Revelation 8:1-13, silence, incense and the first four trumpets

What the silence means is read differently: awe or fear before judgment (the cultural backgrounds notes); awe or the silence of the guilty (Keener); suspense (the ESV Study Bible); awe and expectation (Wright). Heiser, with Beale, prefers the appalled hush before judgment of Habakkuk 2:20, Zechariah 2:13 and Zephaniah 1:7, finding a silence so the prayers can be heard less persuasive. Judaism then counted seven archangels before God (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Trumpets warned of invasion and sounded in the temple (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). The angel does a priest's task at the incense altar, where incense stood for prayer (the Zondervan dictionary; Keener), and Keener and Heiser both read the martyrs' prayers of 6:9-11 as what sets off the judgments that follow. The first four trumpets follow the plagues on Egypt: hail and fire, water turned to blood, darkness (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes; Beale; Wright). Wormwood is evidently Artemisia absinthium, a bitter herb (the dictionary); Heiser, rejecting modern headline readings, calls it the Old Testament's stock image of bitter judgment. The eagle could be a messenger, an omen, a legion's emblem or, as Keener thinks likeliest, a vulture signaling doom (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes).