Part II, Chapter 2, 2

The solemnity of the day of expiation being finished, the seven Angels sound their trumpets at the great sacrifices of the seven days of the feast of Tabernacles; and at the same sacrifices the seven thunders utter their voices, which are the music of the Temple, and the singing of the Levites, intermixed with the sounding of the trumpets; and the seven Angels pour out their vials of wrath, which are the drink offerings of those sacrifices.

When six of the seals were opened, John said:³ "After these things" — that is, after the visions of the sixth seal — "I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. And I saw another Angel ascending from the East, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, 'Do not hurt the earth, or the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.'" This sealing alludes to a tradition of the Jews, that on the day of expiation all the people of Israel are sealed up in the books of life and death. For the Jews in their Talmud⁴ tell us that in the beginning of every new year, or on the first day of the month Tisri, the seventh month of the sacred year, three books are opened in judgment: the book of life, in which the names of those are written who are perfectly just; the book of death, in which the names of those are written who are atheists or very wicked; and a third book, of those whose judgment is suspended until the day of expiation, and whose names are written neither in the book of life nor in the book of death before that day. The first ten days of this month they call the penitential days; and all these days they fast and pray very much, and are very devout, that on the tenth day their sins may be forgiven, and their names written in the book of life; which day is therefore called the day of expiation. And upon this tenth day, in returning home from the Synagogues, they say to one another, "God the creator seal you to a good year." For they conceive that the books are now sealed up, and that the sentence of God remains unchanged for the rest of the year. The same thing is signified by the two Goats, upon whose foreheads the High-Priest yearly, on the day of expiation, lays the two lots inscribed, For God and For Azazel: God's lot signifying the people who are sealed with the name of God in their foreheads; and the lot Azazel, which was sent into the wilderness, representing those who receive the mark and name of the Beast, and go into the wilderness with the great Whore.

The servants of God being therefore sealed on the day of expiation, we may suppose that this sealing is synchronous with the visions which appear upon opening the seventh seal; and that when the Lamb had opened six of the seals, and seen the visions relating to the inside of the sixth, he looked at the back of the seventh leaf, and then saw the four Angels holding the four winds of heaven, and another Angel ascending from the East with the seal of God. Suppose also that the Angels which held the four winds were the first four of the seven Angels, who upon opening the seventh seal were seen standing before God; and that upon their holding the winds there was silence in heaven for half an hour; and that while the servants of God were being sealed, the Angel with the golden Censer offered their prayers with incense upon the golden Altar, and read the Law; and that as soon as they were sealed, the winds hurt the earth at the sounding of the first trumpet, and the sea at the sounding of the second, these winds signifying the wars to which the first four trumpets sounded. For as the first four seals are distinguished from the three last by the appearance of four horsemen toward the four winds of heaven, so the wars of the first four trumpets are distinguished from those of the three last, by representing these through four winds, and the others through three great woes.

In one of Ezekiel's visions, when the Babylonian captivity was at hand, six men appeared with slaughter-weapons; and a seventh, who⁵ appeared among them clothed in white linen with a writer's inkhorn at his side, is commanded to go through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations done in the midst of it: and then the six men, like the Angels of the first six trumpets, are commanded to slay those men who are not marked. Conceive therefore that the hundred forty and four thousand are sealed, to preserve them from the plagues of the first six trumpets; and that at length, by the preaching of the everlasting gospel, they grow into a great multitude, which no one could number, of all nations, and families, and peoples, and tongues; and that at the sounding of the seventh trumpet they come out of the great tribulation with Palms in their hands, the kingdoms of this world, by the war to which that trumpet sounds, becoming the kingdoms of God and his Christ. For the solemnity of the great Hosanna was kept by the Jews upon the seventh or last day of the feast of Tabernacles, the Jews upon that day carrying Palms in their hands, and crying Hosanna.

