One woe is past; [and,] behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
12. One woe ] Of the three denounced by the eagle, Rev 8:13. A decided majority of orthodox commentators understand this vision as foretelling the Mahometan conquests some taking the fallen star of Rev 9:1 of Mahomet himself. The last is scarcely credible unless one should adopt the view, not perhaps inconsistent with the facts of Mahomet’s career, but hardly in harmony with the general order of Revelation that he really had a divine commission, but perverted it to serve his selfish ambition. It seems almost certain that the “star” is an angel, strictly speaking: but the interpretation as a whole seems worthy of respect. Perhaps the Mahometan conquest is to be regarded as at least a partial fulfilment of this prophecy: but the attempts to shew that it is in detail an exact fulfilment have not been very successful.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
One woe is past – The woe referred to in Rev 9:1-11. In Rev 8:13 three woes are mentioned which were to occur successively, and which were to embrace the whole of the period comprised in the seven seals and the seven trumpets. Under the last of the seals we have considered four successive periods, referring to events connected with the downfall of the Western empire; and then we have found one important event worthy of a place in noticing the things which would permanently affect the destiny of the world – the rise, the character, and the conquests of the Saracens. This was referred to by the first woe-trumpet. We enter now on the consideration of the second. This occupies the remainder of the chapter, and in illustrating it the same method will be pursued as heretofore: first, to explain the literal meaning of the words, phrases, and symbols; and then to inquire what events in history, if any, succeeding the former, occurred, which would correspond with the language used.
And, behold, there come two woes more hereafter – Two momentous and important events that will be attended with sorrow to mankind. It cannot be intended that there would be no other evils that would visit mankind; but the eye, in glancing along the future, rested on these as having a special pre-eminence in affecting the destiny of the church and the world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. One wo is past] That is, the wo or desolation by the symbolical scorpions.
There came two woes more] In the trumpets of the sixth and seventh angels.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
One period of time is over, in which God hath plagued the world with a very great judgment; but there are two more to come, which will be equally, if not more, calamitous.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Greek, “Theone woe.”
hereafterGreek,“after these things.” I agree with ALFORDand DE BURGH,that these locusts from the abyss refer to judgments about tofall on the ungodly immediately before Christ’s second advent. Noneof the interpretations which regard them as past, are satisfactory.Joe 1:2-7; Joe 2:1-11,is strictly parallel and expressly refers (Joe2:11) to THE DAY OF THELORD GREAT AND VERY TERRIBLE:Joe 2:10 gives the portentsaccompanying the day of the Lord’s coming, the earth quaking, theheavens trembling, the sun, moon, and stars, withdrawing theirshining: Joe 2:18; Joe 2:31;Joe 2:32, also point to theimmediately succeeding deliverance of Jerusalem: compare also, theprevious last conflict in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and the dwellingof God thenceforth in Zion, blessing Judah. DEBURGH confines the locustjudgment to the Israelite land, even as the sealed in Re7:1-8 are Israelites: not that there are not others sealed aselect in the earth; but that, the judgment being confined toPalestine, the sealed of Israel alone needed to beexpressly excepted from the visitation. Therefore, he translatesthroughout, “the land” (that is, of Israel and Judah),instead of “the earth.” I incline to agree with him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
One woe is past,…. One of the three woe trumpets, the first of them; that is, in the vision which John had of it, not the thing itself designed by it:
[and] behold there come two woes more hereafter; under the blowing of the sixth and seventh trumpets.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The first woe ( ). Note feminine gender ascribed to the interjection as in 11:14, perhaps because is feminine, though we really do not know. Note also the ordinal use of (one) like (first) as in Rev 6:1; Mark 16:2.
There come yet two Woes ( ). Singular number instead of , though . It is true that is an interjection and indeclinable, but it is here used with and is feminine just before, and not neuter.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The first woe [ ] . Lit., the one woe.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “One woe is past,” (he ouai he mia apelthen) “The first (in order) woe passed away,” was finished or ended -the one of the three is passed, as seen and described by John, Rev 8:13.
2) “And, behold there come,” (idou erchetai) “Behold there come forward; note: The Gk. verb (erchetai) though singular, is followed by a neuter plural subject much as the Hebrew feminine. These grammatical irregularities frequently occur but are not of sufficient importance in general interpretation, in opinion of the author, to encumber or distract the reader.
