Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 8:13 - 8:13
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev_8:13
13Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"
Rev_8:13 "Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying" The KJV has "angel" instead of "eagle," but this comes from a late ninth-century Greek manuscript. Both Sinaiticus ( à ) and Alexandrinus (A) have "eagle." This can refer to: a vulture (or eagle), which often was a symbol of slaughter (cf. Eze_17:3; Hab_1:8; Mat_24:28; Luk_17:37)
1. an allusion to the judgment scene in Eze_39:17-20; Hos_8:1
2. an allusion to the intertestamental apocalyptic book of II Baruch 77:21-22, in which a vulture sends a message to God's hurting people
3. the Roman army standards which were topped by eagles
The "flying in midheaven" is probably another allusion to birds of prey soaring above the earth (cf. Rev_14:6; Rev_19:17).
▣ "Woe, woe, woe" This possibly corresponds to the last three trumpets which are to come (cf. Rev_9:12; Rev_11:14; Rev_12:12); it may also be a symbol of intensity (like "holy, holy, holy" of Rev_4:8). In Hebrew a three-fold repetition is a superlative (cf. Holy, holy, holy of Isa_6:3). In the OT "woe" marks a certain poetic lament related to death and judgment.
▣ "to those who dwell on the earth" This phrase refers to the unredeemed (cf. Rev_3:10; Rev_6:10; Rev_11:10; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:2).
Revelation 9