After six of the Angels, answering to the six men with slaughter-weapons, had sounded their trumpets, the Lamb in the form of a mighty Angel came down from heaven clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the Sun, and his feet like pillars of fire, the shape in which Christ appeared at the beginning of this Prophecy; and he had in his hand a little book open, the book which he had newly opened; for he received only one book from him who sits upon the throne, and he alone was worthy to open and look upon this book. And he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. It was the custom for the High-Priest, on the day of expiation, to stand in an elevated place in the people's court, at the eastern gate of the priests' court, and read the Law to the people, while the Heifer and the Goat which was the Lord's lot were burning outside the Temple. We may therefore suppose him standing in such a manner that his right foot might appear to John as if it were standing on the sea of glass, and his left foot on the ground of the house; and that he cried with a loud voice, reading the Law on the day of expiation. And when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. Thunders are the voice of a cloud, and a cloud signifies a multitude; and this multitude may be the Levites, who sang with thundering voices, and played on musical instruments at the great sacrifices, on the seven days of the feast of Tabernacles, at which times the trumpets also sounded. For the trumpets sounded, and the Levites sang alternately, three times at every sacrifice. The Prophecy therefore of the seven thunders is nothing other than a repetition of the Prophecy of the seven trumpets in another form. And the Angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever and ever, that after the seven thunders there should be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he begins to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants the Prophets. The voices of the thunders therefore last to the end of this world, and so do those of the trumpets.

"And the voice which I heard from heaven," says John, "spoke to me again and said, 'Go and take the little book…' And I took the little book out of the Angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey, and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said to me, 'You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.'" This is an introduction to a new Prophecy, to a repetition of the Prophecy of the whole book; and alludes to Ezekiel's eating a roll or book spread open before him, written within and without, full of lamentations and mourning and woe, but sweet in his mouth. Eating and drinking signify acquiring and possessing; and eating the book is becoming inspired with the Prophecy contained in it. It implies being inspired in a vigorous and extraordinary manner with the Prophecy of the whole book, and therefore signifies a lively repetition of the whole Prophecy by way of interpretation; and it begins not until the first Prophecy, that of the seals and trumpets, is ended. It was sweet in John's mouth, and therefore it does not begin with the bitter Prophecy of the Babylonian captivity, and the Gentiles being in the outward court of the Temple, and treading the holy city under foot; and the prophesying of the two Witnesses in sackcloth, and their smiting the earth with all plagues, and their being killed by the Beast; but as soon as the Prophecy of the trumpets is ended, it begins with the sweet Prophecy of the glorious Woman in heaven, and the victory of Michael over the Dragon; and after that it is bitter in John's belly, by the long description of the times of the great Apostasy.

And the Angel stood upon the earth and sea, saying, "Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar, and those who worship in it" — that is, their courts with the buildings upon them: the square court of the Temple called the separate place, the square court of the Altar called the priests' court, and the court of those who worship in the Temple called the new court; "but the great court which is outside the Temple, leave out, and do not measure it, for it is given to the Gentiles, and they shall tread the holy city under foot forty and two months." This measuring refers to Ezekiel's measuring of the Temple of Solomon: there the whole Temple, including the outward court, was measured, to signify that it should be rebuilt in the latter days. Here only the courts of the Temple and Altar, and those who worship in them, are measured, to signify the building of a second Temple for those who are sealed out of all the twelve tribes of Israel, and who worship in the inward court of sincerity and truth; but John is commanded to leave out the outward court, or outward form of religion and Church government, because it is given to the Babylonian Gentiles. For the glorious woman in heaven, the remnant of whose seed kept the commandments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus, remained the same woman in outward form after her flight into the wilderness, by which she abandoned her former sincerity and piety, and became the great Whore. She lost her chastity, but kept her outward form and shape. And while the Gentiles tread the holy city under foot, and worship in the outward court, the two Witnesses, represented perhaps by the two feet of the Angel standing on the sea and earth, prophesy against them, and have power, like Elijah and Moses, to consume their enemies with fire proceeding out of their mouths, and to shut heaven so that it does not rain in the days of their Prophecy, and to turn the waters into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will — that is, with the plagues of the trumpets and the vials of wrath; and at length they are killed, rise again from the dead, and ascend up to heaven in a cloud; and then the seventh trumpet sounds to the day of judgment.

