And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
As Revelation 6:4; Revelation 6:6-8, the sword, famine, and pestilence, answer to Matthew 24:6-7; Revelation 6:9-10, as to martyrdoms, answer to Matthew 24:9-10: so this passage, Revelation 6:12-17, answers to Matthew 24:29-30, the portents of the immediate coming of the day of the Lord; not the coming itself, until the elect are sealed, and the judgments invoked by the martyrs descend on the earth, the sea, and the trees, (Revelation 7:1-17.)
And, lo. So A; but B C 'Aleph (') omit "lo."
Earthquake - `shaking' of the heavens, the sea, and the dry land: the shaking of these mutable things, the necessary preliminary to setting up those things which cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:26-28). One of the catchwords (Wordsworth) connecting the sixth seal with the sixth trumpet (Revelation 11:13) and the seventh vial (Revelation 16:17-21); also the seventh seal (Revelation 8:5).
Sackcloth - made of the "hair" of Cilician goats: 'cilicium,' or Cilician cloth, used for tents, etc. Paul, a Cilician, made such tents (Acts 18:3).
Moon. 'Aleph (') A B C h, Vulgate, read, 'the whole' or 'full moon:' not merely the crescent.
As blood - (Joel 2:31.)