And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
And. So B, Syriac; but A C, Vulgate, Coptic, omit.
After these things. A B C 'Aleph ('), Coptic, read, 'after this.' The two visions come in as an episode after the sixth seal, before the seventh. Though "Israel" may elsewhere designate the spiritual Israel, "the elect (church)" here, where the several names of the tribes are specified, these can only have the literal meaning. The second advent will be the time of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6-7), when the times of the Gentiles shall have been fulfilled (Luke 21:24), and the Jews shall say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:39). During the Lord's absence, the Jews have had no existence as a nation. As Revelation is the Book of the Second Advent, God's favour restored to Israel naturally has place among the events that usher it in.
Earth ... sea ... tree. The judgments on these are in answer to the martyrs' prayer under the fifth seal (Revelation 5:10). Compare the same under the fifth trumpet, the sealed being exempt (Revelation 9:4).
On any tree - `against any tree' х epi (G1909) ti (G5100) dendron (G1186)], but 'on the earth' х epi (G1909) tees (G3588) gees (G1093)].