The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Revelation — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Revelation
John Stuart Mill · en
Why Har-Magedon? There was, we have every reason to believe, no such
place. The name is symbolical. It is a compound word derived from the
Hebrew, and signifying the mountain of Megiddo. We are thus again
taken back to Old Testament history, in which the great plain of
Megiddo, the most extensive in Palestine, plays on more than one
occasion a notable part. In particular, that plain was famous for two
great slaughters, that of the Canaanitish host by Barak, celebrated in
the song of Deborah,[438] and that in which King Josiah fell.[439] The
former is probably alluded to, for the enemies of Israel were there
completely routed. For a similar though still more terrible
destruction the hosts of evil are assembled at Har-Magedon. The Seer
thinks it enough to assemble them, and to name the place. He does not
need to go further or to describe the victory.
The seventh Bowl now follows:--
And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came
forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It
is done; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and
there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men
upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. And the great
city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations
fell: and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to
give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And
great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, cometh down
out of heaven upon men: and men blasphemed God because of the plague
of the hail; for the plague thereof is exceeding great (xvi. 17-21).
The seventh or last Bowl is poured out into the air, here thought of
as the realm of that prince of this world who is also "the prince of
the power of the air."[440] All else, land and sea and waters and sun
and the throne of the beast, has now been smitten so that evil has
only to suffer its final blow. It has been searched out everywhere;
and therefore the end may come. That end comes, and is spoken of in
figures more strongly coloured than those of either the sixth Seal or
the seventh Trumpet. First of all _a great voice is heard out of the_
(sanctuary of the) _temple, from the throne, saying, It is done_,
God's plan is executed. His last manifestation of Himself in judgment
has been made. This voice is then accompanied by a more terrible
shaking of the heavens and the earth than we have as yet been called
to witness, the earthquake in particular being _such as was not since
there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty_.