Albert Barnes Commentary Revelation 9:15

"And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men." — Revelation 9:15 (ASV)

And the four angels were loosed. They had this mighty host under restraint. The loosening of the angels was, in fact, also a letting loose of all these hosts, that they might accomplish the work which they were commissioned to do.

Which were prepared. See Revelation 9:7. The word used here properly refers to that which is made ready, fitted up, or arranged for anything: such as people prepared for a journey, horses for battle, a road for travelers, food for the hungry, a house to live in, etc. (See Robinson's Lexicon, under the word etoimazw).

As used here, the word means that whatever was necessary to prepare these angels—the leaders of this host—for the work they were commissioned to perform, was now done, and that they stood in a state of readiness to execute the design. In the fulfillment of this, it will be necessary to look for some arrangements existing in the vicinity of the Euphrates, by which these restrained hosts were in a state of readiness to be summoned forth for the execution of this work, or in such a condition that they would go forth spontaneously if the existing restraints were removed.

For an hour, etc. (The marginal note reads: at). The Greek word—eis—properly means to, or with reference to; and the sense is that, with reference to that hour, they had all the requisite preparation. Professor Stuart explains it as meaning that they were “prepared for the particular year, month, day, and hour, destined by God for the great catastrophe which is to follow.” The meaning, however, rather seems to be that they were prepared, not for the commencement of such a period, but for the whole period indicated by the hour, the day, the month, and the year; that is, that the continuance of this “woe” would extend throughout the whole period. This is for the following reasons:

1. This is the natural interpretation of the word “for”—eis.

2. It makes the whole sentence intelligible. For although it might be proper to say of anything that it was “prepared for an hour,” indicating the commencement of what was to be done, it is not usual to say that something is “prepared for an hour, a month, a day, a year,” when the design is merely to indicate the beginning of it.

3. It is in accordance with the prediction respecting the first “woe” (Revelation 9:5), where the time is specified in language similar to this, namely, “five months.” Therefore, it seems to me that we should regard the time mentioned here as a prophetic indication of the period during which this woe would continue.

An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year. If this were to be taken literally, it would, of course, be little more than a year. If it is taken, however, in the common prophetic style, where a day is put for a year (as discussed in Barnes on Daniel 9:24 and following), then the amount of time (360 + 30 + 1 + an hour) would be three hundred and ninety-one years, plus the portion of a year indicated by an hour—a twelfth or twenty-fourth part, depending on whether the day was supposed to be divided into twelve or twenty-four hours.

That this is the true view seems clear: this interpretation accords with the usual style in this book; it can hardly be supposed that the “preparation” referred to here would have been for so brief a period as the time would be if literally interpreted; and the mention of so small a portion of time as an “hour,” if taken literally, would be improbable in such great transactions. The fair interpretation, therefore, will require us to find some events that will fill the period of about three hundred and ninety-one years.

For to slay the third part of men. Compare Revelation 8:7, 9, 12.

The meaning here is that the immense host which was restrained on the Euphrates would, when loosed, spread desolation over about a third part of the world. We are not to suppose that this is to be understood in an exactly literal sense; rather, the meaning is that the desolation would be so widespread that it would seem to embrace a third of the world. No such event as the cutting off of a few thousands of Jews in the siege of Jerusalem would correspond with the language used here, and we must look for events more general and more disastrous to mankind at large.