3) “Two woes more hereafter,” (heti duo ouai meta tauta) “Yet two (more) woes after these things,” that have come and gone, after the torment of the scorpion-like locusts of the first woe. The writer can not record one vision on top of the other, thus suspense is added by the term “hereafter,” or in addition to what was previously described. This is not to be interpreted to mean that the plagues, woes, etc. are all to come in exact chronological time order as recorded from chapter to chapter. The reason is that the seven year period of the man of sin’s covenant with the Jews is described, redescribed, and divided into two separate 42 months or 3 1/2 year periods repeatedly, Rev 6:1 to Rev 20:15; Rev 7:3-4; Rev 7:9; Rev 11:2-3; Rev 11:6; Rev 12:6-14; Dan 9:26-27; Dan 12:1; Dan 12:6-13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(12) One woe is passed . . .Better, The one woe has passed; behold there cometh (the verb is in the ( singular) yet two woes after these things. Here is the patience and faith of the saints. The troubles which pass only yield place to more, the rest and the victory are not yet; the powers of evil have not exhausted themselves, the iniquity of the social and spiritual Amorites is not yet full,
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(12) THE SIXTH TRUMPETTHE SECOND WOE TRUMPET.The first point which will strike the reader is that the plague under this trumpet resembles the last, though it is one of much more aggravated nature. Again we have vast hosts, with the powers of the horse, the lion, and the viper, at command, but the destructive elements are increased, the multitudes are more numerous, the horses heads grow lion-like. With the mouth breathing forth threatening and slaughter, as well as with the tail armed with deadly fangs, they can deal forth, not torment only, as in the last vision, but death itself, to a vast proportion of the human race. To aid in this new desolation new forces are released: the four angels bound near the Euphrates are loosed. The next point to notice is that, even more directly than before, we are reminded that the moral and spiritual aspect of these visions should claim our thought. The aim of the plague is to exhibit the death-working power of false thoughts, false customs, false beliefs, and to rouse men to forsake the false worships, worldliness, and self-indulgence into which they had fallen (Rev. 9:20-21). The Psalmist has told us that great plagues remain for the ungodly. Here, whatever special interpretations we may adopt, is an illustration of the Psalmists words. The enemy against whom these foes are gathered is the great world lost in false thoughts, luxurious ways, dishonest customs; that world which in the very essential genius of its nature is hostile to goodness and the God of goodness. But the hosts which come against this sin-drowned world are not merely plagues, as famine and pestilence, they are plagues which are the results of the world-spirit, and are to a great extent, therefore, the creation of those who suffer. For there are evils which are loosed upon the world by the natural action of sin and sinful customs. As the evil spirit mingled for the first time in the plague of the fifth trumpet, so from all quarters (typified by the four angels) new powers of misery arise. Nor must another feature be overlooked: the historical basis of the Apocalypse is the past history of the chosen people; Gods dealings with men always follow the same lines. The Apocalypse shows us the same principles working in higher levels and in wider arena. The Israel of God, the Church of Christ, with its grand opportunities, takes the place of the national Israel. Its advance is against the world, and the trumpets of war are sounded. Its progress is, like Israels, at first a success; it gains its footing in the world, but the world-spirit which infects it is its worst and bitterest foe; it becomes timid, and seeks false alliances; it has its Hezekiahs, men of astonishing faith in hours of real peril, and of astonishing timidity in times of comparative safety, who can defy a real foe, but fall before a pretended ally, and who in mistaken friendliness lay the foundation of more terrible dangers (2Ki. 20:12-19). The people who are victorious by faith at Jericho lay themselves open by their timid worldliness to the dangers of a Babylonish foe. The plague which falls on the spirit of worldliness does not spare the worldliness in the Church. he overthrow of corrupted systems bearing the Christian name is not a victory of the world over the Church, but of the Church over the world. He who mistakes the husk for the grain, and the shell for the kernel, will despair for Christianity when organisations disappear; but he who remembers that God is able to raise up even of the stones children to Abraham, will never be confounded; he knows the vision may linger, but it cannot come too late (Heb. 2:3). With all this section the prophecy of Habakkuk should be compared, especially Rev. 1:6-11; Rev. 1:14-15; Rev. 2:1-14; Rev. 3:17-19. The history of Israel is in much the key to the history of the world.
