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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 9:17 - 9:17
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
And thus I saw in the vision (kai houtōs eidon en tēi horasei). Nowhere else does John allude to his own vision, though often in Dan. (Dan 7:2; Dan 8:2, Dan 8:15; Dan 9:21).
Having (echontas). Accusative masculine plural of echō, probably referring to the riders (tous kathēmenous ep' autōn) rather than to the horses (tous hippous).
Breastplates as of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone (thōrakas purinous kai huakinthinous kai theiōdeis). There is no hōs (as) in the Greek, but that is the idea of these three adjectives which are only metaphors. Purinos is an old adjective (from pur, fire), here only in N.T. Huakinthos is also an old word (from huakinthos, hyacinth, then of a sapphire stone Rev 21:20), of a red color bordering on black, here only in the N.T. Theiōdēs is a late word (from theion, brimstone), sulphurous, here only in N.T.
As the heads of lions (hōs kephalai leontōn). This of the horses, war-horses as always in the Bible except in Isa 28:28. These horses likewise have “fire and smoke and brimstone” (theion, brimstone, is old word, in N.T. only in Rev and Luk 17:29) proceeding (ekporeuetai, singular because it comes first and the subjects afterwards) out of their mouths. Both rider and horse are terrible.