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| 1 And the fifth messenger sounded, and I saw a star from the heaven having fallen to the earth, and was given to him the key of the pit of the deep; |
The fifth angel – Under the Saracens. HG77:2
When Othman first invaded the Roman empire, July 27, AD 1299, ending in July 1449, and the independence of the eastern possession of the empire virtually passed away. Constantinople fell two years later, in AD 1451. HG77:3
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| 2 and he opened the pit of the deep. And went up a smoke out of the pit as a smoke of a furnace great, and was darkened the sun and the air by the smoke of the pit. |
The air – The Greek word here is used symbolically to represent government or controlling power over the earth. R152:6
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| 3 And out of the smoke went out locusts into the earth, and was given them authority as having authority the scorpions of the earth; |
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| 4 and it was said to them, that not they should injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, if not the men those who not have the seal of the God on the foreheads of themselves; |
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| 5 and it was given to them that not they might kill them, but that they might torment months five; and the torment of them as a torment of a scorpion, when it may strike a man. |
Not kill – This being a symbol, is political, not literal death. HG77:3
Tormented – During this 150 years, the Saracens murdered, robbed and taxed the people, while the government at Constantinople was too weak to give protection. HG77:4
Five months – Five months is five times thirty, or 150 days--in symbolic time, 150 years. HG77:4
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| 6 And in the days those shall seek the men the death, and not not shall find him; and they shall desire to die, and shall flee away from them the death. |
Seek death – The people earnestly desired political death, that their own government might be abolished. HG77:4
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| 7 And the forms of the locusts like to horses having been prepared for war; and on the heads of them as it were crowns golden, and the faces of them as faces of men, |
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| 8 and they had hairs as hairs of women, and the teeth of them as of lions were, |
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| 9 and they had breastplates as breastplates iron, and the sound of the wings of them as sound of chariots of horses many rushing into battle. |
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| 10 And they have tails like to scorpions, and stings was in the tails of them; and the authority of them to injure the men months five. |
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| 11 They have over themselves a king the messenger of the deep; a name to him in Hebrew, of Abaddon, and in the Greek a name he has of Apollyon. |
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| 12 The woe the one passed away; lo, comes more two woes after these. |
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| 13 And the sixth messenger sounded, and I heard voice one from the four horns of the altar of the golden of that in presence of the God, |
The sixth angel – Under the Mohammedans. HG77:2
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| 14 saying to the sixth messenger the one having the trumpet: Loose thou the four messengers those having been bound by the river the great Euphrates. |
Euphrates – The people supporting the system of Babylon. Q720:4
The restraint of the Christian nations, the waters of the Euphrates, "the waters on which the harlot"--mystic Babylon--"sitteth," was to be let loose, or taken off from the Mohammedans so that the sixth trumpet or downfall of Constantinople and the east, might be accomplished HG77:5
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| 15 And were loosed the four messengers those having been prepared for the hour and a day and a month and a year, so that they should kill the third of the men. |
An hour, and a day – 391 years, 15 days, commencing July 27, 1449, ending August 11, 1840. HG78:1
In August 1840 the combined Ally fleet knocked at the door of the Sultan at Constantinople. On that very day, the independence of the Turkish empire virtually ended. HG78:2
To slay – Not torment merely, but death, political death. HG77:6
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| 16 And the number of the armies of the cavalry, two myriads of myriads; I heard the number of them. |
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| 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision and those sitting of them, having breastplates fiery and hyacinthine and brimstone-like; and the heads of the horses as heads of lions, and out of the mouths of them goes out fire and smoke and brimstone. |
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| 18 By the three plagues these were killed the third of the men, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that going forth out of the mouths of them. |
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| 19 The for authority of the horses in the mouth of them is, and in the tails of them; the for tails of them like serpents, having heads; and with them they injure. |
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| 20 And the remaining ones of the men who not were killed by the plagues these, not reformed from the works of the hands of themselves, so that not they might worship the demons, and the idols the golden ones and the silver ones and the copper ones and the stone ones and the wooden ones, which neither to see are able nor to hear, nor to walk; |
Worship devils – Evil spirits, operating along the line of man's natural and religious instincts, have diverted his worship from God, sometimes directly to themselves, and sometimes to four-footed beasts. R3068:3
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| 21 and not reformed from the murders of themselves, nor from the sorceries of themselves, nor from the fornication of themselves, nor from the thefts of themselves. |
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