Matthew Chapter 24 verse 31 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 31. - His angels. As the executors of his will, to bring before his throne all who have to be judged. They have the same office in the parable of the tares and the wheat (Matthew 13:41). With a great sound of a trumpet (μετὰ σάλπιγγος φωνῆς μεγάλης, which may also mean, with a trumpet of great sound). Some manuscripts, with the Vulgate, read, "with a trumpet and a great voice;" others, "with a great trumpet," omitting "voice." All, however, agree in asserting the employment of the trumpet on this momentous occasion (comp. 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). The term may be metaphorical for a voice exceeding loud (comp. Revelation 1:10; Revelation 4:1); but it is more probably to be taken in the obvious sense, with a reference to its use among the Jews in calling the assembly and giving the alarm. Of course, the occurrence is supernatural. It is, indeed, as great a miracle for a sound to be heard simultaneously in both hemispheres as it is for Christ to be seen at the same moment by all dwellers on the globe. This is a matter to be believed, not explained. Shall gather together his elect. The angels will infallibly select these from the mass of men, either by spiritual insight or Divine direction. The elect are not Israelites alone, but true believers of all nations (see ver. 14 and John 17:20, 21). These are first collected, and then the reprobate are summoned, according to Matthew 25:41. From the four winds. The four cardinal points, i.e. from every quarter of the earth. Four is the number of the world or the universe. From one end...the other; literally, from the ends of the heavens unto their end, as Deuteronomy 4:32 - a parallel to the preceding clause. From horizon to horizon, though this expression, taken literally, is not extensive enough.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(31) He shall send his angels.--The words are memorable as the formal expansion of what had been, as it were, hinted before in the parables of the Tares (Matthew 13:41) and the Net (Matthew 13:49).With a great sound of a trumpet.--The better MSS. omit "sound:" With a great trumpet. We know not, and cannot know, what reality will answer to this symbol, but it is interesting to note how deeply it impressed itself on the minds not only of the disciples who heard it, but of those who learnt it from them. When St. Paul speaks of the "trumpet" that shall "sound" (1Corinthians 15:52), of "the voice of the archangel and the trump of God" (1Thessalonians 4:16), we feel that he was reproducing what had been thus proclaimed, and that his eschatology, or doctrine of the last things, was based on a knowledge of, at least, the substance of the great prophetic discourse recorded in the Gospels.They shall gather together his elect.--The "elect" are the same in idea, though not necessarily the same individuals, as those for whom the days were to be shortened in Matthew 24:22; and the work of the angels is that of gathering them, wherever they may be scattered, into the one fold. As with so many of the pregnant germs of thought in this chapter, the work of the angels is expanded by the visions of the Apocalypse, when the seer beheld the angels come and seal the hundred and forty-four thousand in their foreheads before the work of judgment should begin (Revelation 7:2). In each case the elect are those who are living on the earth at the time of the second Advent. In these chapters there is, indeed, no distinct mention of the resurrection of the dead, though they, as well as the living, are implied in the parable of judgment with which the discourse ends. . . .