The loosing of four angels--(sixth trumpet)-- 9:13-21. The symbolism of the sixth trumpet like that of the fifth, is a parallelism of imagery with Joel’ s vision of horsemen and chariots surging in battle. The symbolism is the same because the events envisioned are of the same character, the one pertaining to the war of the Chaldeans against the Jerusalem of Joel’ s era, the other to the war of the Romans against the Jerusalem of John’ s era. The visions carry the same import, and hence present the close similarity in the figures of horses, heads, tails, and of armor and chariots and embattled armies. The four angels: “ A voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God . . . saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, saying, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates” --9:13-14. A voice from four horns: The voice here is that same voice of authority “ in the midst” of the throne of Rev 6:6. Not the voice of any one of the angels, creatures or beings of the scene, but the voice from within, “ in the midst” of them all. It emphasizes the source of all divine revelation, from within the throne itself. Here, in the sixth trumpet vision, the voice came from the four horns of the altar-four horns, but one voice proceeding from them. There were four angels, in chapter 7:1, “ holding the four winds of the earth.” The same four angels were in this scene of chapter 9, and there were four horns on the altar --a horn to convey a divine message, an order, to each of the four angels; but the one voice from the four horns signified one message--the same for all. The horns were of the altar “ which was before God,” so the voice from the horns was the voice of direct authority from God. The voice was not personified, as of an angel, or any representative, but was simply designated a voice of direct command from the altar “ before God” to the angel of the sixth trumpet. Loose the four angels: As the voice from the altar of this scene is the same voice from within “ the midst” in chapter 6, so the four angels here are the same four angels “ holding the four winds of the earth” in chapter 7. The four angels there, as explained, were the imperial angels or agents holding the winds that they should not blow: that is, hindering the messengers of the gospel, preventing the spread of Christianity. A heavenly angel, referred to as another angel, countermanded the orders of the imperial angels, restraining them from the performance of their mission “ to hurt the earth” by holding back the four winds --the messengers of Christ--and the four imperial angels were commanded by this angel to “ hurt not the earth.” Now, the voice from the altar “ before God” commanded the angel of the sixth trumpet to “ loose the four angels.” The suspension period designated as time to “ seal” or to preserve “ the holy seed,” the true Israel, the symbolic number of one hundred forty-four thousand, had been accomplished, and it was time for the four angels to proceed. Again, the scene was comparable to the promise to the faithful disciples of time to escape the siege of Jerusalem, and the flight from the city was described in all three records of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Josephus records that after the siege had begun for some unknown reason Vespasian withdrew his armies to such distance and for such time for the flight of the disciples from the city to the mountains to be accomplished. It is a remarkable parallel to this scene of Rev 7:1-17, where the angels of destruction were ordered to wait “ till we have sealed the servants of our God,” and a suspension was signified in this vision as that recorded in the accounts of Mat 24:1-51, Mark 13:1-37 and Luke 21:1-38, the fulfillment of which according to Josephus is historical. The command to “ loose” these angels of destruction was in contrast with the command of chapter 7:2 which restrained, or bound them. That these four angels were bound is further evidence that they were evil angels, the angels or agents of destruction “ standing on the four corners of the earth,” poised to blast Jerusalem with destructive horror, and in consequence blight the earth by “ holding the four winds,” preventing the promulgation of the gospel to its four corners. Bound in the great river Euphrates: The Euphrates river is named in Genesis 2:13-14 as a fork of the river of Eden. Moses called it “ the great river” in Genesis 15:18 and Deuteronomy 1:7. It was designated by the Lord to Moses as the eastern boundary of the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 11:24, and restated as a part of the promise to Joshua after the death of Moses (Joshua 1:4). It was the border by which David established his dominion (1 Chronicles 18:3), when he went in conquest to recover that part of Canaan lost to the savage neighbors of enemy nations. (2 Samuel 8:3) In Psalms 137:1-3 the Psalmist said that by the river Euphrates the Israelites in captivity wept. In no less than two dozen scripture passages it is called “ the river,” indicating geographical, historical, and biblical importance. From the regions of this river the Assyrian and Chaldean armies had in the past swept over the land of Israel like an overwhelming flood. (Isaiah 7:20; Isaiah 8:7-8; Jeremiah 46:10; Habakkuk 1:6-11) The symbolical allusion to “ the great river” in this sixth trumpet scene has a two-fold significance. First, the four angels were said by the voice to be bound in, or at, the river Euphrates. To be bound means to be held at the border of the land. The Euphrates being the border, the four angels of destruction had been countermanded for the time; hence, bound “ in the great river Euphrates” at the port of entry to the land doomed to their destruction. Second, the ruler of the Euphrates region was symbolically called the “ rod” of wrath and anger, and the “ staff” of indignation sent against “ an hypocritical nation.” (Isaiah 10:5-6) The sixth angel was therefore commanded to “ loose the four angels which were bound at the great river Euphrates,” as the symbolic allusion to the indignation and destruction poised at the borders to sweep the land and overwhelm its inhabitants. To literalize it serves only to destroy the imagery, and in so doing the apocalypse itself, as is so usually done when literal constructions are placed on symbolical things.