And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved
"Pine away" F9, as with sickness, grow languid,
become obscure, lose their light, and be turned into blood and
darkness; this figure is used to express the horror of this
calamity, as if the very heavens themselves, and the sun, and
moon, and stars, were affected with it; see ( Isaiah 13:10
) and the heavens shall be rolled gether as a
scroll;
a book, or volume, which when rolled up, one letter of it could
not be read; and it was the manner formerly of making and writing
books in the form of a roll; hence the word volume; and here it
signifies that there should be such a change in the heavens, as
that not a star should be seen, much less the sun or moon; and
may signify the utter removal and abolition of all dignities and
offices, supreme and subordinate, civil and ecclesiastical, in
the whole Roman jurisdiction; thus the destruction of Rome Pagan
is described in ( Revelation
6:14 ) as the destruction of Rome Papal is here; from whence
the language seems to be borrowed: and all their host shall
fall down, as the leaf falleth off from
the vine, and as a falling [fig] from the fig
tree;
that is, the stars should fall down: by whom may be meant persons
in office, that made a considerable figure; who shall fall from
their stations, in which they shone with much splendour and
grandeur, as leaves fall from trees in autumn, particularly the
vine; or as unripe and rotten figs fall from the fig tree when
shaken by a violent wind; the same metaphor is used in ( Revelation
6:13 ) .
F9 (wqmn) "tabescet", Vatablus; "centabescet", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "contabescent", Cocceius, Gataker.