Note 489 — Footnotes.

10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast. The previous judgments had been preparatory to this. They all had a bearing on this, and were all preliminary to it; but the “seat”—the home, the centre of the power of the beast—had not yet been reached. Here, however, there was a direct blow aimed at that power, still not such yet as to secure its final overthrow, for that is reserved for the pouring out of the last vial, ver. 17‒21. All that is represented here is a heavy judgment which was merely preliminary to that final overthrow, but which affected the very seat of the beast. The phrase “the seat of the beast”—τὸν θρόνον τοῦ θηρίου—means the seat or throne which the representative of that power occupied, the central point of the Antichristian dominion. Comp. Notes on ch. xiii. 2. See also ch. ii. 13. I understand this as referring to the very seat of the Papal power—Rome—the Vatican. ¶ And his kingdom was full of darkness. Confusion—disorder—distress, for darkness is often the emblem of calamity, Is. lix. 9, 10; Je. xiii. 16; Eze. xxx. 18; xxxii. 7, 8; xxxiv. 12; Joel ii. 2. ¶ And they gnawed their tongues for pain. This is a “most significant expression of the writhings of anguish.” The word here rendered gnawed does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, nor is the expression elsewhere used in the Bible; but its meaning is plain—it indicates deep anguish.