Note 327 — Footnotes.

8. And the voice which I heard from heaven. Ver. 4. This is not the voice of the angel, but a direct divine command. ¶ Said, Go and take the little book that is open, &c. That is, take it out of his hand, and do with it as you shall be commanded. There is a very strong resemblance between this passage and the account contained in Eze. ii. 9, 10; iii. 1‒3. Ezekiel was directed to go to the house of Israel and deliver a divine message, whether they would hear or forbear; and in order that he might understand what message to deliver, there was shown to him a roll of a book, written within and without. That roll he was commanded to eat, and he found it to be “in his mouth as honey for sweetness.” John has added to this the circumstance that, though “sweet in the mouth,” it made “the belly bitter.” The additional command (ver. 11), that he must yet “prophecy before many people,” leads us to suppose that he had the narrative in Ezekiel in his eye; for, as the result of his eating the roll, he was commanded to go and prophesy to the people of Israel. The passage here (ver. 8) introduces a new symbol, that of “eating the book,” and evidently refers to something that was to occur before the “mystery should be finished;” that is, before the seventh trumpet should sound. ¶ Which is open in the hand, &c. On the symbolical meaning of the word “open,” as applied to the book, see Notes on ver. 2.