So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What [are] these, my lord?
Ver. 4. What are these, my lord?] Or, Sir; which English word comes from Cyrus, the Persian word for a lord or great prince, as H. Stephanus will have it; others fetch it from κυρος, authority, or κυριος, a lord, and so the word Adoni in the text is usually rendered. Others think our word Sir comes from the French Sieur, whence Monsieur, my lord; as the word Lord from the old Saxon Laford, which cometh of Laef, to sustain; like as the Hebrew Adonai, from Eden, a foundation or pillar, that sustaineth the whole building. It is written sometimes with Camets, or long a, in the end, and then it is proper to God (as having the vowels of Jehovah), and is given to him 134 times in the Old Testament. Sometimes it is written with Pathach, or short a, and then it is applied to the creatures, as here to the angel: Hinc Hispanorum Don, saith Drusius.
What are these] The prophet had been before warned by the angel to behold and heed the vision. This he had done, and yet was to seek of the sense and meaning of it; as a man may look on a trade and never see the mystery of it; or look on the hand dial, and never understand the curious clock works within. None can understand the mystery of Christ but such as have the mind of Christ, 1Co 2:7; 1 Corinthians 2:11; 1 Corinthians 2:16, such as are spiritually rational and rationally spiritual; such as are taught of God, and conducted by his Spirit into all truth, John 16:13. No understanding God's riddles but by ploughing with his heifer, as I may say. This the prophet here knew; and therefore applies himseff to the angel for information; so did Daniel, Daniel 8:15; Daniel 9:22 .