The Prophecy being finished, John is inspired anew by the eaten book, and begins the Interpretation of it with these words: "And the Temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his Temple the Ark of the Testament." By the Ark we may know that this was the first Temple; for the second Temple had no Ark. "And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail." These answer to the wars in the Roman Empire, during the reign of the four horsemen, who appeared upon opening the first four seals. "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the Sun." In the Prophecy, the affairs of the Church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal; and in the Interpretation they begin at the same time, with the vision of the Church in the form of a woman in heaven: there she is persecuted, and here she is pained in childbirth. The Interpretation proceeds first to the sealing of the servants of God, and the marking of the rest with the mark of the Beast; and then to the day of judgment, represented by a harvest and a vintage. Then it returns to the times of opening the seventh seal, and interprets the Prophecy of the seven trumpets by the pouring out of seven vials of wrath. The Angels who pour them out come out of the Temple of the Tabernacle; that is, out of the second Temple, for the Tabernacle had no outward court. Then it returns again to the times of measuring the Temple and Altar, and of the Gentiles worshiping in the outward court, and of the Beast killing the witnesses in the streets of the great city; and interprets these things by the vision of a woman sitting on the Beast, drunk with the blood of the Saints; and proceeds in the interpretation downward to the fall of the great city and the day of judgment.

The whole Prophecy of the book, represented by the book of the Law, is therefore repeated, and interpreted in the visions which follow those of sounding the seventh trumpet, and which begin with that of the Temple of God opened in heaven. Only the things which the seven thunders uttered were not written down, and therefore are not interpreted.

Notes to Chap. II.

1 Isa. vi.

2 Apoc. v.

3 Apoc. vii

4 Buxtorf in Synogoga Judaica, c. 18, 21.

5 Ezek. ix.

The solemnity of the day of expiation being finished, the seven Angels sounded their trumpets at the great sacrifices of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. At those same sacrifices the seven thunders speak with their voices. They are the music of the Temple and the singing of the Levites, mixed with the sounding of the trumpets. And the seven Angels pour out their vials of wrath, which are the drink offerings of those sacrifices.

When six of the seals had been opened, John said:³ "After these things—that is, after the visions of the sixth seal—I saw four Angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. And I saw another Angel rising from the East, with the seal of the living God. He cried out with a loud voice to the four Angels who were given the power to harm the earth and the sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth, or the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.'" This sealing points to a tradition of the Jews, that on the day of expiation all the people of Israel are sealed up in the books of life and death. For the Jews in their Talmud⁴ tell us that in the beginning of every new year, on the first day of the month Tisri, the seventh month of the sacred year, three books are opened for judgment: the book of life, in which the names of those who are perfectly righteous are written; the book of death, in which the names of atheists or very wicked people are written; and a third book, for those whose judgment is put off until the day of expiation, and whose names are written in neither the book of life nor the book of death before that day. The first ten days of this month they call the penitential days, and during all these days they fast and pray a great deal, and are very devout, so that on the tenth day their sins may be forgiven and their names written in the book of life. That day is therefore called the day of expiation. On this tenth day, as they return home from the Synagogues, they say to one another, "May God the creator seal you for a good year." For they believe that the books are now sealed up, and that the judgment of God stays unchanged from then on until the end of the year. The same thing is shown by the two Goats. Once a year, on the day of expiation, the High Priest places on their foreheads the two lots inscribed, "For God" and "For Azazel". The lot for God stands for the people who are sealed with the name of God on their foreheads; and the lot of Azazel, which was sent into the wilderness, stands for those who receive the mark and name of the Beast and go into the wilderness with the great Whore.