And the sixth angel . . . .Translate, And the sixth angel sounded: and I heard a (single) voice out of the (four) horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel, him who had the trumpet (or, O thou, who hast the trumpet), Loose the four angels which are bound at the great river Euphrates. There are one or two verbal points worthy of notice. The Sinaitic MS. omits the words single and out of the four horns, and thus reads, I heard a voice out of the golden altar. It was the same altar from which the incense ascended mingled with the prayers of the saints. (See Rev. 8:3.) Where the prayers were, thence the voice comes. It reminds us that the prayers are not ineffectual, that still they are heard, though the way of answering may be in strange and painful judgments. The voice is heard as a single voice out of the midst of the horns of the altar. It is very doubtful whether the word four ought to be retained. The voice is represented as rising from the surface of the altar, at the corners of which were the four projections known as horns. The command is to loose the four angels bound at the Euphrates. What are these? Their numberfourrepresents powers influencing all quarters. They are angels (that is, messengers, or agencies) employed for the purpose. They are at or near the river Euphratesthat is, the spot whence the forces would arise. What is meant by the Euphrates? Are we to understand it literally? This can hardly be, unless we are prepared to take Babylon and Jerusalem literally also, and to deny all mystical meaning; but this is what only few will be disposed to do. The two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem, are the types of two radically different sets of ideas, two totally antagonistic views of life; and the meaning and mystical import of the River Euphrates must be determined by its relation to these two cities. It has been, indeed, argued that we are not bound to take the name Euphrates mystically because the remainder of the vision is mystical, since in Scripture we often find the literal and the allegorical intermingled. For example, there is an allegory in Psa. 80:8; Psa. 80:11, Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, &c. It is quite plain that the vine is used mystically to represent Israel; but the word Egypt is not mysticalit indicates the literal fact that out of Egypt Israel was brought. This is no doubt true, but if hardly meets the question here. No one will dispute that a distinct, literal fact or name may be introduced in a passage otherwise allegorical; but do we ever meet with a passage in which names of places are introduced, some of which were to be taken literally and some mystically? And such would be the case here. The whole tenor of the Apocalypse keeps before us Jerusalem, the temple, and its surroundings (Rev. 11:1; Rev. 11:8), and Babylon, with its might and opulence, as two opposing cities; and it is out of all scriptural analogy to interpret Jerusalem allegorically, and Babylon allegorically, and then to claim the privilege of understanding Euphrates literally. In fact, the inconsistency and arbitrariness of interpreters is tested by these three names, Babylon, Jerusalem, Euphrates. Some will have Jerusalem to be literal, and Babylon and Euphrates mystical; others will have Babylon mystical, and Jerusalem and Euphrates literal. Surely those who hold all three to be literal are more consistent. But if Babylon be mystical and Jerusalem mystical, it is hard to see why Euphrates should not be so also. I am far from denying that those who consistently hold all three to be literal may not be right. There are not wanting tokens that a revival of the East may change the whole political centre of gravity of the world; but no such literal fulfilment would annul the infinitely more important mystical aspect of the Apocalypse. The conflict between a literal Babylon and a literal Jerusalem either in the past or the future can never vie in interest with the prolonged and widespread conflict between the spirit of Christ and the spirit of Belial, between God and Mammon, which is waged along the whole line of history over the arena of the whole world, and plants its battle-ground in every human heart. In every man, and in the whole world, the war is waged, as the carnal and spiritual contend with one another. It is in this war between the mystical Jerusalem and the mystical Babylon that the great river Euphrates is to play an important part.
