Still in response to the prayers of all saints, a voice from the four horns of the golden altar of incense commands the four messenger powers, confined by the great river Euphrates, to be loosed. They are prepared for successful aggression against the Byzantine empire during “the hour and day and month and year,” that, at the end of this period, they may slay with political extinction, the power of the men who ruled the Eastern Third of the Roman orb, and worshipped demons and images, and were murderers, and sorcerers, fornicators, and thieves; and had not been smitten by the judgments of the four winds — See Tabular Analysis, Vol. 2 page 116.
TIME OF EVENTS
From April 29, A.D. 1062, to May 29, 1453 — 391 years 30 days.
Apoc. 9:13-21
13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard one voice out of the four horns of the altar of gold which is in the sight of the Deity, saying to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet, “Loose the four angels, which have been bound by the great river Euphrates.”
- And the Four Angels having been prepared were loosed for the hour and day and month and year, that they might kill the third of the men.
- And the number of the hosts of the cavalry was two myriads of myriads: and I heard the number of them.
- And thus I saw the horses in the vision; and those who sat upon them having breasts fiery and hyacinthine and sulphurous; and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths there burst forth Ere and smoke and sulphur. 18. By these three were killed the third of the men, by the fire and by the smoke and by the sulphur, bursting forth out of their mouths. For their powers are in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads, and with these do they injure.
20. And the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues changed not from the works of their hands, that they might not worship the daemonials and idols of gold and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see nor hear, nor walk. 21. And changed not from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their fornication, nor from their thefts.
NOTES
In the above translation there are some variations from the English Version. Instead of “a voice,” I have renderedphonen mian, one voice; for, although it issued from the four horns of the altar, there were not four voices, but only one, as in the text.
Instead of “in the river,” I have preferred the rendering of epi to potamo, “by the river;” the preposition is rendered in this sense in Matt. 24:33, “He is near epi thurais by or at the doors.”
In verses 17 and 18, I have rendered ekporeuetai and ekporeuo- meno by “burst forth” and “bursting forth,” instead of “issued or “proceeded,” as in the Bible Union version. I have so rendered it from the use of the verb in Apoc. 4:5, where it is used in connection with lightnings and thunders from the throne; when they go forth, they do it burstingly.
The phrase to triton ton anthropon, / have rendered “the third of the men,” instead of “the third part of men,” — “part” is not in the Greek, and the definite article ton, should be translated as referable to a certain class of men; those of the Byzantine Third, namely, not having the seal of the Deity in their foreheads. It was that third which was to be killed, not the third of mankind in general; but “the third of,” or belonging to, “the men who were unsealed.”
In verse 16, ho arithmos strateumaton tou hippikou, is rendered in the C.V. “the number of the army of the horsemen.” This is a version very regardless of the original. I have translated it the number of the hosts of the cavalry — the number having regard to the individual troopers in the aggregate.
In verse 19, the English Version reads “their power is in their mouth and in their tails.” Griesbach and Tregelles prefer, “the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails.” Greenfield’s edition of Mills, omits “and in their tails” from the text, and inserts it in the margin. I prefer the reading hai exousiai auton en to stomati auton eisi, kai en tais ourais auton, their powers are in their mouth, and in their tails; my reason for this preference will appear in the exposition.