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| 1 And the fifth messenger did sound, and I saw a star out of the heaven having fallen to the earth, and there was given to it the key of the pit 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 did open the pit of the abyss, and there came up a smoke out of the pit as smoke of a great furnace, and darkened was the sun and the air, from 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 came forth locusts to the earth, and there was given to them authority, as scorpions of the earth have authority, |
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| 4 and it was said to them that they may not injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but the men only who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads, |
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| 5 and it was given to them that they may not kill them, but that they may be tormented five months, and their torment [is] as the 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 those days shall men seek the death, and they shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and the death shall flee 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 [are] like to horses made ready to battle, and upon their heads as crowns like gold, and their faces as faces of men, |
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| 8 and they had hair as hair of women, and their teeth were as [those] of lions, |
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| 9 and they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings [is] as the noise of chariots of many horses running to battle; |
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| 10 and they have tails like to scorpions, and stings were in their tails; and their authority [is] to injure men five months; |
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| 11 and they have over them a king the messenger of the abyss a name [is] to him in Hebrew, Abaddon, and in the Greek he hath a name, Apollyon. |
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| 12 The first wo did go forth, lo, there come yet two woes after these things. |
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| 13 And the sixth messenger did sound, and I heard a voice out of the four horns of the altar of gold that is before God, |
The sixth angel – Under the Mohammedans. HG77:2
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| 14 saying to the sixth messenger who had the trumpet, 'Loose the four messengers who 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 loosed were the four messengers, who have been made ready for the hour, and day, and month, and year, that they may kill the third 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 forces of the horsemen [is] two myriads of myriads, and I heard the number of them. |
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| 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those sitting upon them, having breastplates of fire, and jacinth, and brimstone; and the heads of the horses [are] as heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceedeth fire, and smoke, and brimstone; |
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| 18 by these three were the third of men killed, from the fire, and from the smoke, and from the brimstone, that is proceeding out of their mouth, |
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| 19 for their authorities are in their mouth, and in their tails, for their tails [are] like serpents, having heads, and with them they do injure;
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| 20 and the rest of men, who were not killed in these plagues, neither did reform from the works of their hands, that they may not bow before the demons, and idols, those of gold, and those of silver, and those of brass, and those of stone, and those of wood, that are neither able to see, 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 yea they did not reform from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their whoredoms, nor from their thefts. |
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