Twice (here and in Rev. 16:12) the river Euphrates appears, and each time in connection with some warlike demonstration or invasion. The basis of interpretation, as with Jerusalem and Babylon, must be sought in the history of Judah and Israel. Babylon is the great foe of Israel, and the Euphrates was the great river or flood which formed a natural boundary between them. The other side of the flood (i.e., Euphrates) was the phrase which pointed back to the early life of Abraham before he had entered upon the life of pilgrimage and faith; the Euphrates was the rubicon of his spiritual history. The Euphrates was the great military barrier also between the northern and southern nations; it occupied a place similar to the Rhine and the Danube in modern history. The advance of the Egyptian army to the banks of the Euphrates threatened the integrity of the Assyrian empire (2Ki. 23:29). The battle of Carchemish established the supremacy of the Chaldean power to the west of the Euphrates (2Ki. 24:7); such a preponderance of Babylonish influence threatened the safety of Jerusalem. The loosing of the four angels (or, powers) bound at the Euphrates can only signify changes analogous to disturbances on the great frontier line, as the drying up of the Euphrates signifies the annihilation of the protecting boundary. Such a frontier line between the spiritual city and the world city does in practice exist. There is a vast stretch of intervening territory which neither the Church nor the world really possesses, but over which each desires to possess power. There is a great neutral zone of public opinion, civilised habits, general morality, which is hardly Christian, hardly anti-Christian. When Christianised sentiments prevail in this, there is comparative peace, but when this becomes saturated with anti-Christian ideas, the Church suffers; and it is out of this that the worst aspects of trouble and danger arise; for out of it arise those forces which bring into acute form the great war between the world spirit and the spirit of Christ. The loosing of these four angels, then, seems to indicate that the issues at stake have become more distinct; that the conflict which has gone on under veiled forms begins to assume wider proportions and to be fought on clearer issues. The issues have been somewhat confused: the world spirit has crept into the Church, and against the world spirit, wherever found, the trumpet blast declares war.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘The first woe is past, behold there come two more woes hereafter.’
As with the seals, while the first five are concurrent, the sixth leads up to the end of time. (The seventh is the end of time, the last trump). Thus while the first woe is concurrent with what goes before, the second and third finalise history. The awfulness of the first woe is brought out in this warning, and what more woeful than Satanic activity? But there is further emphasis on the awfulness of the next two woes.
The Sixth Trumpet Sounds – The Second Woe.
The sounding of the sixth trumpet:
v. 12. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
v. 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
v. 14. saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
v. 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 art of men.
v. 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand; and I heard the number of them.
The apostle here inserts a remark which has a deep significance: The first woe has passed; behold, there come still two woes after this. There will never be a time of complete peace and rest for the true Church of God until the end of the world, and all dreams of the Chiliasts, or Millenialists, will come to naught. As disciples of Christ, we must bear His cross, both individually and collectively, until the great day of the revelation of His glory.
The apostle still has the picture of the heavenly temple before him as he describes the sixth trumpet blast: And the sixth angel sounded his trumpet; and I heard a single voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet, Loosen the four angels that are bound on the great river Euphrates. The Euphrates, at one time the eastern boundary of the Jewish territory and of the people of God, was to be the starting-point of this new woe. It was the single voice of the Lord that sounded forth from the midst of the four horns of the altar of gold. He, to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, is able to restrain the angels that are about to work destruction, but He is also able to give them leave, if men will not accept the Gospel and to send terrible woes upon the heretics and their followers.
This quartet of angels brought ruin immeasurable: And there were loosed the four angels that were prepared for that hour and day and month and year to kill the third part of men; and the number of their troops of cavalry was two hundred millions; I heard their number. The four angels of destruction had been kept for just this time, and such was their power that they were able to kill, to bring spiritual death, upon the third part of men. By means of an almost innumerable horde of horsemen the angels worked the ruin of which the seer speaks. This picture is so definite that few believing commentators hesitate about identifying the movement with that of Mohammedanism at the beginning of the seventh century. “The second woe is the sixth angel, the infamous Mohammed with his companions, the Saracens, who with doctrines and with the sword laid great plagues upon Christendom. ” This false prophet, a descendant of Ishmael, set himself the task of finding a system of doctrines that would please all men. From the Jews he accepted circumcision and many other ceremonies; to the heathen he catered with his carnal license and polygamy; from the Arians he learned the little he knows about Christ; from other heretics he borrowed the doctrine of works by which men would merit heaven in the sight of God. At first the progress of this false prophet was slow, but after he had once gotten a foothold, his followers, in hordes of fanatics numbering countless thousands, overran large parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Rev 9:12. One woe is past, &c. This is added, not only to distinguish the woes, and to mark more strongly each period; but also to suggest, that some time would intervene between this first woe of the Arabian locusts, and the next of the Euphratean horsemen. The similitude between the locusts and Arabians, is indeed so very great, that it cannot fail of striking every curious observer; and a farther resemblance is noted by Mr. Daubuz, “That there hath happened in the extent of this torment a coincidence of the event with the nature of the locusts. The Saracens have made inroads into all those parts of Christendom where the natural locusts are wont to be seen and known to do mischief, and no where else; and that too in the same proportion. Where the locusts are seldom seen, there the Saracens stayed little; where the natural locusts are often seen, there the Saracens abode most; and where they bred most, there the Saracens had their beginning and greatest power. This may be easily verified by history.”
