The cavalry legion: “ The four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, a day, a month, a year, to slay third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them” --9:15-16. The four angels loosed: The voice in verse 14 commanded the angel of the sixth trumpet to loose the four angels. In verse 15 the sixth angel obeyed the voice, “ and the four angels were loosed” to go unrestrained to execute the mission suspended in chapter 7:3. Prepared, hour, day, month, year: It is noted that “ an” hour is the article "the"--it is the hour, used with hour only, not with day, month and year. Hence, “ the hour and day and month and year” denoted the suspension time, the period of intervention, during which these four agents of evil were "prepared"--their armies massed for attack, waiting for the time of chapter 7:3 to be over, and for the directive, in military parlance, to unleash the armies, the dogs of war. To slay the third part of men: The sounding of the trumpets was accompanied by the announcement of three woes. With the fifth trumpet, John interposed that “ one woe is past, and behold there come two woes hereafter.” (Verse 12) In chapter 11, verse 14, John interrupts the vision again to say “ the second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly.” In chapter 9 the apocalypse envisioned the armies of the Euphrates under the imagery of swarms of locusts numbering twice ten thousand times ten thousand. It was a figure of overwhelming military might that descended on Judea and Palestine. The apocalypse presented a two-fold catastrophe: 1. the tormenting locusts which brought the demonic plagues; 2. the armies of the Euphrates which brought the demonic wars. The swarms of locusts were said to hurt men; while the armies of the Euphrates were said to kill men. The two-fold vision of destruction symbolized famine and sword. The first part of the vision to hurt men was accomplished in the ravages of pestilence by famine; the second part of the vision to kill men was executed in the devastations of war by the sword. The terrible atrocities of the armies of Titus, Cestius Gallus and Vespasian, were recorded in the historical annals of eye-witnesses, who saw the armies overrun Judea and who witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, such as Josephus and Pliny; and in the works of the near-contemporary historians, Tacitus and others. Since the judgments contained in the trumpets are divided into three woes, each directive is accordingly applied to “ a third part” of the mission, which expression is repeated with each extension of the sixth scene. In the chapter 6, verse 8, where the judgments were symbolized in the opening of the seals, the division was called “ the fourth part of the earth” in contrast with “ the third part of men,” in chapter 9, verse 15. The division of the parts is made proportionate with the pronouncements of judgments or woes. The scene consisted of a series of four judgements in chapter 6 and of three woes in chapter 9; hence, “ the fourth part of the earth” and " the third part of men” proportionately. Two hundred thousand thousand: At this point the vision transforms “ the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth . . . to whom it was given to hurt the earth” into the immense army of two hundred thousand thousand, or twice ten thousand times ten thousand, which counted literally would compute the figure of two hundred million. This was not a numerical count of the conscripts composing this army, but the symbolic description of immensity so overwhelming as to make human resistance impossible. And I heard the number of them: The number of this mighty army was proclaimed to John, not in visionary form, but as being audible--"I heard the number." It was another interposed statement, as of verse 12, containing the overtones of an overpowering onslaught.