And dig for it more than hid treasures.
They rejoice for it, and are glad,
And exult when they find the grave. [Job 3:20-22].
Verse 7
The locusts were like unto horses - This description of the locusts appears to be taken from [Joe 2:4]. The whole of this symbolical description of an overwhelming military force agrees very well with the troops of Mohammed. The Arabs are the most expert horsemen in the world: they live so much on horseback that the horse and his rider seem to make but one animal. The Romans also were eminent for their cavalry.
Crowns like gold - Not only alluding to their costly tiaras or turbans, but to the extent of their conquests and the multitude of powers which they subdued.
Their faces were as the faces of men - That is, though locusts symbolically, they are really men.
Verse 8
Hair as the hair of women - No razor passes upon their flesh. Their hair long, and their beards unshaven.
Their teeth were as the teeth of lions - They are ferocious and cruel.
Verse 9
They had breastplates - of iron - They seemed to be invulnerable, for no force availed against them.
The sound of their wings - Their hanging weapons and military trappings, with the clang of their shields and swords when they make their fierce onsets. This simile is borrowed from [Joe 2:5-7].
Verse 10
They had tails like unto scorpions - This may refer to the consequences of their victories. They infected the conquered with their pernicious doctrines.
Their power was to hurt men five months - The locusts make their principal ravages during the five summer months. But probably these may be prophetic months, as above, in [Rev 9:5] - 150 years.
Verse 11
A king over them - A supreme head; some think Mohammed, some think Vespasian.
The angel of the bottomless pit - The chief envoy of Satan.
Abaddon - From אבד abad, he destroyed.
Apollyon - From απο, intensive, and ολλυω, to destroy. The meaning is the same both in the Hebrew and Greek.
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.
Verse 13
The four horns of the golden altar - This is another not very obscure indication that the Jewish temple was yet standing.
Verse 14
Loose the four angels - These four angels bound - hitherto restrained, in the Euphrates, are by some supposed to be the Arabs, the Saracens, the Tartars, or the Turks; by others, Vespasian's four generals, one in Arabia, one in Africa, one in Alexandria, and one in Palestine.
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.
Verse 16
Two hundred thousand thousand - Δυο μυριαδες μυριαδων· Two myriads of myriads; that is, two hundred millions; an army that was never yet got together from the foundation of the world, and could not find forage in any part of the earth. Perhaps it only means vast numbers, multitudes without number. Such a number might be literally true of the locusts. Those who will have their particular system supported by the images in this most obscure book, tell us that the number here means all the soldiers that were employed in this war, from its commencement to its end! Those who can receive this saying let them receive it.
Verse 17
Breastplates of fire - jacinth, and brimstone - That is, red, blue, and yellow; the first is the color of fire, the second of jacinth, and the third of sulphur.
And the heads of the horses - Is this an allegorical description of great ordnance? Cannons, on the mouths of which horses' heads were formed, or the mouth of the cannon cast in that form? Fire, smoke, and brimstone, is a good allegorical representation of gunpowder. The Ottomans made great use of heavy artillery in their wars with the Greeks of the lower empire.
Verse 18
By these three was the third part of men killed - That is, By these was great carnage made.
Verse 19
Their power is in their mouth - From these the destructive balls are projected; and in their tails, the breech where the charge of gunpowder is lodged.
Their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads - If cannons are intended, the description, though allegorical, is plain enough; for brass ordnance especially are frequently thus ornamented, both at their muzzles and at their breech.
Verse 20
Yet repented not - The commission which these horsemen had was against idolaters; and though multitudes of them were destroyed, yet the residue continued their senseless attachment to dumb idols, and therefore heavier judgments might be expected. These things are supposed to refer to the desolation brought upon the Greek Church by the Ottomans, who entirely ruined that Church and the Greek empire. The Church which was then remaining was the Latin or western Church, which was not at all corrected by the judgments which fell upon the eastern Church, but continued its senseless adoration of angels, saints, relics, etc., and does so to the present day. If, therefore, God's wrath be kindled against such, this Church has much to fear.
Verse 21
Neither repented they of their murders - Their cruelties towards the genuine followers of God, the Albigenses, and Waldenses, and others, against whom they published crusades, and hunted them down, and butchered them in the most shocking manner. The innumerable murders by the horrible inquisition need not be mentioned.
Their sorceries - Those who apply this also to the Romish Church understand by it the various tricks, sleights of hand, or legerdemain, by which they impose on the common people in causing images of Christ to bleed, and the various pretended miracles wrought at the tombs, etc., of pretended saints, holy wells, and such like.