<p>9:14- see on Ps. 78:49; Lk. 1:10,11. For the significance of the Euphrates, see on 16:12,13.</p><p><em>One saying to the sixth angel that had one trumpet: Release the four angels that are chained at the great river Euphrates-</em> The voice of prayer is effectively a voice of command to Angels resulting in dramatic action upon the earth / land, and in this case, the loosing of restraining Angels. The voice of human prayer as it were commands: &ldquo;Loose the four angels which are bound at the great river Euphrates&rdquo; (R.V.). They then eagerly go forward to prepare the way for the second coming. The implication is surely that those Angels were geographically bound / limited in the scope of their work by the Euphrates River- and yet in their eagerness to progress the timetable of events leading to the last day, they yearned to go beyond that limitation. The reference to &ldquo;the Angel of the waters&rdquo; likewise suggests that an Angel was operative in one geographical area. It could be that as the future elohim we likewise will have areas of geographical influence in the age to come- the &ldquo;cities&rdquo; over which we are given dominion.</p><p>There seems no reason to doubt that these, along with most other mentions of 'Angels' in Revelation,&nbsp;can be taken as literal Angels John saw in the court of Heaven, representing individuals and groups on earth. The fact that they were &quot;loosed&quot; implies a restraint from action- as if the action they desired to take was held back by another (&quot;the sixth&quot;) Angel &quot;preparing&quot; or 'adjusting' (Greek) them for a certain period. This recalls the Angel of death being restrained or held back by the Angel who hovered over the homes of the Israelites on Passover night in Egypt. It's not that there are good and sinful Angels; but there are Angels who have different tasks, and make exceptions in executing those tasks because of the intervention of other Angels.</p><p>God Himself has a close interest in and control of the work of His Angels; thus in Rev. 9:13,14 we read of the sixth Angel sounding, wanting to bring about certain things on the earth. The response to this was &quot;a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth Angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates&quot;. This voice was probably either from Christ (the altar), as the head of the Angels, or God Himself; or maybe a mighty Angel representing God or Christ. It instructed the Angel how to bring about His intention by bringing other Angels into operation which this sixth Angel presumably had in its control- hence they were to be &quot;loosed&quot; by Him.</p><p>The drying up of the Euphrates spoken of in Rev. 16:12 is what enables the seventh trumpet and seventh seal to come to pass- and they refer to the coming of Christ. It cannot be insignificant that the Islamic State took control of the dams on the Euphrates. The latter day Islamic entity which overruns Israel will likely do the same. The control of rivers, dams, and water installations would be a major weapon in their tactical armoury. This was indeed how it was in the time of Saddam Hussein. For more information on this, see Vidal, John (<em>The Guardian</em> 2 July 2014). <a href=http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/02/water-key-conflict-iraq-syria-isis>&quot;Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn&quot;</a>.</p><p>The waters of a river are symbolic of nations (Is. 23:10), specifically the Assyrians in Is. 8:7, Zech. 10:11 and Jer. 2:18- it could be that the reference is to the drying up or destruction as the metaphor of &lsquo;drying up&rsquo; means of the nations and tribes of the fertile crescent. And these are the very areas where the Islamic State is so active. The Assyrian armies were those &ldquo;beyond the river Euphrates&rdquo; which were unleashed by God upon Judah (Is. 7:20). This is the basis for the language of Rev. 9:14, where four Angels are bound by the river Euphrates and unleashed in the sense that a huge army is let loose from beyond that river in order to judge an impenitent Israel. We recall that it was an Angel which stood upon the river in Dan. 12:6. We note that Greece likewise was likened to a ram held back by a river, which it jumped over (Dan. 8:3). The latter day power restrained by the Euphrates is therefore to be based upon the historical Assyria and Greece. Again we see how the image of Daniel 2 stands complete in the last days, because the final entity which dominates Israel will incorporate elements of the previous dominators, such as Assyria and Greece.</p><p>Euphrates was the boundary of the land promised to Abraham. Israel were thrown out of their land by being taken 'beyond the river Euphrates', just as Adam was cast out of Eden, which appears to have been bounded by the Euphrates. The 200,000 (or RV &quot;twice ten thousand times ten thousand&quot;) horsemen were bound at RV; Gk. <em>epi</em> the Euphrates (Rev. 9:14), which is the northern border of the land promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:18; Ex. 23:31; Dt. 1:7; Josh. 1:4; 2 Sam. 8:3). When Judah were taken to Babylon to be punished, this is described as their being punished in the border of Israel (Ez. 11:10,11). Babylon was located on the border of the land promised to Abraham. The idea is clearly that these hordes will come from that northern border, the Euphrates, and invade Israel. The Islamic jihadists are already using pictures of horsemen as symbolic of their mission. The Greek text speaks of&rdquo;&nbsp;twice ten thousand times ten thousand&quot;, recalling the way that the image of Daniel 2 and the beasts of Daniel 7 will be destroyed when &quot;ten thousand times ten thousand&quot; stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Dan. 7:10). Once the Euphrates is no longer allowed to restrain these hordes, they will race towards Israel- and judgment by the returned Lord Jesus. Note too the language of Mic. 5:6- the latter day Assyrian will &ldquo;tread within our borders&rdquo;, which include the Euphrates, and then be destroyed by Christ&rsquo;s return. Revelation is putting this another way, in saying that the hordes of invaders will come from beyond the Euphrates, the border of Israel.