Rev 9:12 . These words, [2594] serving as well to conclude Rev 9:1-11 ( ), as to point to what follows ( , . . . ) belong to John’s report, and are not to be taken as the words of the eagle, [2595] or any other heavenly messenger. After the vision just described, John makes prominent that now the one woe of the threefold cry is fulfilled, and accordingly past.
, cardinal number, that one of the three, as immediately afterwards . Cf. Rev 6:1 .
. The striking feminine form is explained by the fact that the conception of a is involuntarily substituted for this announced woe. [2596]
, . . The sing. contains an hypallage, which is inoffensive since the verb precedes. [2597]
[2594] Cf. Rev 11:14 .
[2595] Cf. Rev 8:13 .
[2596] Cf. Winer, p. 169.
[2597] Cf. Winer, p. 481.
The allegorical mode of interpretation applies to Rev 9:1 sqq., as everywhere, the most arbitrary expedients, and does the greatest violence to the context, and that, too, alike in the expositors who make their explanations from an overstrained conception of biblical prophecy, no less than in those who in a more or less rationalistic way consider the prophetic visions of John as vaticinia post eventum , and transform them into allegorical outlines of the events of the Romano-Judaic war. The plague of locusts is regarded as heresy only by interpreters of the first class; [2598] as calamities of war , and similar afflictions, by interpreters of both classes. [2599] N. de Lyra, like many others proposing the Arians, interprets the individual chief features thus: the star, Rev 9:1 , is the Emperor Valens, “who from the height of Catholic faith fell into the Arian heresy;” the key is the power of exalting this heresy; the locusts are the Vandals whom this heresy infected; the verdure, Rev 9:4 , represents the Christians in Africa spared by the Vandals; the five months designate the period of the five Vandal rulers. Stern understands by the locusts all imaginable heretics, down even to the Pantheists and German Catholics of our times. The scorpion-tails indicate that “false doctrine bears its sting in its consequences;” the hair of women admonishes that “many false doctrines, occasioned by inordinate love to women, have almost all been diffused by women, to begin with Helena the associate of Simon Magus, down to the bacchantes of modern times, who, with Ronge and his followers, drank the cup of the Devil, and won admirers for the prophet of Laurahtte.”
[2598] Beda, Andr., Areth., N. de Lyra, Luth., Calov., Boss., Stern, etc.
[2599] Vitr., Beng., Hengstenb., Grot., Wetst., Herd., Eichh.
Many older Protestants understand by the star the Pope; by the locusts the degenerate clergy, viz., the monks of the Catholic Church. [2600] This was, as C. a Lap. says, a retaliation for the interpretation of Bellarmin and other Catholics, that it refers to Luther, Calvin, and the Evangelical Church.
