Revelation 13:9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

If any man have an ear, let him hear It was customary with our Saviour, when he would have his auditors to pay a particular attention to what he had been saying, to add, He who hath ears to hear, let him hear. St. John repeats the same admonition at the end of each of the seven epistles to the seven churches of Asia, and here in the conclusion of his description of the beast, If any man have an ear, let him hear: and certainly the description of the beast is deserving of the highest attention upon many accounts, and particularly because the right interpretation of this book turns upon it, as one of its main hinges. It is added, by way of consolation to the church, that these enemies of God and of Christ, represented under the character of the beast, shall suffer the law of retaliation, and be as remarkably punished and tormented themselves, as they punished and tormented others, Revelation 13:10. He who leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity; he who killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword Such a promise might administer some comfort; and indeed it would be wanted, for the patience and the faith of the saints would be tried to the utmost during the reign of the beast. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints Of all the trials and persecutions of the church this would be the most severe, and exceed those of the primitive times, both in degree and in duration.