Offenbarung 8:8

as it were--not literally a mountain: a mountain-like burning mass. There is a plain allusion to Jer 51:25; Amo 7:4. third part of the sea became blood--In the parallel second vial, the whole sea (not merely a third) becomes blood. The overthrow of Jericho, the type of the Antichristian Babylon, after which Israel, under Joshua (the same name as Jesus), victoriously took possession of Canaan, the type of Christ's and His people's kingdom, is perhaps alluded to in the SEVEN trumpets, which end in the overthrow of all Christ's foes, and the setting up of His kingdom. On the seventh day, at the seventh time, when the seven priests blew the seven ram's horn trumpets, the people shouted, and the walls fell flat: and then ensued the blood-shedding of the foe. A mountain-like fiery mass would not naturally change water into blood; nor would the third part of ships be thereby destroyed.

We have already seen what occurred upon opening six of the seals; we now come to the opening of the seventh, which introduced the sounding of the seven trumpets; and a direful scene now opens. Most expositors agree that the seven seals represent the interval between the apostle's time and the reign of Constantine, but that the seven trumpets are designed to represent the rise of antichrist, some time after the empire became Christian. In this chapter we have, I. The preface, or prelude, to the sounding of the trumpets (Rev 8:1-6). II. The sounding of four of the trumpets (Rev 8:7, etc.).

8:8-9 water . . . became blood: This judgment is similar to the first plague on Egypt (see Exod 7:14-25; Ps 78:44). • The mountain of fire suggests something similar to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 that brought bloody destruction to ships and sea life (see Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16.1-22).