Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Revelation 8:6

Rev 8:6. And the seven angelsprepared themselves to sound. As the seals foretold the state and condition of the Roman empire before, and till it became Christian, so the trumpets foreshow the state and condition of it afterward. The sound of the trumpet, as Jeremiah observes, ch. Jer 4:19 and as every one understands it, is the alarm of war; and the sounding of these trumpets is designed to rouse and excite the nations against the Roman empire; called the third part of the world, as perhaps including the third part of the world, and being seated principally in Europe, the third part of the world as believed at that time. We may just observe, that the censers here mentioned, were the same with the vials full of odours mentioned ch. Rev 5:8. The offeringof incense on the golden altar, seems to determine this allusion to the constant offering of incense in the temples and not to the service peculiar to the high-priest on the day of expiation; and fully shews the propriety of this vision in not expressly representing the high-priest. Indeed many interpreters, and that with good reason, understand the angel, Rev 8:3 as an emblem of Christ, the great High-Priest of his church. As the golden altar made a part of the scene, there was a propriety in its appearing to be used; and the time of praying was the hour of incense. This vision may probably be designed to intimate, that, considering the scenes of confusion represented by the trumpets, the saints should be exceedingly earnest with God to pour out a spirit of wisdom, piety, and zeal upon the church, and preserve it safe amid these confusions.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Rev 8:6 . The half-hour silence in heaven is now at an end; after the fire, whose meaning also becomes manifest by the threatening signs immediately following (Rev 8:5 ), has been cast upon the earth, the seven angels (Rev 8:2 ) prepare to sound their trumpets.

. This includes the grasping of the trumpets in such a way that they could bring them to their mouths. [2457]

[2457] Cf. C. a Lap., Beng.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

It will neither be improper nor unprofitable I hope, under the Lord’s teaching, if, before we enter upon the several dispensations which seem to be pointed out, under the several trumpets, we do by these as we did by the seals; first, take a general view of them, before we enter into the particulars of them. We find, that as on opening of the fifth seal, cries went up from under the Altar, from the souls of those, whose blood had been shed by persecution; see Rev 6:9-10 . So here, before sounding of the first trumpet, Jesus takes up their cause, and now begins to answer their prayers in the judgments, which, with the sounding of the first trumpet, begins to be poured upon the earth.

Concerning the dispensation of the trumpets, there can be no question, but that their very sound is an alarm. Hence, the Angel thrice proclaims, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, after four of the trumpets had been sounded, by reason of the greater sorrow that was to follow in the earth, under the sounding of the other three. And, indeed, it is evident that the ministry of the seals, which referred to the time when the Empire was heathen, had nothing so awful in it, as the ministry of the trumpets. Opposition from heathenism and idolatry, however in appearance it may seem more directly injurious to the truth than any other, is not in fact so much as what comes from false views of the truth, and the opposition made from those quarters. The man that confessed Christ, but in that confession denies his Godhead, is a greater enemy in reality to Christ, than he that denies his being, and his religion altogether. I have found more bitter hatred from Pharisees, than from all the ungodly, and careless, put them altogether. And very sure I am, that all the open enemies to the truth of the Gospel, in those who deny all revelation, are not to be dreaded for persecution, as much as those are, who on the one hand, reduce the Christian doctrine to a mere system of morality, and while professing themselves to be Christians, deny Christ’s Godhead; or on the other, those who though acknowledging his Godhead, and in part his atonement, yet make Christ only a procuring cause, and insist upon man’s own attainments and improvements, as being a part Saviour.

The trumpet dispensation, through the whole of that department, intimated a season of greater persecution to the true Church of Christ, though the empire became Christian under the countenance of the Emperors, than while it remained under the darkness of idolatry. Hence the trumpets, from the sounding of the first to the last are gradually opening the steps, by which the persecutions came forward to the overthrow of the empire. God had appointed in the depths of the wisdom of his providence, that those two powers, the Mahometan imposture in the East, called the false prophet; and the folly and iniquity of Popery in the West, called the Beast; should both come forward much about the same time, and afflict the people of God. Hence, about this period it was, that upon the opening of the seventh seal, we find the spreading of Mahomet’s imposture covering the East. Arabia, Egypt, and Assyria, soon were detached from the empire of Rome; and the Impostor Mahomet set up his standard in all that vast empire. On the other hand, in the Western world, the trumpery of Popery became soon established; and the great enemy of souls, turning Christian, and taking advantage from the errors of Arian heresy, soon proselyted the multitudes to the doctrine, which complimented man’s goodness, at the expense of God’s truth; and both these soon divided the eastern from the western world, and which, more or less, (for their iniquity is not full,) have continued to the present hour, and must continue, according to this blessed book of prophecy, until the time here predicted, for the accomplishment of both is fulfilled. So much I thought it necessary to observe, on the ministry of the trumpets, in general. We will now go on, under the Lord’s permission, and under an humble hope of the, Lord’s teaching, to the consideration of the sounding of each trumpet; beginning with the first, and following them regularly one after another, according to the order in which they are placed.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

