4:1 After these things I looked, and there was 5 a door standing open in heaven! 6 And the first voice I had heard speaking to me 7 like a trumpet 8 said: “Come up here so that 9 I can show you what must happen after these things.”
8:7 The 10 first angel blew his trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was thrown at the earth so that 11 a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
8:12 Then 12 the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. And there was no light for a third of the day 13 and for a third of the night likewise.
1 sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.
2 tn That is, a cause for sinning. An alternate translation is “who instructed Balak to cause the people of Israel to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols…”
3 tn Grk “sons,” but the expression υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ (Juioi Israhl) is an idiom for the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (see L&N 11.58).
4 tn Due to the actual events in the OT (Num 22-24; 31:16), πορνεῦσαι (porneusai) is taken to mean “sexual immorality.” BDAG 854 s.v. πορνεύω 1 states, “engage in illicit sex, to fornicate, to whore…W. φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘eat meat offered to idols’ Rv 2:14, 20.”
5 tn Grk “and behold.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
6 tn Or “in the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).
7 tn Grk “with me.” The translation “with me” implies that John was engaged in a dialogue with the one speaking to him (e.g., Jesus or an angel) when in reality it was a one-sided conversation, with John doing all the listening. For this reason, μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ (met’ emou, “with me”) was translated as “to me.”
8 sn The phrase speaking to me like a trumpet refers back to Rev 1:10.
9 tn The conjunction καί (kai), much like the vav-consecutive in Hebrew, appears to be introducing a final/purpose clause here rather than a coordinate clause.
10 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
11 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so that” because what follows has the logical force of a result clause.
12 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
13 tn Grk “the day did not shine [with respect to] the third of it.”