The voice of the bridegroom, &c.— The song of the bridegroom, and the song of the bride; the songs of the mill, and the light of the lamp. By the songs of the mill, are meant the songs of those female slaves, who in ancient times used to grind at the mill. See Matthew 24:41. The ideas in Revelation 18:23 are similar to those of our prophet; and the general meaning is, that every voice of gladness and of business shall be silent; and the whole land depopulated, and universal desolation reigning.
The sound of the milstones, and the light of the candle— Mr. Harmer has an excellent critical observation on this place, which I cannot do better than present the reader with at large.
"The time for grinding their corn is the morning; which consideration makes the prophet's selecting the noise of milstones, and the lighting up of candles, as circumstances belonging to inhabited places, appear in a view, which no commentators, that I have examined, have taken notice of."
I am indebted to Sir John Chardin's Manuscript for the knowledge of this fact. It informs us, that "in the East they grind their corn at break of day; and that when one goes out in a morning, one hears every where the noise of the mill; and that it is the noise that often awakens people."
"It has been commonly known that they bake every day; and that they usually grind their corn as they want it; but this passage informs us, that it is the first work done in a morning, as well as that this grinding of their mills makes a considerable noise, and attracts every ear; and as the lighting up of candles begins the evening, there is an agreeable contrast observable in these words: Moreover I will take from thee the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of milstones, and the light of the candle. And their whole land shall be a desolation. Gloomy shall be the silence of the morning, melancholy the shadows of the evening, no cheerful noise to animate the one, no enlivening ray to soften the gloom of the other. Desolation shall every where reign. In the East, where no milstones are heard in the morning, no light seen in the evening, it must be a dreary dismal solitude." Ch. 4 Obs. 4. See also ch. 3 Obs. 18.