--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 759 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/759/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 759. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/759/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 759. Revelation · 27 of 37 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/759/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/759/#p-N ### Verse 11 [¶1] Blasphemed the God of heaven - Neither did they repent; therefore other judgments must follow. Some think that the sun was Vitellius, the Roman emperor, and that his throne means Rome; and the darkening refers to the injuries she sustained in her political consequence by the civil wars which then took place, from which she never entirely recovered. Others apply it all to papal Rome, and in this respect make out a very clear case! Thus have men conjectured, but how much nearer are we to the truth? ### Verse 12 [¶3] Upon the great river Euphrates - Probably meaning the people in the vicinity of this river; though some think that the Tiber is intended. [¶4] The water thereof was dried up - The people discomfited, and all impediments removed. [¶5] The kings of the east - There seems to be an allusion here to the ruin of Babylon by Cyrus, predicted by the Prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 50:1-51:64. But what city or people is pointed out by this Babylon it is in vain to conjecture. ### Verse 13 [¶7] Three unclean spirits - Perhaps false teachers, called afterwards spirits of devils, which persuade the kings of the earth by lying miracles to come forth to the place of general slaughter, [Rev 16:14], [Rev 16:16], [¶8] Some good critics apply this to Vespasian, and his pretended miracles. See the account in Tacitus, lib. iv. c. 81. ### Verse 15 [¶10] Behold, I come as a thief - Here is a sudden but timely warning to put every man on his guard, when this sudden and generally unexpected tribulation should take place. [¶11] Keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked - Here is a plain allusion to the office of him who was called the prefect or overseer, of the mountain of the temple. His custom was to go his rounds during the watches of the night; and if he found any of the Levites sleeping on his watch, he had authority to beat him with a stick, and burn his vestments. See Middoth, fol. 34, 1, and Tamid. fol. 27, 2; 28, 1. Such a person being found on his return home naked, it was at once known that he had been found asleep at his post, had been beaten, and his clothes burnt; thus his shame was seen - he was reproached for his infidelity and irreligion. ### Verse 16 [¶13] Armageddon - The original of this word has been variously formed, and variously translated. It is הר־מגדון har-megiddon, "the mount of the assembly;" or חרמה גדהון chormah gedehon, "the destruction of their army;" or it is הר־מגדו har-megiddo, "Mount Megiddo," the valley of which was remarkable for two great slaughters: one of the Israelites, [2Kgs 23:29], the other of the Canaanites, [Jdg 4:16]; [Jdg 5:19]. But Mount Megiddo, that is Carmel, is the place, according to some, where these armies should be collected. [¶14] But what is the battle of Armageddon? How ridiculous have been the conjectures of men relative to this point! Within the last twenty years this battle has been fought at various places, according to our purblind seers and self-inspired prophets! At one time it was Austerlitz, at another Moscow, at another Leipsic, and now Waterloo! And thus they have gone on, and will go on, confounding and being confounded. ### Verse 17 [¶16] Poured out his vial into the air - To signify that this plague was to be widely diffused, and perhaps to intimate that pestilences and various deaths would be the effect of this vial. But possibly air in this place may have some emblematical meaning. [¶17] It is done - It is said, [Rev 10:7], that in the days of the seventh trumpet the mystery of God should be finished; so here we find it completed. Γεγονε· All's over! Fuimus Troes! Ilium fuit! Once there were Trojans, and they had a city; but now all are extinct. ### Verse 18 [¶19] A great earthquake - Most terrible commotions, both civil and religious. Or a convulsion, shaking, or revolution. ### Verse 19 [¶21] The great city - Some say Jerusalem, others Rome pagan, others Rome papal. [¶22] The cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath - Alluding to the mode of putting certain criminals to death, by making them drink a cup of poison. See on [Heb 2:9] (note). ### Verse 20 [¶24] Every island fled away - Probably meaning the capture of seaport towns, and fortified places. ### Verse 21 [¶26] A great hail - about the weight of a talent - Has this any reference to cannon balls and bombs? It is very doubtful; we are all in the dark in these matters. [¶27] The words ὡς ταλαντιαια, as a talent, are used to