20. without the city--Jerusalem. The scene of the blood-shedding of Christ and His people shall be also the scene of God's vengeance on the Antichristian foe. Compare the "horsemen," Re 9:16, 17.
      blood--answering to the red wine. The slaughter of the apostates is what is here spoken of, not their eternal punishment.
      even unto the horse bridles--of the avenging "armies of heaven."
      by the space of a thousand . . . six hundred furlongs--literally, "a thousand six hundred furlongs off" [W. KELLY]. Sixteen hundred is a square number; four by four by one hundred. The four quarters, north, south, east, and west, of the Holy Land, or else of the world (the completeness and universality of the world-wide destruction being hereby indicated). It does not exactly answer to the length of Palestine as given by JEROME, one hundred sixty Roman miles. BENGEL thinks the valley of Kedron, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, is meant, the torrent in that valley being about to be discolored with blood to the extent of sixteen hundred furlongs. This view accords with Joel's prophecy that the valley of Jehoshaphat is to be the scene of the overthrow of the Antichristian foes.

JFB.