And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great
multitude,
&c.] Even of all the servants of the Lord, and them that fear
him, small and great; a vast multitude of converted Jews and
Gentiles, in the several parts of the world, who in answer to the
voice out of the throne, which came with great power and energy,
lift up their voices in praise to God, both for their own
conversion, and for the downfall of Babylon:
and as the voice of many waters:
falling down in a descent, or in rough and rocky places, which
make a great noise, and is heard afar off; and such must be the
united voice of so great a multitude of converts as will be
gathered together everywhere at this time: the same metaphor is
used of the voice of Christ in ( Revelation
1:15 )
and as the voice of mighty thunderings;
violent claps of it, which are sometimes so loud that they rend
the very heavens, and strike the inhabitants of the earth with
the utmost consternation: these are the same voices which will be
heard in the church when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, (
Revelation 11:15 )
saying, Alleluia;
or praise ye the Lord; they will call upon one another to
celebrate the praises of God, on account of the above things, in
the same manner, and using the same word the people in heaven,
and the four and twenty elders and four living creatures, do; and
this is the fourth time the word is used in this context, and
confirms the observation that has been made, that this vision
refers to the conversion of the Jews, which will quickly follow
the destruction of Rome: and the Jews themselves have a notion,
that when Rome is destroyed the Messiah will come; and so he will
in his spiritual reign. They say F15,
``our redemption will be immediately upon the destruction of Rome.''And again F16,
``the root of our redemption depends upon the destruction of Rome.''The reason for their saying "hallelujah" follows,
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth;
by whom is meant the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, and
God over all, blessed for ever, and is the Almighty; and though
he was set up as King over the holy hill of Zion, and has reigned
over the church in every age, and came as King into this world,
though his kingdom was not of it, and at his resurrection was
declared Lord and Christ, and his kingdom was then more manifest,
and he has ever since displayed his kingly power in defending his
church, and defeating the enemies of it; yet now will he reign
more visibly and gloriously, his kingdom will be enlarged from
one end of the earth to the other, and he will be King over all
the earth, which will occasion great joy to Jews and Gentiles;
see ( Psalms
47:1 Psalms 47:2 ) (
97:1 ) and
(See Gill on
Revelation 11:17).