Revelation 19

11. behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him--identical with Revelation 6:2 . Here as there he comes forth "conquering and to conquer." Compare the ass-colt on which He rode into Jerusalem ( Matthew 21:1-7 ). The horse was used for war: and here He is going forth to war with the beast. The ass is for peace. His riding on it into Jerusalem is an earnest of His reign in Jerusalem over the earth, as the Prince of peace, after all hostile powers have been overthrown. When the security of the world power, and the distress of the people of God, have reached the highest point, the Lord Jesus shall appear visibly from heaven to put an end to the whole course of the world, and establish His kingdom of glory. He comes to judge with vengeance the world power, and to bring to the Church redemption, transfiguration, and power over the world. Distinguish between this coming ( Matthew 24:27 Matthew 24:29 Matthew 24:37 Matthew 24:39 ; Greek, "parousia") and the end, or final judgment ( Matthew 25:31 , 1 Corinthians 15:23 ). Powerful natural phenomena shall accompany His advent [AUBERLEN].

12. Identifying Him with the Son of man similarly described, Revelation 1:14 .
many crowns--Greek, "diadems": not merely (Greek, "stephanoi") garlands of victory, but royal crowns, as KING OF KINGS. Christ's diadem comprises all the diadems of the earth and of heavenly powers too. Contrast the papal tiara composed of three diadems. Compare also the little horn (Antichrist) that overcomes the three horns or kingdoms, Daniel 7:8 Daniel 7:24 (Quære, the Papacy? or some three kingdoms that succeed the papacy, which itself, as a temporal kingdom, was made up at first of three kingdoms, the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, obtained by Pope Zachary and Stephen II from Pepin, the usurper of the French dominion). Also, the seven crowns (diadems) on the seven heads of the dragon ( Revelation 12:3 ), and ten diadems on the ten heads of the beast. These usurpers claim the diadems which belong to Christ alone.
he had a name written--B and Syriac insert, "He had names written, and a name written," &c. meaning that the names of the dominion which each diadem indicated were written on them severally. But A, Vulgate, ORIGEN, and CYPRIAN omits the words, as English Version.
name . . . that no man knew but . . . himself--( Judges 13:18 , 1 Corinthians 2:9 1 Corinthians 2:11 , 1 John 3:2 ). The same is said of the "new name" of believers. In this, as in all other respects, the disciple is made like his Lord. The Lord's own "new name" is to be theirs, and to be "in their foreheads"; whence we may infer that His as yet unknown name also is written on His forehead; as the high priest had "Holiness to the Lord" inscribed on the miter on his brow. John saw it as "written," but knew not its meaning. It is, therefore, a name which in all its glorious significancy can be only understood when the union of His saints with Him, and His and their joint triumph and reign, shall be perfectly manifested at the final consummation.

13. vesture dipped in blood-- Isaiah 63:2 is alluded to here, and in Revelation 19:15 , end. There the blood is not His own, but that of His foes. So here the blood on His "vesture," reminding us of His own blood shed for even the ungodly who trample on it, is a premonition of the shedding of their blood in righteous retribution. He sheds the blood, not of the godly, as the harlot and beast did, but of the blood-stained ungodly, including them both.
The Word of God--who made the world, is He also who under the same character and attributes shall make it anew. His title, Son of God, is applicable in a lower sense, also to His people; but "the Word of God" indicates His incommunicable Godhead, joined to His manhood, which He shall then manifest in glory. "The Bride does not fear the Bridegroom; her love casteth out fear. She welcomes Him; she cannot be happy but at His side. The Lamb [ Revelation 19:9 , the aspect of Christ to His people at His coming] is the symbol of Christ in His gentleness. Who would be afraid of a lamb? Even a little child, instead of being scared, desires to caress it. There is nothing to make us afraid of God but sin, and Jesus is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. What a fearful contrast is the aspect which He will wear towards His enemies! Not as the Bridegroom and the Lamb, but as the [avenging] judge and warrior stained in the blood of His enemies."

14. the armies . . . in heaven--Compare "the horse bridles," Revelation 14:20 . The glorified saints whom God "will bring with" Christ at His advent; compare Revelation 17:14 , "they that are with Him, called, chosen, faithful"; as also "His mighty angels."
white and clean--Greek, "pure." A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and CYPRIAN omit "and," which ORIGEN and ANDREAS retain, as English Version.

15. out of his mouth . . . sword--( Revelation 1:16 , Revelation 2:12 Revelation 2:16 ). Here in its avenging power, 2 Thessalonians 2:8 , "consume with the Spirit of His mouth" ( Isaiah 11:4 , to which there is allusion here); not in its convicting and converting efficacy ( Ephesians 6:17 , Hebrews 4:12 Hebrews 4:13 , where also the judicial keenness of the sword-like word is included). The Father commits the judgment to the Son.
he shall rule--The HE is emphatic, He and none other, in contrast to the usurpers who have misruled on earth. "Rule," literally, "tend as a shepherd"; but here in a punitive sense. He, who would have shepherded them with pastoral rod and with the golden scepter of His love, shall dash them in pieces, as refractory rebels, with "a rod of iron."
treadeth . . . wine-press--( Isaiah 63:3 ).
of the fierceness and wrath--So ANDREAS reads. But A, B, Vulgate, Coptic, and ORIGEN read, "of the fierceness (or boiling indignation) of the wrath," omitting "and."
Almighty--The fierceness of Christ's wrath against His foes will be executed with the resources of omnipotence.

