19:2 “For His judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
Davies, [263] “The attitude of submission is revealed in the words of Akiba: ‘God judges men by Himself but to nothing in His judgements is objection to be raised as He judges all in truth and all in justice’.3 [Note 3: “Mekilta Beshallah 6.”]
19:3. “… And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”
Acts 2:19, quoting Joel 2:30 speaks of blood, fire, and vapour of smoke. Lightfoot says: “… As to these prodigies in blood, fire, and smoke, I would understand it of the slaughter and conflagrations that should be committed in that nation to a wonder by seditious and intestine broils there. They were monsters rather than instances; than which there could never have been a more prodigious presage of the ruin of that nation than that they grew so cruel within themselves, breathing nothing but mutual slaughters and desolations.” [4:31]
19:7. “…the marriage of the Lamb is come….” (See also 21:3. “…the holy Jerusalem, prepared as a Bride for her husband….”)
“…the days of the bridechamber, to the sons of the bridechamber, that is, to the friends and acquaintance, were seven: hence there is frequent mention of ‘the seven days of the marriage-feast:’ but to the bride, the days of the bridechamber were thirty…And all the thirty days of her bridechamber she is called The Bride.'” [2:171]
“Marriages are called by the Rabbins…the introducing of the bride, namely into the house of her husband. There were no marriages but of such as had been before betrothed; and, after the betrothing, the bridegroom might not lie with the bride in his father-in-law’s house before he had brought her to his own. That ‘bringing’ of her was the consummation of the marriage….” [2:322]
“They object first, … It is not permitted to any one to demolish one synagogue till he hath built another: much less to demolish the Temple. But Herod demolished the Temple before he had built another…. [3:260] {Note that the Bride is the Church, the ‘Temple’ of God, I Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Eph. 3:19-22. In the Book of Revelation, the old Temple made with hands was destroyed before the new Temple, the Bride of Christ, is revealed.}
19:8. “…the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”
Discussion of the righteousness which we have in Christ, (John 16:10): “…the question is, what sort of righteousness of his is here meant? whether his personal and inherent, or his communicated and justifying righteousness? We may say that both may be meant here….
“…Because he poured out the Spirit, it argued the merit of his righteousness; for otherwise he could not, in that manner, have given the Holy Spirit. And, indeed, that what is chiefly meant here is that righteousness of his by which we are justified, this may persuade us, that so many and so great things are spoken concerning it in the Holy Scriptures. Isa.lvi.1, ‘My salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed:’ Dan.ix.29, ‘To bring in everlasting righteousness:’ Jer.xxiii.6, ‘This is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.’ And in the Epistles of the apostles, especially those of St. Paul, this righteousness is frequently and highly celebrated, seeming, indeed, the main and principal subject of the doctrines of the gospel….
“…In the law the righteousness of God was revealed condemning, but in the gospel it was revealed justifying the sinner. And this is the great mystery of the gospel, that sinners are justified not only through the grace and mere compassion and mercy of God, but through divine justice and righteousness too, that is, through the righteousness of Christ, who is Jehovah, ‘the Lord our Righteousness.’
“And the Spirit of truth when he came did reprove and instruct the world concerning these two great articles of faith, wherein the Jews had so mischievously deceived themselves; that is, concerning true saving faith, faith in Christ; and also concerning the manner or formal cause of justification, viz. the righteousness of Christ.” [3:408-9]
19:10. “…I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus…”
This is a strong indication that the Angel is Daniel. Further verification of this comes from the following quotes from contemporary sources regarding the righteous:
Davies, [307-8] “‘For in the heights of that world shall they dwell, And they shall be made like unto the angels, And be made equal to the stars, And they shall be changed into every form they desire From beauty unto loveliness And from light into the splendour of glory.” [Note 4: “2 Baruch 51.10.]
“We may assume that it is this same ‘splendour of glory’ that Paul ascribes to the resurrection life. Moffatt writes on 1 Cor.15.41 (‘There is a splendour of the sun and a splendour of the moon and a splendour of the stars–for one star differs from another star in splendour’): ‘Probably…the remark about one star differing from another in glory [308] is an echo not only of the apocalyptic idea that the stars were angelic beings, but also of his belief in the varying nature of recompense for the shining spirits of the faithful (3.8) whose radiance, as again the Baruch Apocalypse has it,1 varies, like that of the stars in the ageless upper world.’ …. Again the idea of ‘glory’ is associated with the righteous in their risen life in the Ethiopic Enoch 62.15,108.11,12.” [Note 1, p. 308:”2 Baruch 51.3,4f.”]
Of Paul‘s being caught up into paradise, 2 Cor. 12, … “In the story it is observable, that paradise and the ‘third heaven’ are one and the same things: in the legend paradise and … the highest heavens. For so the doctors comment upon the word in Psalm lxviii.5: ‘There are seven classes or degrees of just persons, who see the face of God, sit in the house of God, ascend up unto the hill of God, &c. And to every class or degree there is allotted their proper dwellingplace … in paradise. There are also seven abiding places in hell. Those that dwell in paradise … they shine like the shining of the firmament, like the sun, like the moon, like the firmament, like the stars, like lightning, like the lilies, like burning lamps.'” [3:212-3]
When we compare Daniel 12:3: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever”, and Daniel 12:10f: “…those who are wise shall understand,” and Daniel 12:13: “But go your way, [Daniel], till the end; and you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days,” – We realize that the shining angel that signifies the Book of Revelation is none other than the wise, righteous man, daniel, who has rested and now stands in his allotted place, for the end of the days has come upon jerusalem.