Ver. 6. Prepared themselves ] Having got sign, as it were, by that which Christ did in the former verse, they set to in order to sound their trumpets.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

6 .] And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves that they might blow (raised their trumpets to their mouths, and stood in attitude to blow them).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rev 8:6-12 . The first four trumpets .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Rev 8:6 f. The fresh series of disasters does not advance matters any further than the previous seal-series. Both lead up to the final catastrophe, and upon the edge of it melt into a further development which practically goes over the same ground once more. This reflects of course literary artifice, not any successive or continuous scheme of events; it is iterative not historically chronological. It is doubtful if the prophet intended to suggest the idea which occurs to a modern mind, viz. , that such apparent cycles seem to recur in history. At certain epochs everything seems to be working up to some mighty climax for which men look in dread or hope, and yet the world rights itself for another epoch; the dnouement fades for the time being into the far horizon; the powers of evil gather themselves afresh in other forms. Neither here nor in the previous seven cycles can the astrological reference (to the colours and characteristics of the planets, cp. Exp. Ti. xx. 426 427) be worked out with any plausibility.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Rev 8:6 In the scheme of the trumpet-visions, as of the seal-visions, the first four are differentiated from the next three; the fifth and sixth in both cases stand by themselves and are separated by a considerable interlude from the closing seventh. It is remarkable that even the final trumpet of Rev 11:15 f. does not correspond to the loud trumpet-blast which according to Jewish and early Christian tradition, was to awaken the dead to resurrection or to rally the saints (Mat 24:31 ) at the close of the world. The Apocalypse knows nothing of this feature, nor of the tradition (preserved by R. Akiba) that the process of the resurrection would be accompanied by seven trumpet-peals from God. The first four trumpets set in motion forces of ruin that fall on natural objects; in Sap. 5:17 23 (Rev 16:17-21 ) the world of nature is used directly by God to punish men. The closing three concern human life, i.e. , the godless inhabitants of the earth. The general idea is that of the Jewish tradition (see on Rev 15:2 ) which prefaced the second great redemption by disasters analogous to those preceding the first: cf. e.g. , Sohar Exodus 4 b, tempore quo se reuelabit rex Messias, faciet Deus omnia ista miracula, prodigia et divinae uirtutis opera coram Israele, quae fecit olim in Aegypto, quemadmodum scriptum est Mic 7:15 ; also Jalkut Sim. i. 56 b , Targ. Jon. on Zec 10:11 , etc. The disasters remind one now and then of the Egyptian plagues ( cf. Jos. Ant. ii. 14 15; also Amo 4:4 f., Isa 9:7 f.). The first four visit earth, sea, waters, and the sky. Hail-showers were a traditional scourge and weapon of the divine armoury; on their association with thunderstorms see G. A. Smith’s Hist. Geog. 64, 65.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 8:6

6And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.

Rev 8:1-6 These verses represent the actions during the period of silence.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

to sound = in order that (Greek. hina) they might sound (Greek. salpizo. First of ten occurences).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

6.] And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves that they might blow (raised their trumpets to their mouths, and stood in attitude to blow them).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

CHAPTERS 8:6-11:18

The Sounding of the Seven Trumpets

1. The first trumpet (Rev 8:6-7)

2. The second trumpet (Rev 8:8-9)

3. The third trumpet (Rev 8:10-11)

4. The fourth trumpet (Rev 8:12-13)

5. The fifth trumpet (Rev 9:1-12)

6. The sixth trumpet (Rev 9:13-21)

7. Parenthesis: The angel and the little book (Rev 10:1-11)

8. The temple (Rev 11:1-2)

9. The two witnesses (Rev 11:3-12)

10. The earthquake and the seventh trumpet (Rev 11:13-18)

Rev 8:6-7.

The judgments which follow can hardly be fully interpreted at this time. It would be folly to dogmatize about them. The historical application we reject, because the scope of the book makes it clear that these judgments have not yet taken place. What many of these things mean may perhaps never be fully understood till they are actually in fulfillment. The first four trumpet judgments evidently stand by themselves. The fire the Lord cast down is doing its work. The first trumpet manifests the same evidences of divine wrath as came upon Egypt, when Israel suffered there, under the seventh plague (Exo 9:23). Hail (heat withdrawn), fire and blood are all symbols of divine wrath. The trees and the green grass were burned up. The green things are symbols of agricultural and commercial prosperity.

