Revelation 14:17-20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven As the former had done; he also having a sharp sickle To assist in this execution, and finish the destruction of the enemies of the truth. And another angel, just at that instant, came out from the altar Of burnt-offering, from whence the martyrs had cried for vengeance. Which angel, it is said, had power over fire This, according to Daubuz, is spoken in allusion to the office of that priest who was appointed by lot in the temple-service to take care of the fire upon the altar, and who was therefore called the priest over the fire. Grotius interprets it, habens ministerium iræ divinæ, having the office of God's vengeance. And he cried with a loud voice With great vehemence; to him that had the sharp sickle Being sent to bring a message to him; saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters, &c. Begin to put in execution the righteous judgments of God on this wicked generation; for her grapes are fully ripe The time of God's vengeance, his appointed time, is fully come, for the iniquities of the inhabitants of the earth have made them fully ripe for destruction. And the angel thrust in his sickle Immediately upon this order the angel began to cut down those wicked persons whose iniquities had made them ripe for destruction; and gathered Or lopped off the grapes of the vine of the earth, and cast them into the great wine- press of the wrath of God Which seemed to stand ready to receive them; that is, delivered them over to divine vengeance, which should press them hard with grievous afflictions, as grapes are pressed in a wine-press. And the wine-press was trodden without the city The images in this vision are very strong and expressive. The largest wine-presses used to be in some places out of the city. This expression, therefore, seems to intimate the great numbers that should be involved in this general destruction. And the blood came out of the wine-press even unto the horses-bridles, &c. Which is a strong hyperbolical expression, to signify a vast slaughter and effusion of blood; a way of speaking not unknown to the Jews, for the Jerusalem Talmud, describing the woful slaughter which the Roman Emperor Adrian made of the Jews at the destruction of the city of Bitter, saith, that “the horses waded in blood up to the nostrils.” Nor are similar examples wanting even in classic authors; for Silius Italicus, speaking of Hannibal's descent into Italy, useth a like expression of “the bridles flowing with much blood.” The stage where this bloody tragedy is acted is without the city, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs, which, as Mr. Mede ingeniously observes, is the measure of stato dello chiesa, or the state of the Roman Church, or St. Peter's patrimony, which, reaching from the walls of Rome unto the river Po and the marshes of Verona, contains the space of two hundred Italian miles, which make exactly sixteen hundred furlongs.