Revelation Chapter 16 Commentary

Revelation 16:1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. 2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. 3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. 7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. 8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. 10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. 12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

First and foremost, who is the recipient of the judgments in this chapter?  The first fifteen chapters present a lot of evidence that the target of God’s wrath was Israel, or more specifically, the capital city of Jerusalem in that day and within a generation (forty years) of Jesus describing what would occur.  However, some suggest that there may be evidence that Rome was the target going so far as to breaking Revelation up into essentially two sections with the Trumpet Judgments being meant for Israel and the bowl judgments and the bowl judgments are meant for the Roman Empire.  However total fulfilment believers like David Chilton, Kenneth Gentry, and others believe that first-century Israel is designated for judgment throughout the entire book (with the exception of judgment that falls upon the beast which is described in Revelation Chapters 13:10, 16:10, and 19:20).  So, we now read here in verse 1:

1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

In our study of Revelation thus far, we have suggested that many of the references to “the earth” are not meant to be taken as worldwide in scope, but instead refer to the land of Israel/Palestine (or even the Roman Empire).  There appears to be some twenty instances in the Revelation where this is proven. We also note that since we are talking about the bowl judgments that there are similarities to the trumpet judgments but there are also some distinct differences.  

FIRST, the effects of the trumpet judgments are often only partial (affecting one-third of the earth, trees, green grass, sea, ships, springs of water, the sun, moon, and stars–see Revelation 8:6-12), whereas the effects of the bowl judgments are total. 

SECOND, Revelation 15:1 told us last week that the bowls judgments are the seven last plagues.  

It seems that the trumpets describe the preliminary calamities that fell upon Israel during the Jewish War, but the bowls present plagues associated with the final and utter devastation of Jerusalem itself.  Verse 2

2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

This plague could be symbolic of the emotional or psychological pain the people experienced in this age but there is secular evidence that literal boils and rashes were present due to the lack of proper sanitation in the besieged city of Jerusalem in that day.  We have to remember, there were tens of thousands of dead bodies lying about and the streets were loaded with blood and sewage, making disease rampant and a perfect place for boils and perhaps skin inflammations like impetigo or MRSA (if it existed then).  We also know that these judgements were used, in part, to cause people to return from their ways and so while the hour was certainly late, there still seems to have been a chance to reform.

We will also see that in verse 11, the people who were still afflicted remained unrepentant of their sin – which was their rejection of Christ.  I think it’s also important to remember that the plagues in this first bowl judgment parallel the plagues that Moses brought down on Egypt in Exodus 9:8-12.  Take a look below. 

TRUMPET JUDGMENTS	BOWL JUDGMENTS	CORRESPONDING PLAGUES ON EGYPT
1.  On the LAND; 1/3 earth, trees, grass burned (Revelation 8:7)	1. On the LAND, becoming sores (Revelation 16:2)	1. Boils (6th Plague: Exodus 9:8-12)
2. On the sea; 1/3 sea becomes blood, 1/3 sea creatures die, 1/3 ships destroyed (8:8-9)	2.  On the sea, becoming blood (16:3)	2.  Waters become blood (1st Plague: Ex. 7:17-21)
3. On the rivers and springs; 1/3 waters become wormwood (8:10-11)	3. On rivers and springs, becoming blood (16:4-7)	3. Waters become blood (1st Plague: Ex. 7:17-21)
4. 1/4 of sun, moon, and stars darkened (8:12)	4. On the sun, causing it to scorch (16:8-9)	4. Darkness (9th Plague: Ex. 10:21-23)
5.  Demonic locusts tormenting men (9:1-12)	5. On the throne of the Beast, causing darkness (16:10-11)	5. Locusts (8th Plague: Ex. 10:4-20)
6. Army from Euphrates kills 1/3 mankind (9:13-21)	6.  On Euphrates, drying it up to make way for kings of the East; invasion of frog-demons; Armageddon (16:12-16)	6. Invasion of frogs from river (2nd Plague: Ex. 8:2-4)
7.  Voices, storm, earthquake, hail (11:15-19)	7.  On the air, causing storm, earthquake, and hail (16:17-21)	7. Hail (7th Plague: Ex. 9:18-26)

Additionally, relative to the first bowl, in Deuteronomy 28:27,35 we read the following from Moses to the COI: The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.  Then seven verses later Moses adds: The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. These were the punishments God promised to them if they were to become disobedient and unfaithful to His covenant.

Second bowl (verse 3): 

3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

So when it comes to futurist views and fulfillment views, most futurists think they’ve won the prize with this verse because what they usually say is, “Has this happened?” But let’s talk about it.

First notice the parallel with the first plague in Egypt, (i.e. the Nile turning to blood in Exodus 7:17-21).    However, the blood is not free-flowing, like a river or roaring sea with waves, it is like the blood in the body of a corpse or dead man, “clotted, coagulated and putrefying.”  Now, if we are to be literalists then its really hard to say anything other than, “No, this has not happened.  Every soul in the seas on earth have not died.” However, if we take all the other evidence in the Book of Revelation that clearly points out that we are speaking of geographical and therefore limited destruction upon Judea, we can work with this passage.  So, let’s re-read verse three:

3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

We have to ask, what sea?  Then we should ask, “was this an actual sea or was this figurative?”   Some suppose it speaks of the activity in the brazen sea at the front of the temple.  Others suggest that it represents Judea as an emblem, and others the Dead Sea or Sea of Galilee and speaks of all the humans whose bodies made it to its waters.  I don’t think comparing Judea to a sea is fair since we have always likened water and seas to invading Gentile armies.  And I think the brazen sea is a little bit of a stretch (but more viable than Judea) so we are left with the actual “seas of Judea.”  

Josephus writes of a battle that took place on the Sea of Galilee in which the Romans overtook the fleeing Jews in boats and massacred them in the water (this is found in his “Wars, III: 10:9).  Here is one recitation of what happened in that day taken from historical summaries.

In early spring 67 AD, which was 3.5 years before Jerusalem’s final downfall, Vespasian first entered Judea with a 60,000-member army. In the campaign which was to follow he destroyed at least 150,000 inhabitants of Galilee and Judea, along with many towns.  One of the first towns Vespasian crushed was Joppa, because its inhabitants had provoked his men by their frequent piracies at sea.  The Jews there tried to flee from Vespasian on their ships, but Vespasian was helped by a tremendous storm that blew in just as they began to flee.  Their vessels were crushed against each other and against the rocks, and when this slaughter was complete more than 4,200 bodies were strewn along the coast and a very long stretch of the coast was stained with blood.

(This quote is taken from a paper written by one Adam Maarschalk, whose insights have assisted me beyond words in the production of this series).

To me this is a reasonable explanation of verse 2 and the sea although how the sea itself became as the coagulated blood of a dead man I cannot say. Perhaps the explanation can be found in translational differences.  I say this because in Young’s Literal translation the passage reads:

Revelation 16:3 (YLT) And the second messenger did pour out his vial to the sea, and there came blood as of [one] dead, (and the line) and every living soul died in the sea (speaking to the men who were in the sea that were put to death).  That makes sense and seems reasonable to me. 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.  Again, is this literal? Figurative? Total? Partial?  Hard to say.  So let’s move on to verse 5 in our next chapter.