And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
They that dwell upon the earth - citizens belonging to earth, not to heaven (Revelation 3:10; Revelation 8:13; Revelation 12:12; Revelation 13:8).
Shall. So Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic; but 'Aleph (') A B C, present: cf. note, Revelation 11:9,
Rejoice over them. The anti-Christianity of the last days shall probably be under the name of philosophical enlightenment, really man's deification of himself. Fanaticism shall lead Antichrist's followers to exult in having silenced in death their Christian rebukers. Like her Lord, the Church will have her dark passion-week, followed by bright resurrection-morn. It is a historical coincidence that, at the 5th Lateran council, May 5, 1514, no witness (not even the Moravians who were summoned) testified for the truth, as Huss and Jerome did at Constance. An orator, mounting the tribunal before the representatives of Papal Christendom, said, 'There is no reclamant, no opponent.' Luther, on October 31, 1517, exactly three and a half years afterward, posted up his famous theses on the church at Wittenberg. The objection is, the years are 365, not 360 days; so two and a half days are deficient: still the coincidence is curious.
Send gifts one to another - as was usual at a joyous festival.
Tormented them - namely, with the plagues (Revelation 11:5-6); also, by their testimony against the earthly.