Rev 8:8-9.

That this is not a literal mountain is obvious. A mountain in Scripture language represents a kingdom (Isa 2:2; Zec 4:7; Psa 46:2; and especially Jer 51:25). The sea is typical of nations. Some kingdom, internally on fire, signifying probably revolution, will be precipitated into the restless sea of nations, and the result will be a still greater destruction of life and commerce, which is represented by the ships.

Rev 8:10-11.

In the preceding trumpet judgments things were cast upon the earth, but here is a star which falls. It is some person who claimed authority and who becomes an apostate, whose fall produces the awful results given here. It may be the final Antichrist who first may have claimed to be for Israel a great teacher with divine authority and then takes the awful plunge. Wormwood is his name and the waters became wormwood and bitter.

Rev 8:12-13.

The sun, the moon and the stars are now affected. The sun is the symbol of the highest authority; the moon, who has not her own light, is symbolical of derived authority; and the stars are symbolical of subordinate authority. The symbolical meaning of this trumpet judgment is that all authority within the revived Roman empire will be smitten by the hand of one above and as a result there will be the most awful moral darkness. These four trumpet judgments tell of prosperity taken first from the earth; a great power burning with the fires of revolution affecting the nations; a great leader will fall and become wormwood; and authority disowned and smitten will fill the territory of the Roman empire (Europe) with the densest darkness.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

angels

(See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Rev 8:2

Reciprocal: Jos 6:4 – seven times Psa 47:5 – sound Isa 27:13 – the great Rev 9:1 – the fifth Rev 9:14 – to the Rev 15:1 – seven angels Rev 17:14 – shall make

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Rev 8:6. The prayers of the suffering Church have been heard, and the answer is to be given. Hence we are told in this verse that the seven angels prepared themselves to sound. The words are, strictly speaking, a part neither of the seventh seal nor of the first trumpet. They mark a transition point, preparatory to the latter.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Section 1. (Rev 8:6-13.)

The empire under its seventh head.

Nevertheless, we come at first to what has been always found one of the most difficult parts of Revelation, and as to which thoughts of interpreters are perhaps the most diverse. The fact is that, as to these early trumpets, there is a significant hint given us which will in measure explain the mystery in which they are involved. This is found in the vision which follows the sixth trumpet, in the same way exactly as the visions of the seventh chapter follow the sixth seal. In this, we may well look for that which will cast light upon all that is before us. In the vision following the sixth trumpet we see, first of all, an angel descending out of heaven, who claims the sea and the land -the whole earth therefore -for God. It is no doubt once more Christ in angelic form, as that which is said of Him proves; but we need not pause upon this now: the great point for us at present is, that we are brought thus manifestly into connection, in a more decisive way than before, with God’s purposes of blessing for the earth at large. For this, it must be manifestly His; and thus we are brought into connection also in a fuller way than before with the prophets who speak of this -with the prophets, therefore, of the Old Testament. As He comes down, the Angel has in His hand a little book, which, in contrast with that which was in Christ’s hand before, is open now. It is a little book, in implied contrast with the other, just as its being open is in contrast with the sealing of the other, and the Angel Himself declares that now there is to be delay no longer, “but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who is about to sound, the mystery of God shall be completed, according to the good tidings which He declared by His servants the prophets.” This ought to make us prepared for what we find is before us when the book has been taken by John -a vision of the temple of God and the holy city, but now trodden under foot of the Gentiles, yet a testimony of God preserved in it which is to last for a period which is the exact half of a week of years. We are, in short, in the last week of Daniel’s seventy, as all that is connected with this shows, and thus manifestly also where is found the full light of prophetic testimony. The little book is the testimony of Israel’s prophets -little just because it is confined to earth and the divine purposes as to it, and does not in any wise reach to the full compass of that which the New Testament has revealed to us.

But if this is found only at the end of the sixth trumpet, we shall easily understand that that which takes place before this, although in the same line of things, yet can be but introductory to what the prophets speak. We are left (apart, of course, from the general indications furnished by the prophetic testimony) to a kind of isolated interpretation, if we may so say, of the former part here, and therefore we need not wonder if we find difficulty in it. No doubt we are by no means altogether left to this. We have helps and assistances which we must not disregard. We shall find that the very succession of these trumpets, plainly given as it is, every one numbered, will be a help to us. There is a certain connection of them with one another which any right interpretation of them must bring out. Events do not merely follow one another, but more or less grow out of one another. They are a divine series, and not a mere bringing together of disconnected things.

