Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 15:6

"and there came out from the temple the seven angels that had the seven plagues, arrayed with [precious] stone, pure [and] bright, and girt about their breasts with golden girdles." — Revelation 15:6 (ASV)

And the seven angels . . .—Better, And there came out the seven angels who had the seven plagues from the temple, clothed in linen, pure, glistening, and girded about their breasts with golden girdles.

The temple is the inner shrine, or sanctuary; it was this that was measured (Revelation 11:1); it was from this that the angel with the sharp sickle came for the vintage of the earth (Revelation 14:7); from this now came the seven angels with the seven plagues.

It is well to remember this, for these plagues are not, like the judgments of the trumpet, calls to repentance. They are plagues on those who have refused to return, who have rejected the sanctuary, the tabernacle of witness, which the Lord pitched among men, and who have refused, like obstinate builders, the stone which has become the head of the corner.

From the rejected temple the angels of wrath come; it is always true that from rejected mercies the heaviest of plagues are forged.

The angels are clothed in attire resembling that of Christ (Revelation 1:13); they have come forth to do His bidding; they are clothed in garments that indicate their righteous errand. (Acts 1:10; Acts 10:30.)

Instead of linen, some manuscripts have “a stone”: the angels, according to this, were “clothed in a stone, pure, brilliant.”

There is a parallel thought in Ezekiel, who describes the splendor of the King of Tyre: You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, etc. (Ezekiel 28:13).