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| 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen unto the earth: and there was given to him the key of the wellshaft of the abyss. |
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 shaft of the abyss; and there went up a smoke out of the shaft, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the shaft. |
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 came forth locusts upon the earth; and authority was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have authority. |
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| 4 And it was said unto them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only such men as have not the seal of God on their foreheads. |
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| 5 And it was given them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment is as the torment of a scorpion, when it striketh 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 those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them. |
Seek death – The people earnestly desired political death, that their own government might be abolished. HG77:4
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| 7 And the likenesses of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war; and upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold, and their faces were as men’s faces. |
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| 8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. |
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| 9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to war. |
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| 10 And they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months. |
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| 11 They have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he hath the name Apollyon. |
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| 12 The first Woe is past: behold, there come yet two Woes hereafter. |
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| 13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, |
The sixth angel – Under the Mohammedans. HG77:2
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| 14 one saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet, Loose the four angels that are bound at the great river 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 the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of 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 horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: I heard the number of them. |
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| 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sit on them, having breastplates as of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone: and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions: and out of their mouths proceedeth fire and smoke and brimstone. |
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| 18 By these three plagues was the third part of men killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. |
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| 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails are like unto serpents, and have heads; and with them they hurt. |
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| 20 And the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of copper, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor 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 they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. |
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