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Ch. viii. 1-13:
The opening of the seventh seal forms the climax. The awful catastrophe is marked by "silence in heaven about the space of
half an hour." The four angels that hold the winds at the four corners of the earth are told to check the blowing of the winds
on land, on sea, and on the trees until an angel has sealed upon the forehead, with the seal of the living God, the 144,000
servants of God, that is, 12,000 of each of the twelve tribes of Israel (Dan as idolater is excluded, and Levi takes his place
along with the two sons of Joseph), in order to guard them against the impending destruction (vii. 1-8). The seven trumpets
of the seven angels before God usher in seven great calamities: the first four involve a world conflagration ("mabbul shel
esh") that burns up the third part of the land and dries up a third part of the sea and the rivers, and an eclipse of sun,
moon, and stars (viii. 2-12; comp. Sibyllines, iii. 80-90, 540); the remaining three, who are announced by an angel flying
through the midst of heaven (viii. 13), bring even greater woes; first the torment of locusts, described in all its fierceness
in the apocalyptic chapters of Joel (i. 6, ii. 2-9), coming forth from the abyss over which the angel Abaddon (Destruction;
comp. Job xxviii. 22; comp. "Ẓefoni," Joel, ii. 20; Suk. 52a) alone has power (ix. 1-12); secondly, the letting loose
from the banks of the Euphrates of the four kings (; not "angels," ), with numberless hosts of wild Parthian horsemen wearing
breastplates of fire and brimstone, and riding on horses that have heads of lions and tails of serpents, and out of whose
mouths come fire, smoke, and brimstone (comp. Nahum ii. 4-5, iii. 3). As with the former plagues, a third part of mankind
is killed; they were prepared for this task from the beginning of the world. "And yet," closes the seer, "the rest of the
men which were not killed repented not, but continued to worship demons, idols of gold and silver, bronze, stone, and wood,
practise witchcraft, and commit murders, fornications, and thefts" (ix. 13-21; see Sibyllines, ii. 255-262, iv. 31-34; and
compare the four kings of the mighty hosts upon the banks of the Euphrates in the Midrash of Simeon ben Yoḥai, in Jellinek,
"B. H." iii. 81).
The third and last wo, announced in xi. 14 (x.-xi. 13 interrupts the connection), is no longer given in what follows xi. 15a;
for the Christian reviser changed the text which originally described the last judgment passed upon the non-repentant people,
"the kingdoms of this world," and instead speaks of their having "become kingdoms of Christ." Only verse 18, telling of "the
wrath of God that has come upon the nations that shall be destroyed as they have destroyed the land," contains traces of the
former contents of the chapter; although possibly part of xiv. 1-5, referring to the 144,000 of Israel who had been saved,
and the proclamation to all the nations to "fear God and worship Him who made heaven, earth, sea, and the fountains of water,"
"for the hour of His judgment has come" (xiv. 6-7), formed part of the original Jewish apocalypse; also xi. 16-18, the song
of praise by the twenty-four elders before God and the vision of the reappearance of the Ark of the Covenant (xi. 19; comp.
Yoma 53b, 54a).
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