| Geneva Study Bible {8} And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, (8) The story of the first angel, who strikes the kingdom of the beast with two plagues abroad the darkness, with biles and distresses most grievous, throughout his whole kingdom that by this he might wound the conscience of the wicked, and punish the perverse obstinacy of the idolaters: of which arose perturbation, and thence a furious indignation and desperate madness, raging against God and hurtful to itself. People's New Testament 16:10,11 THE FIFTH VIAL. The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast. By the throne of the beast (Revised Version) must be meant the seat of his power. Wesley's Notes 16:10 The four first phials are closely connected together; the fifth concerns the throne of the beast, the sixth the Mahometans, the seventh chiefly the heathens. The four first phials and the four first trumpets go round the whole earth; the three last phials and the three last trumpets go lengthways over the earth in a straight line. The fifth poured out his phial upon the throne of the wild beast - It is not said, on the beast and his throne. Perhaps the sea will then be vacant. And his kingdom was darkened - With a lasting, not a transient, darkness. However the beast as yet has his kingdom. Afterward the woman sits upon the beast. and then it is said, The wild beast is not, Rev 17:3,7,8. Scofield Reference Notes Margin angel See Scofield Note: "Heb 1:4". Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 10. angel-omitted by A, B, C, Vulgate, and Syriac. But Coptic and Andreas support it. seat-Greek, "throne of the beast": set up in arrogant mimicry of God's throne; the dragon gave his throne to the beast (Re 13:2). darkness-parallel to the Egyptian plague of darkness, Pharaoh being the type of Antichrist (compare Notes, see on [2727]Re 15:2, 3; compare the fifth trumpet, Re 9:2). gnawed their tongues for pain-Greek, "owing to the pain" occasioned by the previous plagues, rendered more appalling by the darkness. Or, as "gnashing of teeth" is one of the accompaniments of hell, so this "gnawing of their tongues" is through rage at the baffling of their hopes and the overthrow of their kingdom. They meditate revenge and are unable to effect it; hence their frenzy [Grotius]. Those in anguish, mental and bodily, bite their lips and tongues. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 16:8-11 The heart of man is so desperately wicked, that the most severe miseries never will bring any to repent, without the special grace of God. Hell itself is filled with blasphemies; and those are ignorant of the history of human nature, of the Bible, and of their own hearts, who do not know that the more men suffer, and the more plainly they see the hand of God in their sufferings, the more furiously they often rage against him. Let sinners now seek repentance from Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, or they will have the anguish and horror of an unhumbled, impenitent, and desperate heart; thus adding to their guilt and misery through all eternity. Darkness is opposed to wisdom and knowledge, and forebodes the confusion and folly of the idolaters and followers of the beast. It is opposed to pleasure and joy, and signifies anguish and vexation of spirit. | 
