And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and
ever
That is, the smoke of that fire which torments them will for ever arise; or, in other words, there will be no end of their torment; hence their misery is called everlasting fire, everlasting punishment, and everlasting destruction, ( Matthew 25:41 Matthew 25:46 ) ( 2 Thessalonians 1:9 ) and smoke being very troublesome and distressing, is mentioned to set forth the very uncomfortable state of the wicked; and so it is used by Jewish writers: hence we read of (Mnhg Nnt) , "the smoke of hell" {r}, with which the eyes of the wicked will be filled in the world to come: and they have no rest, day nor night;
the fire of divine wrath which tortures them is never quenched, and the worm of conscience which gnaws them never dies: this is directly contrary to a notion of the Jews, that the wicked in hell have rest sometimes; they talk of angels blowing away the smoke from them, so that they have rest an hour and a half; and which they say they have three times a day, and whenever Israel says Amen, let his great name be blessed F19; and particularly that hell fire never burns on the sabbath day, nor does the smoke of it ascend then, and that the wicked have always rest on that days F20; though sometimes they contradict themselves, and say they never have any rest F21, which is the truth: who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the
mark of his name;
that is, whoever are the followers of antichrist, or the professors of the Popish religion; so far is salvation from being in the church of Rome, and only there, that there is none in it; and whoever live and die in the profession of Popery, shall surely be damned as this passage is true.