Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_194.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-09 | 7KB | 126 lines

out of it, which are called upon to hear the voice of the
Lord, when men wauld not; and so is designed to re-
buke the stupidity and sluggishness of men to hearken
to what is said to them, even from the Lord, when upon
the brink of destruction.
Ver. 2. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all
nations, &c.] All the nations of the earth, which have
committed fornication with the whore of Rome, or
have given in to her false worship, superstition, and
 idolat.ry; which is the reason of.God's wrath and in-
,dignation against them, and of such severe punishment
.being inflicted on them; see Rev. xvii.i. 3: and his
fury upon all their armies; the armies of the kings of
the earth, gathered together at Armageddon, to make
· war with Christ, and those that follow him; see Rev.
xvi. 14, 16. and xix. 19: he hath utterly destroyed
them; not only devoted them to destruction, but ac-
tually destroyed them, with Cherem, an utter destrue-
tion; .one of the words of which Armageddon is com-
pounded, and so points at the place, as well as the
astute and manner, of the destruction: he hath deli-
vered them to slaughter; to be slain. with the sword of
him that.sitteth on the white horse, which Froceeds
out of his .mouth, Rev. xix. 2l.
Ver. 3. Their slain also shall be cast out, &c.] Upon.
{he open fields, and there lie unburied, and become
meat for the fowls of heaven, who are invited to them
as to a supper, even the supper of the great God, Roy.
xix. 17, 18: and their stink shal/l come up out of their
carcasses;-so that they shall become loathsome and
abominable to the living, and none shall care to come
near thereto bury them; an emblem of their loathsome
and abominable sins, the cause of this destruction: and
.the mountains shall be melted with their blood; an hy-
perbolical expression, denoting the great number of
 he slain upon the mountains, and the great quantity of
blood shed there; which should run down in large
streams, and carry part of them along with it, as large
,nd hasty showers of rain wash away the earth, and
ca. rry it;along with them; such an hyperbole see in Rev.
xiv. 20.
Ver. 4. And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved,
&c.] Pine away t, as with sickness, grow languid, be-
-come obscure, lose their light, and be turned into blood
and darkness; this figure is used to express the horror
 of this calamity, as if the very heavens themselves, and
the sun, and moon, and stars, were affected with
it; see Isa. xiii. 10. and the heavens shall be rolled
gether as a scroll; a book, or volume, which when
rolled up,. one letter of it could not be read; and it
· was the manner formerly of making and writingbooks
in. the form of a roll; hence the word volume; and
here it signifies that there should be such a change in
the heavens, as that not a star should be seen, much
tess the sun .or moon; and may signify the utter re-
moval and abolition of all dignities and offices, supreme
and subordinate, civil and ecclesiastical, in the whole
Roman jurisdiction; thus the destruction of Rome
Pagan is described in Rev. vi. 14. as the destruction
of Rome Papal is here; from whence the language
seems to be borrowed: and all their host shall fall down,
as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling
]from thefig-tree; that is, the stars should fall down :
] by whom may be meant persons in office, -that made a
 considerable figure; who shall fall from their stations.
in which they shone with much splendour and gran-
deur, as leaves fall from trees in autumn, particularly
the vine; o,r as unripe and rotten figs fall from the fig-
tree when shaken by a violent wind; the same meta-
phor is used in Rev. vi. 13.
Vet. 5. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven,
&c.] That is, the sword of the Lord. as it is called
in the next verse, and it is he that is speaking; it
signs the vengeance of the Lord, the punishment, he
will inflict on the wicked, said to be bathed in heaven,
because determined and prepared there; the allusion
may be to the bathing of swords in some sort of liquor,
to harden or brighten them, and so fit them for use.
Kimchi renders it, my sword which is in heaven shah be
bathed, that is, in the blood of the slain; heaven may
denote the whole Roman Papal jurisdiction, as it does
the whole Roman Pagan empire in Rev. xii. 7. and may
design the principal men in it, those that are in the
highest places and offices, in whom the sword of the
Lord shall be first drenched. and be as it were satiated
and inebriated with the blood of them: behsld, it shall
come down upon ldumea; with great weight, force,
and vengeance, having a commission from heaven to
execute. Idumea is here particularly mentioned, be-
cause the Edomites were implacable enemies to the
Jews,' and so are here put for all the enemies of God's
church and people. all the antichristian states, par-
ticularly Rome, which the Jews, as Jerom observes,
understand by Edom or Idumea here: upon the people
of my curse to judgment; a very descriptive character
of the Papists, the people of God's curse, and righte-
ously so; those who have anathematized his people.
and cursed them with bell, book, and candle, are
anathematized by him, devoted to destruction, and
doomed to be accursed, sentenced to ruin, and ort
whom judgment shall pass, and shall be executed;
they shall hear, go, ye cursed, both here and here-
after, at the fall of ,Babylon, and at the general
:judgment. The Targum is, "because my sword
"is revealed in heaven; behold, upon Edom it is re-
" yealed, and upon the people whom I have condemned
"to judgment."
Ver. 6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
&c.] Multitudes being slain by it; the Lord here
is that divine Person that is described as a warrior, as
a General ofan army, with a sharp sword, by whom
.many are slain, such a number as that it is filled with
the blood of them, Rev. xix. 11--16, 2l: it is made fat
withfatness: notonly filled with the blood, but fattened
by it; the allusion is to ravenous creatures gotgod and
sated with the blood of others, and thereby made fat;
perhaps this may refer to Christian princes, the sword
in the hand of the Lord, who shall be enriched with
the plunder and spoil of the antichristian states: and
with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the
kidneys of rams. The Targum is, "with the blood of
"kings and governors, with the fat of the kidneys

{i} \^wqmn\^ tabescet, Vatablus; centabescet, Junius & Tremellius,
Piscator; contabescent, Cocceius, Gataker.