16. "His name written on His vesture and on His thigh," was written partly on the vesture, partly on the thigh itself, at the part where in an equestrian figure the robe drops from the thigh. The thigh symbolizes Christ's humanity as having come, after the flesh, from the loins of David, and now appearing as the glorified "Son of man." On the other hand, His incommunicable divine name, "which no man knew," is on His head ( Revelation 19:12 ), [MENOCHIUS].
KING OF KINGS--Compare Revelation 17:14 , in contrast with Revelation 19:17 , the beast being in attempted usurpation a king of kings, the ten kings delivering their kingdom to him.

17. an--Greek, "one."
in the sun--so as to be conspicuous in sight of the whole world.
to all the fowls--( Ezekiel 39:17-20 ).
and gather yourselves--A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS read, "be gathered," omitting "and."
of the great God--A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS read, "the great supper (that is, banquet) of God."

18. Contrast with this "supper," Revelation 19:17 Revelation 19:18 , the marriage supper of the Lamb, Revelation 19:9 .
captains--Greek, "captains of thousands," that is, chief captains. The "kings" are "the ten" who "give their power unto the beast."
free and bond--specified in Revelation 13:16 , as "receiving the mark of the beast." The repetition of flesh (in the Greek it is plural: masses of flesh) five times in this verse, marks the gross carnality of the followers of the beast. Again, the giving of their flesh to the fowls to eat, is a righteous retribution for their not suffering the dead bodies of Christ's witnesses to be put in graves.

19. gathered together--at Armageddon, under the sixth vial. For "their armies" in B and ANDREAS, there is found "His armies" in A.
war--so ANDREAS. But A and B read, "the war," namely, that foretold, Revelation 16:14 , 17:4 .

20. and with him the false prophet--A reads, "and those with him." B reads, "and he who was with him, the false prophet."
miracles--Greek, "the miracles" (literally, "signs") recorded already ( Revelation 13:14 ) as wrought by the second beast before (literally, 'in sight of') the first beast. Hence it follows the second beast is identical with the false prophet. Many expositors represent the first beast to be the secular, the second beast to be the ecclesiastical power of Rome; and account for the change of title for the latter from the "other beast" to the "false prophet," is because by the judgment on the harlot, the ecclesiastical power will then retain nothing of its former character save the power to deceive. I think it not unlikely that the false prophet will be the successor of the spiritual pretensions of the papacy; while the beast in its last form as the fully revealed Antichrist will be the secular representative and embodiment of the fourth world kingdom, Rome, in its last form of intensified opposition to God. Compare with this prophecy, Daniel ( Daniel 7:8 ) makes no mention of the second beast, or false prophet, but mentions that "the little horn" has "the eyes of a man," that is, cunning and intellectual culture; this is not a feature of the first beast in the thirteenth chapter, but is expressed by the Apocalyptic "false prophet," the embodiment of man's unsanctified knowledge, and the subtlety of the old serpent. The first beast is a political power; the second is a spiritual power--the power of ideas. But both are beasts, the worldly Antichristian wisdom serving the worldly Antichristian power. The dragon is both lion and serpent. As the first law in God's moral government is that "judgment should begin at the house of God," and be executed on the harlot, the faithless Church, by the world power with which she had committed spiritual adultery, so it is a second law that the world power, after having served as God's instrument of punishment, is itself punished. As the harlot is judged by the beast and the ten kings, so these are destroyed by the Lord Himself coming in person. So Zephaniah 1:1-18 compared with Zephaniah 2:1-15 . And Jeremiah, after denouncing Jerusalem's judgment by Babylon, ends with denouncing Babylon's own doom. Between the judgment on the harlot and the Lord's destruction of the beast, will intervene that season in which earthly-mindedness will reach its culmination, and Antichristianity triumph for its short three and a half days during which the two witnesses lie dead. Then shall the Church be ripe for her glorification, the Antichristian world for destruction. The world at the highest development of its material and spiritual power is but a decorated carcass round which the eagles gather. It is characteristic that Antichrist and his kings, in their blindness, imagine that they can wage war against the King of heaven with earthly hosts; herein is shown the extreme folly of Babylonian confusion. The Lord's mere appearance, without any actual encounter, shows Antichrist his nothingness; compare the effect of Jesus' appearance even in His humiliation, John 18:6 [AUBERLEN].
had received--rather as Greek, "received," once for all.
them; that worshipped--literally, "them worshipping" not an act once for all done, as the "received" implies, but those in the habit of "worshipping."
These both were cast . . . into a lake--Greek, ". . . the lake of fire," Gehenna. Satan is subsequently cast into it, at the close of the outbreak which succeeds the millennium ( Revelation 20:10 ). Then Death and Hell, as well those not found at the general judgment "written in the book of life"; this constitutes "the second death."
alive--a living death; not mere annihilation. "Their worm dieth not, their fire is not quenched."

21. the remnant--Greek, "the rest," that is, "the kings and their armies" ( Revelation 19:19 ) classed together in one indiscriminate mass. A solemn confirmation of the warning in Psalms 2:10 .