Then again, we shall find, probably, that just here, where Israel’s prophets seem in measure to fail us, there comes to our help what mere Futurism indeed refuses, but which, nevertheless, has meaning and help for us in its place, namely, the historical interpretation of Revelation: if we make it the whole thing, it will certainly display its inadequacy; but in these trumpet-proclaimed judgments, especially under the fifth and sixth trumpets, it acquires a consistency which certainly speaks for its truthfulness. We must examine somewhat this historical interpretation at a future time, but nothing forbids us to call it to our help here if we should find, as we may, help in it. If God has given us in the history of the Church -as it would be folly to deny -what may very well seem but the echo of Israel’s history, the parallelism which we shall thus find should be helpful to confirm the two interpretations here, which may well be expected to be parallel. At any rate, we must search for ourselves and see.

Now the general historic interpretation of the first four trumpets applies them to the breaking up of the Roman empire by the barbarian inroads of Goths, Vandals, and Huns, until its final extinction in the West by the hands of Odoacer. The eastern half survived to a later day, but it was henceforth Grecian rather than Roman; Rome itself, with all that constituted its greatness -nay, its being, in the days of its ancient glory -having departed from it. This application agrees with the unity of these trumpets, while it gives a sufficient reason for the series coming to an end; the fifth and sixth trumpets turning now to judgments upon the eastern half, by the hands of Saracen and Turk; and the seventh being universal in its character. The Roman empire, let us remember, as the last empire of Daniel’s visions, and that which existed in the Lord’s lifetime upon earth, and by the authority of which He was crucified, stands as the representative of the world-power in its rebellion against God. (Compare Psa 2:1-12 with Act 4:25-28.) No wonder, therefore, if its history should be given under these war-trumpets, the last of which gives us the full victory of Christ over all the opposition.

It is consistent with this that Satan, in the twelfth chapter of this book, should, as the dragon, be pictured with the seven heads and ten horns of the Roman beast. He is the spiritual “prince of this world,” and in this way is clothed with the power of the world, which we see here again as Roman. So, again, the “earth” (which both in Greek and Hebrew may mean “land,” and is often by no means the equivalent of the world) seems almost constantly in these prophecies, till the final one, to be the Roman earth, the territory of the Roman empire in its widest aspect, and of which the western part seems to be the “third part” mentioned in the trumpets. As to this “third part,” Mr. Elliott urges that during the period of these early trumpets “the Roman world was in fact divided into three parts, namely, the eastern (Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, Egypt); the central (Moesia, Greece, Illyricum, Rhoetia); the western (Italy, Gaul, Britain, Spain, Northwestern Africa); and that the third, or western part, was destroyed.” Others would make the “third part” equivalent to the territory peculiar to the third beast of Daniel, or the Greek empire; but this seems certainly not the truth; for in this case, according to the historical interpretation, the end of the eastern empire must be found under the fourth trumpet, whereas the fifth trumpet goes back, before this, to introduce the Saracens.

Of all interpretations, that only seems consistent which applies the “third part” to the western part of the Roman earth; and in this way the term may have a further significance, as that part in which the Roman empire is yet to revive, as it will revive for judgment in the latter days -the “third” being very often connected in Scripture, as is well known, with the thought of resurrection.

The Roman empire has indeed long been extinct, both in the West and in the East, and it is of this very extinction that the historical interpretation of the trumpets speaks; yet the voice of prophecy clearly assures us that it must be existing at the time of the end, when, because of the words of the little horn, judgment comes down upon it (Dan 7:11). The nineteenth chapter of this book unites with the book of Daniel in this testimony; for it is when the Lord appears that the beast is seen along with the kings of the earth, arrayed in opposition against Him. Thus it is plain that the Roman empire must be existent at the end. It has yet, therefore, to rise again; and in the thirteenth chapter we see it, in fact, rising out of the sea; while in the seventeenth, where the woman Babylon has her seat upon it, it is said, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition” (ver. 8). So it is called “the beast that was, and is not, and shall come.” Nothing can be much plainer than the fact that the Roman empire will revive again.

But not only so; it is also declared by the same sure Word that it will revive to be smitten again in one of its heads, and apparently to death, yet its wound is healed and it lives (Rev 13:3; Rev 13:12; Rev 13:14). It is after this that it becomes idolatrous, as Daniel has intimated that it will, and all the world wonders after it (vers. 3, 8, 12).

It is not yet the place to go fully into this, but so much is clear as enables us to see how the historical interpretation of these trumpets points, or may point, to a future fulfilment of them. One other thing which the book of Revelation notes will make more complete our means of interpretation.