Since the servants of God are sealed on the day of expiation, we may think of this sealing as happening at the same time as the visions that appear when the seventh seal is opened, and that when the Lamb had opened six of the seals and seen the visions about the inside of the sixth, he looked at the back of the seventh leaf, and then saw the four Angels holding the four winds of heaven, and another Angel rising from the East with the seal of God. We may also think that the Angels who held the four winds were the first four of the seven Angels, who were seen standing before God when the seventh seal was opened. When they held the winds, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. And while the servants of God were being sealed, the Angel with the golden Censer offered their prayers with incense on the golden Altar, and read the Law. And as soon as they were sealed, the winds harmed the earth at the sounding of the first trumpet, and the sea at the sounding of the second. These winds stand for the wars announced by the first four trumpets. For just as the first four seals are set apart from the last three by the appearance of four horsemen toward the four winds of heaven, so the wars of the first four trumpets are set apart from those of the last three, by showing these as four winds and those as three great woes.

In one of Ezekiel's visions, when the Babylonian captivity was near, six men appeared with weapons of slaughter. And a seventh, who⁵ appeared among them clothed in white linen, with a writer's ink-horn at his side, was commanded to go through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations done in the middle of the city. Then the six men, like the Angels of the first six trumpets, were commanded to kill the men who had no mark. So we may think that the hundred forty and four thousand are sealed to keep them from the plagues of the first six trumpets, and that in time, through the preaching of the everlasting gospel, they grow into a great crowd of all nations, and families, and peoples, and tongues, which no man could number. At the sounding of the seventh trumpet they come out of the great tribulation with palms in their hands, the kingdoms of this world, by the war announced by that trumpet, becoming the kingdoms of God and his Christ. For the Jews kept the great Hosannah on the seventh and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. On that day they carried palms in their hands and cried Hosannah.

After six of the Angels—those answering the six men with weapons of slaughter—had sounded their trumpets, the Lamb, in the form of a mighty Angel, came down from heaven clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head, his face was like the Sun, and his feet like pillars of fire: the shape in which Christ appeared at the beginning of this Prophecy. And he had in his hand a little book opened, the book which he had just opened. For he received only one book from him who sits on the throne, and he alone was worthy to open it and look into it. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. It was the custom of the High Priest, on the day of expiation, to stand in an elevated place in the people's court, at the Eastern gate of the Priests court, and read the Law to the people, while the Heifer and the Goat that was the Lord's lot were burning outside the Temple. So we may suppose him standing in such a way that his right foot looked to John as if it stood on the sea of glass, and his left foot on the floor of the house, and that he cried with a loud voice, reading the Law on the day of expiation. And when he had cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. Thunder is the voice of a cloud, and a cloud stands for a crowd; and this crowd may be the Levites, who sang with thundering voices and played musical instruments at the great sacrifices on the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, at which times the trumpets also sounded. For the trumpets sounded and the Levites sang in turn, three times at every sacrifice. So the Prophecy of the seven thunders is nothing but the Prophecy of the seven trumpets repeated in another form. And the Angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth lifted his hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever and ever, that after the seven thunders there would be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he begins to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as he has declared to his servants the Prophets. So the voices of the thunders last to the end of this world, and so do those of the trumpets.

And the voice which I heard from heaven, John says, spoke to me again and said: "Go and take the little book, and so on." So I took the little book out of the Angel's hand and ate it; and in my mouth it was sweet as honey, and as soon as I had eaten it, my stomach turned bitter. And he said to me, "You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." This is the beginning of a new Prophecy, a repetition of the Prophecy of the whole book, and it points to Ezekiel's eating a roll or book spread open before him, written inside and outside, full of lamentation and mourning and woe, but sweet in his mouth. Eating and drinking stand for acquiring and possessing, and eating the book means becoming filled with the Prophecy it contains. It means being filled in a strong and unusual way with the Prophecy of the whole book, and so it stands for a vivid repetition of the whole Prophecy in the form of an interpretation; and it does not begin until the first Prophecy, that of the seals and trumpets, is ended. It was sweet in John's mouth, and so it does not begin with the bitter Prophecy of the Babylonian captivity, or with the Gentiles in the outward court of the Temple and the holy city trampled underfoot, or with the two Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth, striking the earth with every plague, and being killed by the Beast. But as soon as the Prophecy of the trumpets is ended, it begins with the sweet Prophecy of the glorious woman in heaven and the victory of Michael over the Dragon; and after that it is bitter in John's stomach, with a long description of the times of the great Apostasy.