</p><p>The trumpets, seals and vials do not have to be chronologically consecutive events; they are all part of the kaleidoscope of images which we have in Revelation. They are different takes and angles on related events. The sixth Angel loosing the hordes bound at the Euphrates is matched by the fifth Angel coming down to the land and unlocking the bottomless pit with a key (Rev. 9:1,2; this surely refers to a Divine Angel, as it would make no sense for &lsquo;satan&rsquo; to be given the key to his own prison). This released the aggressive locusts to swarm over the earth / land of Israel and kill and persecute those in the land promised to Abraham who haven&rsquo;t taken the Father&rsquo;s Name into their foreheads- for all their hypocritical wearing of phylacteries. Again we have the metaphor of restraint being lifted, and swarms of enemies pouring into the earth / land of Israel. The seventh trumpet begins with the news that there will be no more delay (Rev. 10:6)- the idea is again of an imposed delay / restraint being now lifted. Locusts are symbolic of Israel&rsquo;s neighbouring enemies (Dt. 28:38; Jud. 6:5; 7:12; Jer. 46:23; Joel 1:4; 2:25). Especially significant is the reference in Am. 7:1 LXX: &ldquo;Thus has the Lord God shewed me; and, behold, a swarm of locusts coming from the east; and, behold, one caterpillar, king Gog&rdquo;. The locusts from the east, headed by Gog, released by the fifth Angel, compares with the kings from the east who are released by the sixth Angel. The locusts arise out of the bottomless pit, just as the beast arises out of the bottomless pit (Rev. 11:7; 17:8). The beast is therefore another image for the locusts; they all speak of the enemies of Israel coming from the east and swarming the land. The locusts are described as having long hair, and striking as scorpions (Rev. 9:5,8)- all very reminiscent of jihadist fighters.</p><p>The similarities between Revelation 9 and Joel are striking, and without question Joel is speaking of the neighbour nations pouring into the land of Israel: &ldquo;The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array&hellip; They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march everyone on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks&hellip; They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining&rdquo; (Joel 2:4-10).</p><p>The four Angels holding winds in Rev. 9:16 surely alludes to the Angels gathering the elect from the four winds (Mt. 24:31; Mk. 13:27). The process of gathering the elect at the last day is part of the same process as gathering the nations to judgment. It could be that the final gathering of the nations against Israel therefore occurs at the same time as the gathering of the believers to judgment. It would seem that now all is in place for such a gathering of the nations from beyond the Euphrates- and therefore the Lord's coming could be really very near. The whole scene surely consciously recalls that of Daniel 12, where Daniel sees Angels standing on the banks of &quot;the river&quot;, announcing that there must be a time of terrible trouble for Israel lasting &quot;time, times and a half&quot; (three and a half years?) and then the whole suffering of Israel would be &quot;finished&quot; by the return of Messiah and establishment of the Kingdom of God (Dan. 12:5-10). &quot;The river&quot; is not defined, but the term is usually used in the prophets for the Euphrates; at the very least it must refer to one of the rivers in the Tigris-Euphrates basin. Note the significance of the river Ulai, a tributary of the Euphrates, in Daniel 8. Revelation expands upon this by saying that the Angels cease restraining the jihadist hordes and then release them in the last days, when the Euphrates dries up. Biblically, the drying up of water is so that armies can pass over (we think of the Red Sea and Jordan being dried up for this intent). The final time of trouble is brought about by Angels standing upon &quot;the river&quot;- and the fact the Euphrates is now in the hands of Islamists is therefore highly significant.</p><p>It is also surely no coincidence that there are four nations represented by the four Angels? located to the East of the Euphrates, bound by her- Turkey, Syria, Iraq and what is now effectively the nation of Kurdistan. Kurdish independence and the development of a <em>de facto </em>state of Kurdistan is something we can expect to develop. It could just about be argued that Iran is also effectively held back from the promised land by the Euphrates, but Iran doesn't in fact border the river. It could be argued that the part of Turkey which is bound by the Euphrates is Kurdish territory, and may form part of a future state of Kurdistan if it is declared. In this case, the four nations could be Kurdistan, Syria, Iraq and Iran- or perhaps some future Islamic entity. These four nations would be under the control of the four Angels bound at the Euphrates, who then release them when the restraint is lifted.</p>