The beast, as seen in Revelation, has seven heads, or kings; and these are successive rulers -or forms of rule -over the empire: for, says the angel, “five are fallen, one is, and another is yet to come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” The heads, then, in this primary view, are seven, but five had passed away -commentators quote them from Livy: the sixth, the imperial power, existed at that time: the seventh was wholly future, and, in contrast with the long continuance of the sixth, would continue only a short space.

But there is an eighth head; and the beast himself is this. The last statement has been supposed to mean that the head exercised the whole authority of the empire; but it would seem nothing strange for the head of empire to exercise imperial authority. Does it not rather mean that the beast that is seen all through these chapters is the beast of this eighth head?

But the seventh head, where does it come in? There are some things that would seem to give us help with regard to this: for the empire plainly collapsed under its sixth head, and the seventh could not be until the empire again existed. There are questions here which have to be settled with the historical interpretation; but in the meantime the course of the trumpets, confirmed by their historical interpretation also, would suggest that we have in them, and indeed from the commencement of the seals, the history of the seventh head. The rider upon the white horse, to whom a crown is given, may well be the person under whom the empire is at first re-established: and of such an one, Napoleon (though not, as some have thought, the seventh head himself) may be well the foreshadow. The sixth seal does not point to his overthrow: it is a wider, temporary convulsion which affects all classes -high and low together; and in the pause that follows, they would seem to recover themselves. The trumpets begin, however, at once to threaten overthrow. The very escape of the governing classes under the first trumpet seems to prepare the way for the outburst under the second, which is an eruption from beneath -fierce with passionate revolt; under the third, apostasy is added to this, casting off the restraint of divine government, soon to grow into the last and worst form of Christianity according to Satan -Antichrist: it is the opposition of deified humanity to incarnate Deity.

The result is, under the fourth trumpet, as it would appear, that the imperial power is smitten, the seventh head wounded to death, and with it the recently established empire overthrown beyond mere human power to revive again. But this brings in the help of one mightier than man -the awful power of Satan, working with an energy proportionate to the shortness of the time which is now his. The beast arises out of the abyss; its deadly wound is healed; the dragon gives him his power and throne, and great authority; and all the world wonders and worships (Rev 13:2-4). Then indeed it is “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth!”

1. The first trumpet now sounds, and there is “hail and fire mingled with blood,” and they are cast upon the earth: and the third part of the earth is burnt up, and the third part of the trees, and all the green grass. We find in this what connects itself with one of the plagues of Egypt, and there is a reference in the prophets (Mic 7:15) to some repetition of the plagues of Egypt in the last days: “As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous things.” The trumpets and vials, so similar as they are to one another, similarly speak also with regard to the judgments of the latter days. It is not necessary to believe, as we are sometimes assured we must, that these plagues in Revelation must have the same physical form that the plagues in Egypt had. We are intended to learn, no doubt, by the resemblance; and Egypt being, as we know, the type of the world out of which our salvation is, we can see again how these judgments are judgments upon the world in order to the deliverance of God’s people out of it. But in the time of which we now are thinking, it is Israel that is God’s people; and the relation that we have seen exists here, so far as it is a relation of type and antitype, would speak rather for a dissimilarity than complete likeness between them. The shadow differs from the substance, and we are led rather to expect the repetition of these Egyptian plagues in their symbolical meaning than literally. This does not lessen its importance for us.

We find the hail with fire, of the first trumpet, among these plagues of Egypt. Symbolically it is one of the most solemn figures of divine judgment which nature furnishes. In the eighteenth psalm it is found in solemn connection: “The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His voice: hailstones and coals of fire.” Electric discharges and hail are products of a common cause -a mass of heated air, saturated with vapor, rising to a higher level and meeting the check of a cold current. It is a concord of apparent contraries. Cold is the withdrawal of heat, as darkness is the absence of light; and light and heat, cold and darkness, are akin to one another. Cold stands with darkness for the withdrawal of God, as fire -which is both heat and light -for the glow of His presence; which, as against sin, is wrath. Both these things can therefore exist together. God’s forsaking is in anger necessarily. Love with Him could not forsake; therefore if there be on His part withdrawal, this cannot be a mere cold turning away. There is with Him no apathy, no mere indifference; and thus the heat of His anger necessarily accompanies His withdrawal. With the hail and fire blood is mingled here -a token of violent death, which shows the deadly character of a visitation by which the third part of the earth, the third part of the trees, and all green grass, is burnt up. The earth is not the globe, but the prophetic earth; and this is practically the territory of Daniel’s four empires.

