Revelation 9:16

And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: I heard the number of them.

The number mentioned here could not possibly have been ascertained by counting, hence the mention of John's having heard it. Even this vast number appears to be symbolical of an infinitely greater and more overwhelming number.

This martial host signifies war, the great recurring scourge of the human race. When it is time for millions of men to perish, a war is all that is needed to bring it about.

This describes war, not one particular war, but all wars, past, present and future, but especially those frightful wars that shall be waged toward the close of this dispensation.[71]

Some have taken "myriads of myriads" as the 200,000,000 are enumerated here to symbolize the Turkish cavalry, which were numbered by "myriads." However, the heavenly angels were numbered with the same words in Revelation 5:11. Are God's angels numbered like Turkish cavalry? Furthermore, this is an army of cavalry; and Constantinople fell to artillery. All specific applications of this prophecy encounter similar difficulties.