And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever
and
ever
That is, the smoke of that fire which torments them will for ever
arise; or, in other words, there will be no end of their torment;
hence their misery is called everlasting fire, everlasting
punishment, and everlasting destruction, ( Matthew
25:41 Matthew
25:46 ) ( 2
Thessalonians 1:9 ) and smoke being very troublesome and
distressing, is mentioned to set forth the very uncomfortable
state of the wicked; and so it is used by Jewish writers: hence
we read of (Mnhg Nnt) ,
"the smoke of hell" {r}, with which the eyes of the wicked will
be filled in the world to come: and they have no rest, day
nor night;
the fire of divine wrath which tortures them is never quenched,
and the worm of conscience which gnaws them never dies: this is
directly contrary to a notion of the Jews, that the wicked in
hell have rest sometimes; they talk of angels blowing away the
smoke from them, so that they have rest an hour and a half; and
which they say they have three times a day, and whenever Israel
says Amen, let his great name be blessed F19; and
particularly that hell fire never burns on the sabbath day, nor
does the smoke of it ascend then, and that the wicked have always
rest on that days F20; though sometimes they contradict
themselves, and say they never have any rest F21, which
is the truth: who worship the beast and his image, and
whosoever receiveth the
mark of his name;
that is, whoever are the followers of antichrist, or the
professors of the Popish religion; so far is salvation from being
in the church of Rome, and only there, that there is none in it;
and whoever live and die in the profession of Popery, shall
surely be damned as this passage is true.
F18 Targum in Psal. xxxvii. 20. T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 1. Caphtor, fol. 109. 1.
F19 Zohar in Gen. fol. 47. 4.
F20 Zohar in Exod. fol. 36. 4. & in Lev. fol. 45. 3. & in Deut. fol. 115. 3. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 65. 2. Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 149. 1. Nishmat Chayim, fol. 39. 1.
F21 Zohar in Exod. fol. 62. 3. T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 152. 2.