Revelation 19:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And after these things After this affecting representation of the certain destruction of Babylon, as the seat of the antichristian kingdom; I heard a great voice of much people in heaven A great chorus, who, with united voices, began to praise God on the occasion, saying, Alleluia That is, Praise ye Jehovah, or, He that is, and was, and is to come; a title which, of all others, is the most peculiar to the everlasting God. Salvation, glory, honour, and power be ascribed unto the Lord our God To whom only they belong. The salvation spoken of is opposed to the destruction which the great whore had brought upon the earth: his power and his glory appear from the judgment executed on her, and from the setting up of his kingdom to endure through all ages. For true and righteous are his judgments His judgments show him to be righteous, true, and faithful; for he hath judged the great whore His punishment of mystical Babylon, for her pride, superstition, and idolatry, declares his righteousness; and his truth and faithfulness to his promises are illustriously manifested in his avenging the blood of his servants on her, who so cruelly put them to death for their faith in his word and constancy in his religion. And again they said, Alleluia With their hearts inflamed with gratitude and joy. And her smoke rose up Αναβαινει, rises up, for they seem to be the words of the same heavenly chorus which praised in the preceding language. As if they had said, Let our God be glorified, who in this last judgment hath put an end to this persecuting power for ever. It shall not henceforth, as formerly, rise up again to afflict his saints. This city shall lie waste from generation to generation, never to be restored. Mr. Daubuz observes: “The two alleluias in this part of the hymn correspond to the messages of the two angels, one of which proclaims the fall of Babylon, and the other shows its destruction to be perpetual.” The expression, her smoke rose up, &c., intimated that Rome should be made as signal a monument of divine vengeance as Sodom and Gomorrah had been. It is taken from Isaiah 34:9-10, where by Edom the Jews understand Rome; and in the genuine editions of the Chaldee paraphrase it is, And the rivers of Rome shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch: it shall not be quenched night nor day: the smoke shall go up for ever. And this tradition of the rabbins may receive some confirmation from this verse. Indeed, such an event must appear the more probable, when we consider that the adjacent countries are known to be of a sulphurous and bituminous soil: and that even at Rome there have been eruptions of subterraneous fire, which have consumed several buildings, according to Dion, (lib. 66.,) on one occasion, even a considerable part of Rome; so that the fuel seems to be prepared, and to wait only for the breath of the Lord to kindle it.