And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains;

And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and tribunes, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of mountains:

And the kings of the earth, and the great, and the chiliarchs, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains;

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich, and the chiefs of thousands, and the mighty, and every servant, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains,

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

The kings of the earth and the great men, the military chiefs, the wealthy and the powerful - all, whether slaves or free men - hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,

And the kings of the earth, and the rulers, and the chief captains, and the men of wealth, and the strong, and every servant and free man, took cover in the holes and the rocks of the mountains;

And the kings of the earth, and the rulers, and the military leaders, and the wealthy, and the strong, and everyone, servant and free, hid themselves in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

Then all the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and under the rocks of the mountains;

The kings of the earth, etc. - All the secular powers who had endeavored to support the pagan worship by authority, influence, riches, political wisdom, and military skill; with every bondman - all slaves, who were in life and limb addicted to their masters or owners.
And every freeman - Those who had been manumitted, commonly called freedmen, and who were attached, through gratitude, to the families of their liberators. All hid themselves - were astonished at the total overthrow of the heathen empire, and the revolution which had then taken place.

(10) And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
(10) The event of the sign before: that there is no man who will not be amazed at that worldwide upheaval, fly away in fear and hide himself in this verse, and wish to die, because of the exceeding horror of the wrath of God, and of the Lamb, at which before he was amazed. Now this confusion is not on the part of the godly but of the wicked, whose portion is in this life; (Psalm 17:14). Not that sorrow which is according to God, which works repentance to salvation, of which a man shall never repent him, but that worldly sorrow that brings death; (2-Corinthians 7:9) as their wishes declare: for this history of the whole world, is separated from the history of the Church, as I have showed before. See Revelation 4:1

And the king's of the earth, and the great men,.... The Roman emperors, and other principal magistrates, governors of provinces and cities:
and the rich men; among the commonalty; these three may design perhaps more particularly the emperors, nobles, and senate of Rome: and
the chief captains; or captains of thousands, that had the command of the Roman legions
and the mighty men; the soldiers that were under them, men of strength, courage, and valour;
and every bondman, and every freeman; which takes in all the inhabitants of the Roman empire, of every state and condition, and which was an usual distinction among the Romans: these
hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; where, through their cruel persecutions, they had forced multitudes of Christians to flee, and therefore, "lex talionis", the law of retaliation was righteously inflicted on them; and not to take notice of any other, this was remarkably true of their kings or emperors Dioclesian and Herculius Maximianus, who were emperors together, in the height of their imperial glory and grandeur, the one being at Nicomedia, and the other at Milan, did, on one and the same day, of their own accord, abdicate the empire, and divested themselves of their imperial crown and government, and retired to a private life; pretending in public, that old age, and the weight of business, were the cause, but to their friends they owned, that it was through despair, because they could not extinguish the Christian religion (p). Some ascribed this to frenzy and madness (q); but the true reason was, that the wrath of the Lamb was let into their consciences, and which they could not bear, and which obliged them to take this step, to the amazement of the whole world. Maximinus, who succeeded them, being overcome by Licinius, laid aside his imperial habit, and hid himself among the common people, and skulked about in fields and villages (r). Maxentius, another emperor, fled from Constantine, the instrument of the wrath of the Lamb, and the pouring it out upon his enemies, and fell into the river Tiber, from the Mylvian bridge, where he perished; and which was the very place in which he had laid snares for Constantine (s).
(p) Contur. Magd. cent. 4. c. 16. p. 909. Vid. Eutrop. l. 9. (q) Euseb. Hist. l. 8. c. 13. & de Vita Constantin. l. 5. c. 25. (r) lb. l. 9. c. 10. (s) Ib. c. 9. & de Vita Constant. l. 1. c. 38. Vid. Aurel. Victor. de Caesaribus.

kings . . . hid themselves--Where was now the spirit of those whom the world has so greatly feared? [BENGEL].
great men--statesmen and high civil officers.
rich men . . . chief captains--The three oldest manuscripts, A, B, C, transpose thus, "chief captains . . . rich men."
mighty--The three oldest manuscripts, A, B, and C read, "strong" physically (Psalm 33:16).
in--literally "into"; ran into, so as to hide themselves in.
dens--"caves."

And the kings of the earth - They who had been so in their day. And the great men and chief captains - The generals and nobles. Hid themselves - So far as in them lay. In the rocks of the mountains - There are also rocks on the plains; but they were rocks on high, which they besought to fall upon them.