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Revelation’s vision of hail and fire recalls the seventh plague in Exodus, where unprecedented hail devastated Egypt. Both describe hail as a destructive force associated with divine judgment, suggesting that the apocalyptic scene may be framed as part of a second Exodus.
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Exodus 9:24
Hebrew Bible
23 When Moses extended his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire fell to the earth; so the Lord caused hail to rain down on the land of Egypt. 24 Hail fell and fire mingled with the hail; the hail was so severe that there had not been any like it in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 The hail struck everything in the open fields, both people and animals, throughout all the land of Egypt. The hail struck everything that grows in the field, and it broke all the trees of the field to pieces.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Revelation 11:19
New Testament
18 The nations were enraged, but your wrath has come, and the time has come for the dead to be judged, and the time has come to give to your servants, the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints and to those who revere your name, both small and great,and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
Date: 92-96 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The seventh plague in Exodus 9:13–35 consisted of thunder, hail, and lightning, with “heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation” (Exodus 9:24 [RSV]; compare Psalm 105:32–33; Josephus Antiquities 2.305). Hail is sometimes mentioned as a divine means of punishment: Joshua 10:11 narrates the punitive miracle of huge hailstones, which the Lord “threw down” from heaven on the Amorites and killed large numbers of them (see Isaiah 28:17; Ezekiel 38:22; Haggai 2:17; Job 38:22–23; Psalm 78:47; Sibylline Oracles 3.691). If people are struck by such heavy objects, death appears inevitable, though that does not seem to be the result envisaged here (see verse 21b). While hailstorms were not considered unusual in northern Mediterranean countries (Ovid Metam. 5.158), unusual hail was regarded by the Romans as a prodigy indicating a disruption in relations with the gods requiring diagnosis and reparation ..."
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