calmly above them all, assuring him that there was to be mercy and peace. ¶ _In sight like unto an emerald._ The emerald is green, and this colour so predominated in the bow that it seemed to be made of this species of precious stone. The modified and mild colour of green appears to everyone to predominate in the rainbow. Ezekiel (i. 28) has introduced the image of the rainbow, also, in his description of the vision that appeared to {110} him, though not as calmly encircling the throne, but as descriptive of the general appearance of the scene. “As is the appearance of the bow that is on the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.” Milton, also, has introduced it, but it is also as a part of the colouring of the throne:―― “Over their heads a crystal firmament, Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure Amber, and colours of the showery arch.” _Par. Lost_, b. vii. 4 And round about the throne _were_ [180]four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, [181]clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads [182]crowns of gold. 4. _And round about the throne |were| four and twenty seats._ Or rather _thrones_――θρόνοι――the same word being used as that which is rendered _throne_――θρόνος. The word, indeed, properly denotes _a seat_, but it came to be employed to denote particularly the seat on which a monarch sat, and is properly translated thus in ver. 2, 3. So it is rendered in Mat. v. 34; xix. 28; xxiii. 22; xxv. 31; Lu. i. 32; and uniformly elsewhere in the New Testament (fifty-three places in all), except in Lu. i. 52; Re. ii. 13; iv. 4; xi. 16; xvi. 10, where it is rendered _seat_ and _seats_. It should have been rendered _thrones_ here, and is so translated by Professor Stuart. Coverdale and Tyndale render the word _seat_ in each place in ver. 2‒5. It was undoubtedly the design of the writer to represent those who sat on those seats as, in some sense, _kings_――for they have on their heads crowns of gold――and that idea should have been retained in the translation of this word. ¶ _And upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting._ Very various opinions have been entertained in respect to those who thus appeared sitting around the throne, and to the question why the number twenty-four is mentioned. Instead of examining those opinions at length, it will be better to present, in a summary manner, what seems to be probable in regard to the intended reference. The following points, then, would appear to embrace all that can be known on this subject. (1) These elders have a regal character, or are of a kingly order. This is apparent, (a) because they are represented as sitting on “thrones,” and (b) because they have on their heads “crowns of gold.” (2) They are emblematic. They are designed to symbolize or represent some class of persons.