19:10. “… the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy.”
Commenting on 1 Cor. 1:5: “… In all utterance, and in all knowledge.] That is, ‘in the gift of tongues, and prophesying.’ These he calls in the verse following … the testimony of Christ; that is, the testimony whereby Jesus is proved to be the true Messias, seeing he bestowed such gifts. So Rev.xix.10, ‘The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;’ not only the doctrine which the prophet uttered, but the very gift of prophesying. And 1 John v.8, ‘The spirit, and the water, and the blood,’ yield a testimony of Christ on earth. ‘The spirit,’ or the gift of prophecy; ‘the water,’ or baptism; and ‘the blood,’ or martyrdom. For seeing the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit did so abound, and such infinite multitudes flocked to baptism in the name of Jesus, and very many for that name endured martyrdom, it was an undoubted testimony that he was the true Messias.” [4:172-3]
“Of the spirit of prophecy the Babylonian Talmudists have these words also: ‘From the death of the latter prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit ceased from Israel.’ In the first generation, indeed, after the return out of Babylon, that the gift of prophecy flourished, those prophets, and indeed very many others do witness, if we believe the Masters of the Traditions. For thus they speak: ‘Among the eighty elders who opposed the statute of Esther and Mordecai, concerning the feast of Purim, as if it were an innovation in the law, more than thirty were prophets.’ But that generation being extinct, the gift of prophecy vanished also, and appeared no more before the morning of the gospel….” [4:295-6]
19:11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him [was] called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.”
On Matt. 24:30, Lightfoot says: “Then shall the Son of Man give a proof of himself, whom they would not before acknowledge: a proof, indeed, not in any visible figure, but in vengeance and judgment so visible, that all the tribes of the earth shall be forced to acknowledge him the avenger….Many times they asked of him a sign: now a sign shall appear, that he is the true Messias, whom they despised, derided, and crucified, namely, his signal vengeance and fury, such as never any nation felt from the first foundations of the world.” [2:320]
When Stephen quoted Daniel 7:13, “I saw one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven,” and coming to the Ancient of Days, “R. Saadiah saith upon this place, ‘like to the Son of man … This is the Messiah our righteousness; but is it not written of the Messiah, Poor and riding upon an ass? For he shall come in humility. ‘And they brought him before the Ancient of days:’ this is that that is written, ‘The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand.”
“The doctors in Sanhedrim talk much more out of the way; … If they are worthy (i.e. the Israelites), then he shall come with the clouds of heaven; but if they are not worthy, then he will come poor and riding upon an ass.’…” [4:89-90]
19:13-15. “…and he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood…”
This Scripture is closely associated with Isaiah 63:1-2, which see. In that Scripture, the warrior is returning from Bozrah, in Edom. He has wrought vengeance in behalf of Israel. This must be understood in the light of Obadiah’s prophecy of the destruction of Edom.
In Revelation 19:13-15, this Warrior/Redeemer/Avenger is Christ, and Jerusalem has become Edom, the enemy of the true Israel. [1:177, 309]
19:15. “…rule them with a rod of iron….”
The Jews commonly called the Romans ‘Edomites’. Thus, they felt justified in rebelling against them because of the prophecies that Edom would be destroyed, for example, Obadiah. [1:207]
19:20. The Lake of Fire.
The valley of Tophet, or Ben-Hinnom, bordered the city of Jerusalem and was a place for burning refuse. In the days of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah., it was a place of the worship of idols, especially Moloch, to whom Israel offered their sons and daughters, burning them in the fires there. (Isaiah 30:33; Jer. 7:321; 19:2-15; 32:35.) [1:60]
“A great part of the valley of Kedron was called also the ‘Valley of Hinnom.’…The mention of it in the New (Testament) is only mystical and metaphorical, and is transferred to denote the place of the damned. Under the second Temple, when those things were vanished, which had set an eternal mark of infamy upon this place, to wit, idolatry, and the howlings of infants roasted to Moloch,–yet so much of the filthiness, and of the abominable name remained, that even now it did as much bear to the life the representation of hell, as it had done before.
“It was the common sink of the whole city; whither all filth, and all kind of nastiness, met. It was probably, the common burying-place of the city (if so be, they did now bury within so small a distance from the city). ‘They shall bury in Tophet, until there be no more any place,’ Jer.vii.32. And there was there also a continual fire, whereby bones, and other filthy things, were consumed, lest they might offend or infect the city….
“Some of the Rabbins apply that of Isaiah hither, chap.lxvi, ver the last: ‘They shall go out, and see the dead carcases of the men, that rebel against me; for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched.’…” [1:86-7]