express something great, excessively oppressive; as νοσηματων ταλαντιαιων, terrible diseases, not diseases of the weight of a talent. See Rosenmuller. ### Introduction [¶29] The judgment of the great whore, which sits on many waters, [Rev 17:1], [Rev 17:2]. Her description, name, and conduct, [Rev 17:3-6]. The angel explains the mystery of the woman, of the beast, etc., [Rev 17:7-18]. [¶30] This chapter is, on several accounts, very important, and particularly as it appears to explain several of the most remarkable symbols in the book. [¶31] The same author who has written so largely on the twelfth and thirteenth chapters, has also obliged me with his interpretation of this chapter. Not pretending to explain these things myself, I insert this as the most elaborate and learned exposition I have yet seen, leaving my readers at perfect liberty to reject it, and adopt any other mode of interpretation which they please. God alone knows all the secrets of his own wisdom. ### Verse 1 [¶33] And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters - That idolatrous worship is frequently represented in Scripture under the character of a whore or whoredom, is evident from numerous passages which it is unnecessary to quote. See [1Chr 5:25]; Ezekiel 16:1-63; 23:1-49, etc. The woman mentioned here is called a great whore, to denote her excessive depravity, and the artful nature of her idolatry. She is also represented as sitting upon many waters, to show the vast extent of her influence. See on [Rev 17:13] (note). ### Verse 2 [¶35] With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication - What an awful picture this is of the state of the religion of the world in subjection to this whore! Kings have committed spiritual fornication with her, and their subjects have drunk deep, dreadfully deep, into the doctrine of her abominable errors. ### Verse 3 [¶37] So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness - This wilderness into which the apostle was carried is the desolate state of the true Church of Christ, in one of the wings of the once mighty Roman empire. It was a truly awful sight, a terrible desert, a waste howling wilderness; for when he came hither he: - [¶38] Saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns - No doubt can now be entertained that this woman is the Latin Church, for she sits upon the beast with seven heads and ten horns, which has been already proved to be the Latin empire, because this empire alone contains the number 666. See on [Rev 13:18] (note). This is a representation of the Latin Church in her highest state of antichristian prosperity, for she Sits Upon the scarlet coloured beast, a striking emblem of her complete domination over the secular Latin empire. The state of the Latin Church from the commencement of the fourteenth century to the time of the Reformation may be considered that which corresponds to this prophetic description in the most literal and extensive sense of the words; for during this period she was at her highest pitch of worldly grandeur and temporal authority. The beast is full of names of blasphemy; and it is well known that the nations, in support of the Latin or Romish Church, have abounded in blasphemous appellations, and have not blushed to attribute to themselves and to their Church the most sacred titles, not only blaspheming by the improper use of sacred names, but even by applying to its bishop those names which alone belong to God; for God hath expressly declared that he will not give his glory to another, neither his praise to graven images. ### Verse 4 [¶40] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication - This strikingly represents the most pompous and costly manner in which the Latin Church has held forth to the nations the rites and ceremonies of its idolatrous and corrupt worship. ### Verse 5 [¶42] And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth - This inscription being written upon her forehead is intended to show that she is not ashamed of her doctrines, but publicly professes and glories in them before the nations: she has indeed a whore's forehead, she has refused to be ashamed. The inscription upon her forehead is exactly the portraiture of the Latin Church. This Church is, as Bishop Newton well expresses it, A Mystery of iniquity. This woman is also called Babylon the Great; she is the exact antitype of the ancient Babylon in her idolatry and cruelty, but the ancient city called Babylon is only a drawing of her in miniature. This is indeed Babylon The Great. "She affects the style and title of our Holy Mother, the Church; but she is, in truth, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." ### Verse 6 [¶44] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration - How exactly the cruelties exercised by the Latin Church against all it has denominated heretics correspond with this description, the reader need not be informed.