English
And so I saw the horses in the vision, and those sitting on them had fiery and hyacinthine and sulfurous armor. And the horses’ heads were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur went out from their mouths. By these three plagues a third of men were killed, from the fire and the smoke and the sulfur coming from their mouths, because the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, since their tails are like snakes, having heads, and they injure with them. And the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands so that they would not worship daimons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see, nor hear, nor walk. And they did not repent from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their sexual immorality, nor from their thefts.
Interpretation
The persecutors of God’s followers in the fifth seal of chapter 6 were not identified. The objects of God’s wrath in the sixth seal of the same chapter were identified only be general terms for world rulers and conquerors. Likewise here, the author does not seem to have in mind any specific targets of the invading armies, other than those guilty of common sins.
Parallels
Psalms
115.4–7 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats.
135.15–17 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear, and there is no breath in their mouths.
Isaiah
44.9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know. And so they will be put to shame.
Deuteronomy
4.28 There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Job
41.18 Its sneezes flash forth light, and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. From its mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap out. Out of its nostrils comes smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. Its breath kindles coals, and a flame comes out of its mouth.
1 Enoch
8.2–3 And there was much godlessness on the earth, and they made their ways desolate. Shemihazah taught spells and the cutting of roots. Hermani taught sorcery for the loosing of spells and magic and skill. Baraqel taught the signs of the lightning flashes. Kokabel taught the signs of the stars. Ziqel taught the signs of the shooting stars. Arteqoph taught the signs of the earth. Shamsiel taught the signs of the sun. Sahriel taught the signs of the moon.
Daniel
5.23 You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know
Wisdom
12.3–11 Those who lived long ago in your holy land you hated for their detestable practices, their works of sorcery and unholy rites, their merciless slaughter of children, and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood. These initiates from the midst of a heathen cult, these parents who murder helpless lives, you willed to destroy by the hands of our ancestors, so that the land most precious of all to you might receive a worthy colony of the servants of God. But even these you spared, since they were but mortals, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army to destroy them little by little, though you were not unable to give the ungodly into the hands of the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at one blow by dread wild animals or your stern word. But judging them little by little you gave them an opportunity to repent, though you were not unaware that their origin was evil and their wickedness inborn, and that their way of thinking would never change. For they were an accursed race from the beginning, and it was not through fear of anyone that you left them unpunished for their sins.
Revelation of Abraham
4.3–4 ‘The gods are blessed in you, because you are a god for them, because you made them, for their blessing is their perdition and their power is vain. They did not help themselves; how then can they help you or bless me?’
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