And the Angel stood on the earth and sea, saying: "Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar, and those who worship in it"—that is, their courts with the buildings on them: the square court of the Temple called the separate place, the square court of the Altar called the Priests court, and the court of those who worship in the Temple called the new court. "But leave out the great court which is outside the Temple, and do not measure it, for it is given to the Gentiles; and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty and two months." This measuring looks back to Ezekiel's measuring of the Temple of Solomon. There the whole Temple, including the outward court, was measured, to show that it would be rebuilt in the last days. Here only the courts of the Temple and the Altar, and those who worship in them, are measured, to show that a second Temple would be built for those sealed out of all the twelve tribes of Israel, who worship in the inward court of sincerity and truth. But John is commanded to leave out the outward court, the outward form of religion and Church government, because it is given to the Babylonian Gentiles. For the glorious woman in heaven, whose seed kept the commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus, stayed the same woman in outward form after her flight into the wilderness, and so she gave up her former sincerity and piety and became the great Whore. She lost her purity but kept her outward form and shape. And while the Gentiles trample the holy city underfoot and worship in the outward court, the two Witnesses—perhaps shown by the two feet of the Angel standing on the sea and the earth—prophesy against them, and have power, like Elijah and Moses, to consume their enemies with fire coming out of their mouths, to shut heaven so that it does not rain in the days of their Prophecy, to turn the waters into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they wish: that is, with the plagues of the trumpets and the vials of wrath. At last they are killed, rise again from the dead, and go up to heaven in a cloud; and then the seventh trumpet sounds on to the day of judgment.

When the Prophecy was finished, John was inspired afresh by the book he had eaten, and begins its Interpretation with these words: "And the Temple of God was opened in heaven, and the Ark of the Testament was seen in his Temple." By the Ark we can tell that this was the first Temple, for the second Temple had no Ark. "And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail." These answer to the wars in the Roman Empire during the reign of the four horsemen, who appeared when the first four seals were opened. "And there appeared a great sign in heaven, a woman clothed with the Sun." In the Prophecy, the affairs of the Church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal; and in the Interpretation they begin at the same point, with the vision of the Church in the form of a woman in heaven. There she is persecuted, and here she is in the pain of childbirth. The Interpretation goes on first to the sealing of the servants of God, and the marking of the rest with the mark of the Beast; and then to the day of judgment, represented by a harvest and a vintage. Then it goes back to the times of opening the seventh seal, and interprets the Prophecy of the seven trumpets by the pouring out of seven vials of wrath. The Angels who pour them out come out of the Temple of the Tabernacle—that is, out of the second Temple, for the Tabernacle had no outward court. Then it goes back again to the times of measuring the Temple and the Altar, of the Gentiles worshiping in the outward court, and of the Beast killing the witnesses in the streets of the great city; and interprets these things by the vision of a woman sitting on the Beast, drunk with the blood of the Saints. And it moves on in the interpretation to the fall of the great city and the day of judgment.

So the whole Prophecy of the book, represented by the book of the Law, is repeated and interpreted in the visions which follow those of sounding the seventh trumpet, and which begin with that of the Temple of God opened in heaven. Only the things which the seven thunders uttered were not written down, and so are not interpreted.

Notes to Chap. II.

1 Isa. vi.

2 Apoc. v.

3 Apoc. vii

4 Buxtorf in Synogoga Judaica, c. 18, 21.

5 Ezek. ix.