If by the locusts warriors are understood (and even Klief. forces from the passage the ideas of military power and its oppression), expositors like Grot., Wetst., Herd., Eichh., Heinr., find a more minute determination derived from the fundamental view of the entire Apoc. The locusts are the Zealots. [2601] The star is, according to Grot., Eleasar, the son of Ananias; according to Herd., Manaim. The abyss opened by him is, according to Grot., “the seditious doctrine that obedience must not be rendered the Romans,” for ( , Rev 9:3 = nam ) from this the party of the Zealots arose to the injury of the Jews; according to Herd., “the fortress Masada.” Abaddon is, according to Grot., “the spirit which animated those Zealots;” according to Herder, Simon, the son of Gorion. To Vitr. and Beng., chronology suggests a more minute determination; in the time succeeding the fourth events of the trumpet-vision, something must be found to which the fifth trumpet-vision could be referred. Hence Vitr. conjectured the incursions of the Goths into the Western Roman Empire in the beginning of the fifth century; Beng. understood the persecution of the Jews in Persia in the sixth century. Volkm. understands the army of Parthians to be led by Nero against Rome. [2602] Without any more minute determination, Hengstenb. interprets the fifth trumpet as referring to the distresses of war, and the locusts to soldiers. “One of the many incarnations of Apollyon” was Napoleon, whose name has a “noteworthy similarity” to the name of the king of the locusts. [2603] A special indication will be found in the text, that the locusts are to be understood allegorically. Beda, already, said that such locusts as, according to Rev 9:4 , are to eat neither grass nor leaves, could not be actual locusts, but must be men. But Rev 9:4 is with more justice understood by other allegorists as a “figurative” mode of expression; as, e.g., by Bengel, who suggests “a lower, middle, and higher class of the sealed.” Otherwise N. de Lyra, Vitr., etc. If there be an allegory anywhere, every individual feature must be allegorically interpreted. But for this the text itself nowhere gives the least occasion. It cannot even be said, with De Wette, that what is demoniacal in the plague of locusts here portrayed is only to be conceived of as a symbol of their extreme destructiveness; for however seriously and literally the demoniacal nature of these locusts be intended, it follows that they have no power, [2604] even as demoniacal, over the sealed, who remain absolutely untouched [2605] by all the other plagues of the trumpet-visions. The plagues of the one vision are just as literally meant as those of the other, the infernal locusts with the tails of scorpions no less than war, famine, the commotion and darkening of the heavenly bodies. For John beholds a long series of various, and, as a whole, definitely shaped plagues, as foretokens and preparations of the proper parousia . Whoever, then, as Hebart, [2606] expects the literal fulfilment of all these visions, and, consequently, e.g., the actual appearance of the locusts described in Rev 9:1 sqq., it is true, does more justice to the text than any allegorist; but, because of a mechanical conception of inspiration and prophecy, he ignores the distinction between the actual contents of prophecy, and the poetical form with which the same is invested in the enlightened spirit of the prophet, and not without a beautiful play of his holy fantasy.
[2600] Aret., Bull., Laun., etc.
[2601] According to Wetst., the army of Cestius.
[2602] Cf. Rev 9:14 .
[2603] Gerken also, who, through an entire series of trifling expedients, puts a forced construction on the name Napoleon, thinks (p. 26) that we may venture to derive it from , and therefore writes it Napolleon.
[2604] Rev 9:4 .
[2605] Cf. Rev 7:1 sqq.
[2606] Die Zweite Sichtbare Zukunft Christi, Erl., 1850.
12 One woe is past; and , behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
Ver. 12. Two woes more hereafter ] In respect of order; for in respect of time, the woes of the fifth and sixth trumpet are together, and do run parallel.
Rev 9:12 . A parenthetical remark of the author. with plur. subj. following is not an irregularity due to Greek neut. as equiv. to Heb. fern. (Viteau, ii. 98 100), but an instance of the so-called “Pindaric” anacoluthon ( cf. Moult, i. 58).
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 9:12
12The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
Rev 9:12 This verse links up with Rev 11:14; Rev 12:2.
One. i.e. the first woe.
and. Omit.
behold. App-133.
more = yet.
hereafter. Greek. meta tauta.
Rev 9:12. ) The feminine, as was just before noticed. We shall express the woe sometimes in the neuter gender, with the Latin translators, sometimes in the feminine; just as it shall tend to the perspicuity of my discourse. One woe, that is, the first.
Impenitent in Spite of All
Rev 9:12-21
The river Euphrates possibly stands for nations and hordes of men emanating from that region; and these verses are held by a large number of expositors to foretell the invasion of Europe by the Turks, who have desolated and held the sacred places of the Jewish faith. The Church of that time was eaten through with idolatry. Image worship had become almost universal, and the invariable consequence of this relapse from the noble spiritual ideals of the Jewish and Christian dispensations was materialism, sensuality, and the greed of the priest. On the other hand, the Turks were fierce iconoclasts, and their progress everywhere was marked by the demolition of Christian emblems.