The third part, as already said, would seem to refer to the revived Roman empire in that western portion, which was in fact what was essentially Roman, and which is what seems to be revived. There is no need to suppose, as many do, that the revival of the Roman empire necessarily infers the exact boundaries that it had of old. The empire may be the same empire without this, and in the last days the West and the East seem to be not merely in separation, but in decisive opposition to one another. It is this third part of the earth, then, that is visited in this way. By the language, it seems to affect especially the lower ranks of the people, though, as necessarily would be the case, many of the higher also, but rather in contradistinction to those in authority. They have not escaped, as we have seen, in the general convulsion under the sixth seal. Nay, the heavens fleeing away might seem to intimate that the very possibility of true government was departed. Yet this might be while the governments go on; and in what follows we find that they do go on, although never really recovering themselves. Under this trumpet now begins, as it would seem, what should really cause them to collapse. Everywhere prosperity is gone, as the burning of the grass may imply; while the trees, which speak of that more deeply rooted in the earth, and which has power to stand as it were alone, are less affected. It is noticeable how in Isaiah (Isa 2:13-14), in the day of the Lord, the judgment is said to be “upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up.” Everywhere it is upon that which lifts itself up that the Lord’s judgment is; and the loftiness of man is specially emphasized. But the sources of all prosperity are rather found among the lowest than among the highest: “The king himself is served by the field” (Ecc 5:9); and thus this first judgment strikes really all that is stable.

2. But the second trumpet seems at first sight to be in a different line, while the symbolic meaning shows the real connection. “As it were, a great mountain burning with fire” is cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea becomes blood, and the third part of the living creatures in the sea die, and the third part of the ships are destroyed. A reference to Jeremiah may help us here. Of Babylon, Jehovah says, “Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, which destroyest all the earth, and I will stretch out My hand upon thee and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain” (Jer 25:1-38). The difference is plain, of course, as well as the similarity; but the comparison suggests to us here a power mighty, firmly seated and exalted, yet full of volcanic forces in conflict, by which not only her own bowels are torn out, but ruin is spread around. This cast into the sea (of the nations) already in commotion -as the sea implies -produces death and disaster beyond that of the preceding trumpet. Such a state of eruption we might see in France at the end of the eighteenth century, which may well illustrate what seems intended. There the fierce outburst of revolt against all forms of monarchy -the fruit of centuries of insolent tyranny under which men had been crushed -set Europe in convulsion. History is full of such portents of that which shall be, and we do well to take heed to them. Especially as the time of final judgment approaches, we may expect to find such pre-intimations of it; and thus there is a growth on to, and preparation for, that which at last takes those who have not received warning by it by surprise. The third part of the ships being destroyed would seem naturally to imply the destruction of commerce to this extent -the intercourse between the nations necessarily affected by the reign of terror around. Here let us notice that, mighty as the power may be, the eruption is from below, and how the distress amongst the lowest classes operates to produce it. Thus the two trumpets here connect together.

3. The third angel sounds, and there falls out of heaven a great star burning as a lamp, which, falling upon the third part of the rivers and springs of water, makes them poisonously bitter. The star is thus called Wormwood, or Absinthe, which is a bitter, intoxicating, and poisonous herb. The heavens are the sphere of government, whether civil or spiritual. A ruler of either kind might therefore be indicated here. The historical application is in general to Attila, king of the Huns. Yet the fall from heaven, the poisoning of the sources of refreshment, as well as the parallel, if not the deeper connection with the sixth trumpet, seem to point much more strongly to an apostate teacher by whose fall the springs of spiritual truth are embittered, causing men to perish. With all the misery that has hitherto been depicted as coming upon men under these Apocalyptic symbols, we have not before had any clear intimation of this, which we know, however, to be a principal ingredient in the full cup of bitterness which will then be meted out to men. Because they have not received “the love of the truth that they might be saved,” God will send them “strong delusion that they may believe a lie.” How much the warnings of this abound in the present day it is hardly needful to insist upon. False prophets of every kind are more and more showing themselves. In the French revolution, at the end of the eighteenth century, the revolt against existing governments linked itself with revolt against Christianity; and the social and anarchical movements which have followed, and indeed have largely sprung out of it, are uniformly allied with infidel and atheistic avowals as extreme as any of that time. We have already considered, in a measure, the doctrine of a personal antichrist yet to come, and we shall be repeatedly recalled to the consideration of it as we go on with the Revelation. Here it is only the place to say that his birthplace in this book seems to be under the third trumpet -though his descent more strictly than his rising. He is the fruit of apostasy, as the second epistle to the Thessalonians (2Th 2:3) would lead us to anticipate, and the second chapter of John’s first epistle no less.

