6. The power of the persecution was represented as broken in verse ten, when the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the throne of the beast--the seat of authority for action in Palestine, which came from the emperor. The kingdom of the beast was full of darkness in Palestine. The same metaphor was used by Isaiah (chapter 13:10) to describe the fall of ancient Babylon; and Jesus adopted the same figure of speech (Matthew 24:29) in foretelling the darkness that settled over the Jewish state in the fall of Jerusalem. The same use of the symbol was made here in verse ten. (5) The vial of wrath poured upon the seat of the beast that darkened his kingdom: “ And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain” -16: 10. The king of the kingdom mentioned in this verse must be identified with the great red dragon of chapter 12:9, personified as the devil and Satan. The seat of the beast here was on the same principle of Satan’ s seat, or throne, in Pergamos; mentioned in chapter 2:13. It referred to his base of operations through his imperial agents. His kingdom was darkened by the exposure of the deceptions of his lying wonders, which resulted in his ignominious end. The subjects of this Satanic beast, who repented not of their deeds of idolatrous worship of the emperor-image, by which they blasphemed the God of heaven, suffered the same consequences.