Revelation 5:11-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And I beheld The many angels; and heard the voice And the number of them; round about the throne Of the Divine Majesty; and the living creatures and the elders So forming the third circle. It is remarkable that men are represented, through the whole vision, as nearer to God than any of the angels. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands An innumerable multitude. And yet these are but a part of the holy angels; afterward, (Revelation 7:11,) St. John heard them all. Saying, with a loud voice With united ardour and harmony, there not being a cold and languid mind in the whole assembly; Worthy is the Lamb The elders said, Revelation 5:9, Worthy art thou; being more nearly allied to him, and addressing him with greater familiarity than the angels; to receive power, &c. The seven-fold praise answers the seven seals, of which the four former represent all visible, the latter all invisible things made subject to the Lamb. And every creature In the whole universe; which is in heaven on the earth under the earth in the sea “As the inhabitants of the watery elements are necessarily mute, we are not to understand by this that they seemed to grow vocal in the praises of Christ, upon this occasion, but rather that heaven, earth, and sea are used to signify that all nature, in its different ways, concurred in the praise; that is, the whole constitution of it contributed to furnish out matter of praise; just as inanimate, as well as rational creatures, are called upon to praise God, in several of the Psalms, especially in Psalms 148.” Doddridge. And all that are in them In every varied form of nature; heard I saying, Blessing, &c. This praise, from all creatures, begins before the opening of the first seal; but it continues from that time to eternity, according to the capacity of each. His enemies must acknowledge his glory, but those in heaven say, Blessed be God and the Lamb. And the four living creatures said, Amen To this hymn, to testify their hearty concurrence. And the four and twenty elders, at the same time, fell down before the throne, and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever Acknowledging him to be infinitely superior to all those services which the most exalted powers of created nature are capable of rendering. This royal manifesto is, as it were, a proclamation, showing how Christ fulfils all things, and every knee bows to him, not only on earth, but also in heaven, and under the earth. This book exhausts all things, (1 Corinthians 15:27-28,) and is suitable to a heart enlarged as the sand of the sea. It inspires the attentive and intelligent reader with such a magnanimity, that he accounts nothing in this world great; no, not the whole frame of visible nature, compared to the immense greatness of what he is here called to behold; yea, and in part to inherit. St. John has in view, through the whole of the following vision, what he has been now describing; namely, the four living creatures, the elders, the angels, and all creatures, looking together at the opening of the seven seals.