Demons contrive to get themselves worshiped under the effigies of idolatry; and murders, sorceries, fornication, and theft infest their temples. There is perpetual controversy between the spirit of truth and these perversities; and this conflict must continue, not only in the Church, but in the heart, until everything that opposes the reign of the Spirit is overthrown, and every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 2Co 10:5. Is this supremacy of the Spirit secured for thee, my reader?
woe: Rev 9:1, Rev 9:2
two: Rev 9:13-21, Rev 8:13, Rev 11:14
Reciprocal: Eze 2:10 – lamentations Rev 12:12 – Woe
Rev 9:12. Two woes more is a reference to the statement of the angel in chapter 8:13, who announced that three woes more were to be pronounced against the inhabitants of the earth. One of them has been announced and two more are waiting to be sounded.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 12.
The woes: “One woe is past, behold there come two woes more hereafter”–Rev 9:12.
In Rev 8:13 the flying angel announced three woes to enhance solemnity. Now, it was John speaking, not the angel, not the eagle, not one of the elders, nor one of the creatures, but John. As if to mark by count the three woes announced by the angel in Rev 8:13, in recording tones John said: “One woe is past: and, behold there come two woes more hereafter.”
A retrospective comment is in order here on the meaning of the expression “third part” in the beginning of the fifth trumpet–Rev 9:7-8 Rev 9:10 Rev 9:12 –finds explanation in the three woes, each announcement of the angel representing a third part of the whole realm of the woes.
Rev 9:12. We are now at a higher stage of judgment than in the seals. More solemnity therefore befits the occasion. At the close of the fifth seal we passed directly to the sixth: not so now. The Seer interposes with the warning, The one woe is passed; behold, there come yet two woes hereafter.
Note here, 1. From these words, One woe is past, and two more are to come, that God has a storehouse of judgments, as well as a treasury of mercy, and when one judgment will not do, he has more to inflict.
Note, 2. The golden altar, which is here said to be before God, signifies our Lord Jesus Christ, his purity and excellency, and his appearing continually in the presence of his Father for us, as our intercessor and mediator.
Note, 3. That this vast army of horsemen, consisting of two hundred thousand thousand, is expounded generally of Turks and Arabians, who have vast armies beyond all nations, whom God makes the executioner of his vengeance at his pleasure.
Note, 4. Whereas it is said, that the four angels were bound in the great river Eurphrates, and, till loosed by God’s command, could never hurt nor stir,–it teaches us that the Lord has Satan, and all his instruments, in his own power, to loose them for our sins, and to bind them again upon our repentance: though their malice by infinite, yet their power is bounded; they cannot do all the mischief they would, and they shall not do all they can.
Note, 5. That when these destroying angels were loosed, their time of hurting was limited to a year, and a month and a day: showing, that the set and determinate time of the wicked’s insolency is appointed by God to be either shorter or longer, as he thinks fit: yea, they execute nothing but with a divine permission; nay, nothing without a special warrant and commission from God. I heard a voice saying, Loose the four angels which are bound in the river Euphrates; and they were loosed for an hour, &c.
This is matter of singular consolation to us, that evil angels and wicked men are limited powers; they cannot move, much less hurt, until God loose them: A voice said, Loose the four angels.
The first woe ends with the sins of the wicked turning on them and placing them in a tortured state.
Rev 9:12. One wo is past, &c. This is added not only to distinguish the woes, and to mark more strongly each period, but also to suggest that some time will intervene between this first wo of the Arabian locusts and the next of the Euphratean horsemen. The similitude between the locusts and Arabians is indeed so great, that it cannot fail of striking every curious observer: and a further resemblance is noted by Mr. Daubuz, that there had happened in the extent of this torment, a coincidence of the event with the nature of the locusts. The Saracens have made inroads into all those parts of Christendom where the natural locusts are wont to be seen, and known to do mischief, and nowhere else: and that, too, in the same proportion. Where the locusts are seldom seen, there the Saracens stayed little: where the natural locusts are often seen, there the Saracens abode most; and where they breed most, there the Saracens had their beginning and greatest power. This may be easily verified by history.
9:12 {9} One woe is past; [and], behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
(9) A passage to the next point and the history of the time following.
The announcement of past and coming woes 9:12
This verse is transitional and clarifies that the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpet judgments are also the first, second, and third woes. It is unclear whether the eagle (Rev 8:13) or John is the speaker, though John seems to be the more likely candidate. "After these things" indicates that the woes (not just the visions) are consecutive, not simultaneous and recapitulative.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)