Verse 15
These angels were ready for a specific assignment at a specific hour in history (cf. Revelation 12:6; Revelation 16:12; Matthew 25:34; Matthew 25:41; Mark 10:40; Luke 2:31; 1 Corinthians 2:9).
"One article governing all four nouns shows that duration is not in view, but that the occasion of each one of the time designations is one and the same: the appointed hour occurs on the appointed day in the appointed month and in the appointed year. . . . Once again, this sounds the note of divine providence that recurs so often in this book (e.g., dei in Revelation 1:1, mellei in Revelation 1:19) . . ." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 44.]
Their task was to put one-third of those who dwell on the earth (i.e., earth-dwellers) to death (cf. Revelation 8:13). This will result in approximately half the population of the earth alive at the beginning of the Tribulation being dead at the end of this judgment. One-fourth died under the fourth seal judgment (Revelation 6:7-8), and many more died as martyrs and for other reasons (cf. Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21-22). However, it is only the earth-dwellers, those in rebellion against God, who suffer death as a result of this woe (cf. Revelation 9:20).
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