be observed, however, that the words unto and the are not repeated before day and month and year. Add to this the fact, already illustrated in the writings of St. John (chap. Rev 5:12; Joh 14:6), that when we have a series of nouns grouped together in this way the emphasis lies upon the first, the others only filling up the thought, and we shall be satisfied that we are not to combine into one these portions of time. The meaning is that the angels are prepared unto the hour appointed by God, and that this hour shall fall in its appointed day and month and year.The commission given to the angels is to kill the third part of men. The point chiefly to be noticed is the climax from a one-fourth part under the seals to a one-third part here. In the climax marking the separate members of the trumpets the progress is from the tormenting in the fifth trumpet to the killing in the sixth.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
God controls events and precisely sets the time for his workings.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
9:15 {13} And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
(13) The execution of the commandment is in two parts: one, that those butchers are let loose, that out of their tower of the spiritual Babylon they might with fury run abroad through all the world, as well the chief of that crew who are most prompt to all the work, in this verse: as their multitudes, both most copious, of which a number certain is named for a number infinite Rev 9:16 and in themselves by all means fully furnished to hide and to hurt Rev 9:17 as being armed with fire, smoke and brimstone, as appears in the colour of this armour, which dazzles the eyes to all men, and have the strength of lions to cause pain, from which (as out of their mouth) the fiery, smoky, and stinking darts of the pope are shot out Rev 9:18 The other part, that these butchers have effected the commandment of God by fraud and violence, in the two verses following Rev 9:16-17 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
These angels were ready for a specific assignment at a specific hour in history (cf. Rev 12:6; Rev 16:12; Mat 25:34; Mat 25:41; Mar 10:40; Luk 2:31; 1Co 2:9).
"One article governing all four nouns shows that duration is not in view, but that the occasion of each one of the time designations is one and the same: the appointed hour occurs on the appointed day in the appointed month and in the appointed year. . . . Once again, this sounds the note of divine providence that recurs so often in this book (e.g., dei in Rev 1:1, mellei in Rev 1:19) . . ." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 44.]
Their task was to put one-third of those who dwell on the earth (i.e., earth-dwellers) to death (cf. Rev 8:13). This will result in approximately half the population of the earth alive at the beginning of the Tribulation being dead at the end of this judgment. One-fourth died under the fourth seal judgment (Rev 6:7-8), and many more died as martyrs and for other reasons (cf. Dan 12:1; Mat 24:21-22). However, it is only the earth-dwellers, those in rebellion against God, who suffer death as a result of this woe (cf. Rev 9:20).