The rivers and springs of water naturally speak of doctrine. The living water is the well known symbol of the Spirit of God; but, as acting through the Word, water becomes the symbol of this, as we find it in Eph 5:26 -“the washing of water by the Word.” Here, that which should have been refreshment and blessing is distilled into poison; and what this bodes is easy to understand when we remember that if the Lord has now taken His true saints to heaven, the rest have become wholly distasteful to Him, and are to be spewed out of His mouth. Apostasy is the natural issue; and here again the premonitions of this are to be found on every side. Let us remember, also, that the casting off of divine government leads naturally to the casting off of human government as well; and here we find the connection with that which follows, although if merely human government is thrown off, that does not mean but that there may be, as in fact there will be, a form of government arising out of this chaos which will suit the purpose of the prince of this world better than anarchy itself. He can organize as well as merely destroy. He can vivify as well as slay, and we shall find that this is just what the course of things will show us here.

4. But now, under the fourth trumpet, a sign occurs which may be compared with that under the sixth seal; but which, in the comparison, reveals important differences. Then a convulsion affected, as it would appear, the whole earth. Now it is only the governing powers that are affected, and that not everywhere, but a third part of the sun, and of the moon, and of the stars, so that the day shines not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.” These last words, in connection with the similar limitation to the “third part” in the preceding trumpets, seems plain enough. It does not shine in the third part of the sphere of its dominion, nor the night (that is, in its moon and stars) either. Certainly this would not be the natural result of the darkening of the third part of the sun and moon; and this intimates to us, as all else does, that we have not here a literal phenomenon, but a figure of other things. Royal or imperial authority has collapsed, with its train of satellites, within such limits as the third part designates; and with this the first series of the trumpets ends. As ordinarily in these septenary series, the last three are cut off from the first four, which have a certain oneness of application, as also the use of this “third part,” employed in them throughout, would imply; for the next trumpet has no intimation of this kind. The sixth has it again, but the seventh absolutely refuses all such limitation.

Here, then, as it would seem, we have the fall of the revived Roman empire in its seventh head. So far from there being any difficulty in the connection with what has preceded, it is throughout simple and consistent. There is perfect harmony with the prophecy elsewhere, as well as, so far as we can trace it, with the voice of prophecy in general -the prophecy, however, of the New Testament, rather than of the Old. What we are looking at is the collapse of Christianity itself, as an earth-power, with all that with which politically it is connected. We go on to see evils much more intense which arise out of this, and in which the power of Satan over men is most amply demonstrated. Well may the voice of lamentation be heard here, even in that which is a denunciation of judgment. “I heard,” says the apostle, “one eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to those that dwell upon the earth, by reason of the rest of the trumpet-voices of the three angels which are about to sound!”

The eagle, or vulture, is the symbol of judgment, for which the carcass, as the figure of corruption, calls; and thus the Lord’s words in the Gospels, “Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Mat 24:28). Spite of the common application of this to the saints as rising to meet their coming Lord, there is an incongruousness in it which one feels ought to shock every Christian soul. Scripture never suggests such degrading parallels, and the Lord’s words have a totally different connection. The lightning, coming from the east and shining even to the west, figures the storm and not the calm -the awful horror of judgment, and not the joy of gathering to Christ. All this part of the twenty-fourth chapter, to the end of the forty-second verse, is Jewish in its connection, and not Christian; and that which has misled so many in the parallel passage in Luk 17:37, the connection with what we find in Matthew also, but in a more distant way, -where of two men in one bed, the one is taken and the other left; two women grinding together at the mill, the one is taken and the other left, -all this is but in perfect harmony. Those taken are taken by the judgment, not to blessing. The earth is being cleared by judgment. Thus that which is corrupting upon it must be removed, and the illustration by the case of Noah and the generation of his day, when the flood came and took them all away, shows that the taking away is this. So in the parallel case of Lot: “In the day that Lot went forth from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.” But when the Lord takes away His people, destruction does not come upon them in any such manner. The confusion commonly made between the time of the Lord’s taking His own away, and that of His coming with them to the judgment, is responsible for the whole distortion of the picture here.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Note here, 1. The readiness of the holy angels in heaven to execute the will and pleasure of God here on earth; they knew that the execution of God’s judgments was to be performed by them, and accordingly they prepare themselves for it.

