“And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”
Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew in midheaven, 'Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!' — the eagle's (aetos) proclamation of three woes (ouai, ouai, ouai) announces escalating judgment; the remaining three trumpets (fifth, sixth, seventh) will bring intensified affliction. The triple woe emphasizes severity and the triple enumeration frames the final judgments as qualitatively different and more terrible.
Church Fathers on Revelation 8:13
“And I saw an angel flying through the midst of heaven.” By the angel flying through the midst of heaven is signified the Holy Spirit bearing witness in two of the prophets that a great wrath of plagues was imminent. If by any means, even in the last times, any one should be willing to be converted, any one might even still be saved.
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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