between heaven and earth and closing of the theavenlies, here—the saints being on the sea of glass; the judgment sent on the earth falls on the earth and sea too.
First, it was “poured” in the stricter sense “on the earth … a grievous sore.” A manifested plague from God fell on the men who had received the mark of the beast, and who worshipped his image. Next, all form of life was turned into death in the mass of the population—“and every living soul” (they are not spoken of as written in the book of life; but those who externally had life) “died.” The profession of being alive to God was blotted out of the mass of unformed nations.
The sources of the state of the population became also the form and power of death; the just judgment of those who had put the saints to death. These were general judgments on the mass and on their condition.
Griesbach reads “I heard the altar saying:” “another out of the altar” would apparently mean another angel, which would be unsuited to all the force of these images. The force of “the altar” generally is clear, because the slain saints are looked at as offered, as burnt offerings to God (comp. vi. 9, 10). And the altar may be here heard to cry, as the