Note, 2. The judgments denounced by the first angel, Fire and hail mingled with blood. A strange storm, alluding probably to one of the plagues of Egypt, mentioned Exodus 9 denoting, some say, direful temporal judgments which God would bring upon Judea in general, and Galilee in particular, by bloodshed and insurrections. The trees, says Dr. More, signify the great men, and the grass the common people. Others by this storm of hail and blood understand a spiritual judgment, namely, an inundation of heresy upon the Christian church, which is of a fiery and bloody nature; wherever it prevails, it is a dreadful plague, and a consuming storm; justly inflicted by God upon a people for their contempt of the gospel, and not receiving the truth in the love of it, that they might be saved.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Rev 8:6-13. The First Four Trumpets.The first four trumpets, like the first four seals, form a connected group, and differ in character from the last three. They affect chiefly the natural world, which they overwhelm with disaster. Many of the features are borrowed from the plagues of Egypt. [The description seems to be based also on volcanic phenomena, as often in OT prophecy. The whole district was subject to volcanic disturbances, and in particular the island of Santorin (about 80 miles S.W. of Patmos) may have suggested several features. See J. T. Bents article, What St. John saw in Patmos (Nineteenth Century, 1888). On this island there is a work by F, Fouqu, Santorin et ses ruptions.A. S. P.]

Rev 8:7. The first trumpet (cf. Exo 9:24), fire flashing continually amid the hail. The phrase mingled with blood is added. Blood-red rain is not unknown in nature; storms of this character have occurred in the S. of Europe, and the usual explanation given is that the air was full of particles of red sand from the Sahara.

Rev 8:8. The second trumpet.a great mountain: this phrase is introduced by way of illustration, and we need not imagine that the writer pictures an actual mountain cast into the sea. He indicates rather a huge blazing mass like a mountain in size.

Rev 8:9. sea became blood: cf. Exo 7:17-21, Rev 16:3.

Rev 8:10. The third trumpet. A great meteor falls from heaven and destroys the fresh-water supply. [J. H. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism. p. 326, compares the falling of the great star Gochar upon the earth, mentioned in the Bundahish.A. S. P.]called Wormwood: lit. absinthe. In OT the term is always used metaphorically to denote the bitterness of injustion or the fruits of idolatry or Divine chastisement (Pro 5:4*).

Rev 8:12. The fourth trumpet. This causes the partial eclipse of the heavenly bodies (cf. Exo 10:21-23). None of these plagues are final, and it seems to be suggested that there is still time for repentance.

Rev 8:13. On the ordinary interpretation this verse is intended to be a last warning to the world before the other trumpets are blown. Charles thinks, however, that originally the four trumpets were not found in the text, and that this verse simply introduces the three trumpets (cf. Rev 8:9).an eagle: so the best MSS. TR reads, an angel, and so AV.

Rev. 8:15. See Introd. to ch. 20.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

8:6 {4} And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

(4) This is the work of the administers. The angels, the administers of Christ, by sounding trumpet and voice (for they are heralds) effectually call forth the instruments of the wrath of God, through his power. Until now, things have been general. Now the narration of specific things follows, which the angels fix in number wrought in their order, set out in Rev 8:7 and is concluded with the declaration of the event which followed these things done in the world, and in chapters ten and eleven.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The whole scene quite clearly symbolizes God sending judgment on the earth in response to His people’s accumulated prayers (cf. Exo 3:7-10; Exo 19:16-19; Rev 4:5; Rev 11:19; Rev 16:18). The trumpet judgments to follow are what He will send. The storm theophany, therefore, apparently implies the awful calamities that will come in the trumpet and bowl judgments that are ahead. [Note: Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 : An Exegetical Commentary, p. 12.]

All the trumpet judgments seem to proceed out of the seventh seal judgment. [Note: For proof that the trumpet judgments telescope out from the seventh seal rather than recapitulating the seals judgments, see ibid, pp. 3-5, 525-43.] In other words, when the Lamb broke the seventh seal John saw not just one judgment but a whole new series of judgments. There is every reason to conclude that these will follow chronologically. [Note: See Tenney, p. 71; and Ladd, p. 122.] We shall see that seven bowl judgments apparently proceed out of the seventh trumpet judgment in the same way. [Note: See the chart "The Tribulation Judgments" at the beginning of my discussion of chapter 6 for a visual representation of this relationship.] Some interpreters, however, believe the trumpet judgments merely recap and restate the seal judgments. [Note: E.g., Dale Ralph Davis, "The Relationship Between the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls in the Book of Revelation," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 16 (Summer 1973):149-58; and Beale, p. 472.]

These are the judgments that the angel ascending from the rising of the sun held back until the bond-servants of God were sealed on their foreheads (Rev 7:3). Therefore, they are more severe than the first six seal judgments. Their object is to lead hostile unbelievers to repentance and to announce punitive judgments against hardened unbelievers, but few will repent (Rev 9:20-21).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)