Revelation 19:3

And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-10 Praising God for what we have, is praying for what is yet further to be done for us. There is harmony between the angels and the saints in this triumphant song. Christ is the Bridegroom of his ransomed church. This second union will be completed in heaven; but the beginning of the glorious millennium (by which is meant a reign of Christ, or a state of happiness, for a thousand years on earth) may be considered as the celebration of his espousals on earth. Then the church of Christ, being purified from errors, divisions, and corruptions, in doctrine, discipline, worship, and practice, will be made ready to be publicly owned by him as his delight and his beloved. The church appeared; not in the gay, gaudy dress of the mother of harlots, but in fine linen, clean and white. In the robes of Christ's righteousness, imputed for justification, and imparted for sanctification. The promises of the gospel, the true sayings of God, opened, applied, and sealed by the Spirit of God, in holy ordinances, are the marriage-feast. This seems to refer to the abundant grace and consolation Christians will receive in the happy days which are to come. The apostle offered honour to the angel. The angel refused it. He directed the apostle to the true and only object of religious worship; to worship God, and him alone. This plainly condemns the practice of those who worship the elements of bread and wine, and saints, and angels; and of those who do not believe that Christ is truly and by nature God, yet pay him a sort of worship. They stand convicted of idolatry by a messenger from heaven. These are the true sayings of God; of Him who is to be worshipped, as one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And again they said, Alleluia - See the notes on Revelation 19:1. The event was so glorious and so important; the final destruction of the great enemy of the church was of so much moment in its bearing on the welfare of the world, as to call forth repeated expressions of praise.

And her smoke rose up forever and ever - See the notes on Revelation 14:11. This is an image of final ruin; the image being derived probably from the description in Genesis of the smoke that ascended from the cities of the plain, Genesis 19:28. On the joy expressed here in her destruction, compare the notes on Revelation 18:20.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. again—Greek, "a second time."

rose up—Greek, "goeth up."

for ever and ever—Greek, "to the ages of the ages."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As the church proceeded in her praises, so God proceeded in his judgments upon the great whore, until she was ruined past recovery.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And again they said, Alleluia,.... Or a "second time" they said it; they began and ended their solemn worship and service with it; so some psalms begin and end with this word, translated in the Old Testament by the words "Praise ye the LORD", as in Psalm 106:1 &c. and the repeating of the word shows how hearty, arnest, and constant they were in the work of praise on this account:

and her smoke rose up for ever and ever; they repeated their hallelujah, or gave one spiritual "huzza" more at the burning of Rome, and this followed: or the words may be rendered, "for her smoke rose", &c. and so are a reason for the second "hallelujah": it looks as if Rome, like another Sodom and Gomorrah, would sink into a sulphurous burning lake, and continue so: respect is had to the everlasting punishment of antichrist and his followers in hell, and to the everlasting burnings that will follow Rome's temporal destruction, which was an example and symbol of the vengeance of eternal fire; see Revelation 14:11 so the Jews (o) say of the burning of Rome, that its fire shall not be quenched for ever, and that "its smoke shall rise up for".

(o) Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 48. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

And again they said, {3} Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.

(3) The song of the Antiphony or response, containing an amplification of the praise of God, from the continuous and certain testimony of his divine judgment as was done at Sodom and Gomorrah, Ge 19:1-38.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Revelation 19:3. Further raising of the song of praise on the part of those who have sung in Revelation 19:1 sqq., a sort of antistrophe to the preceding strophe.[4031]

ΚΑῚ Ὁ ΚΆΠΝΟς, Κ.Τ.Λ. The point in the ascription of praise, referring to Revelation 18:8 (ΚΑΤΑΚΑΥΘ., cf. Revelation 18:9; Revelation 18:18), may accordingly enter in the form of the connective (ΚΑῚ), because the song, Revelation 19:3, is an amplification of the ascription of praise, Revelation 19:1 sq.

[4031] De Wette, who is right in rejecting the arbitrary assumption of Ewald, to connect Revelation 19:3 to Revelation 19:2.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. And her smoke &c.] Perhaps best taken as a part of the anthem. For the word “rose up” should be “riseth.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up forever and ever; goeth up. The "smoke" is that of the burning of Babylon, mentioned in Revelation 18:9, 18. The final nature of this judgment is indicated by the closing words. Revelation 19:3

Vincent's Word Studies

Her smoke, etc.

Compare Isaiah 34:10.