Revelation 20:9 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

And they went up on the breadth of the earth. — The hostile multitudes spread like swarms over the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Jerusalem is the beloved city — in it was the Mount Zion which God loved (Psalms 78:68). It is the figure of the true spiritual Zion and Jerusalem which has been faithful to her king. The beloved city has its camp; it is ready for war. It has waged its spiritual warfare against all forms of evil, Its citizens, like the returned exiles (Nehemiah 4:17-18), could never lay down the sword (comp. Ephesians 6:10; John 2:14; John 5:4); but the hostile demonstration is arrested by divine intervention. There came down fire out of the heaven (the words “from God” are of doubtful authority) and devoured them. The Shechinah light tabernacled over the holy city. Its light was also a flame ready to break forth upon the wicked. (Comp. Revelation 1:14; Revelation 7:15, Note; Hebrews 12:29; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10.) There may be allusion to the overthrow of the cities of the plains (Genesis 19:24), but other incidents may have been in the prophet’s mind: the fire which fell from heaven upon the enemies of an earlier prophet, Elijah (2 Kings 1:9-14), and the fire which broke forth from the tabernacle in the wilderness upon those who defied the laws of the God of Israel (Numbers 16:16-17; Numbers 16:35; Leviticus 10:1-2). It must be remembered that, in the passage before us, the prophet is using the incidents and actions of the past as imagery, and that the present vision is figurative, though of course not mere empty figure: for Christ will thoroughly purge His floor (Matthew 3:12).