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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 16

1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple declaring to the seven angels: “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.” 2 So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. Then ugly and painful sores appeared on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.⁠ 3 Next, the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood, like that of a corpse, and every living creature that was in the sea died.⁠ 4 Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they turned into blood. 5 Now I heard the angel of the waters saying:⁠ “You are just—the one who is and who was, the Holy One—because you have passed these judgments, 6 because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets, so you have given them blood to drink. They got what they deserved!”⁠ 7 Then I heard the altar reply, “Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, your judgments are true and just!” 8 Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was permitted to scorch people with fire. 9 Thus people were scorched by the terrible heat, yet they blasphemed the name of God, who has ruling authority over these plagues, and they would not repent and give him glory. 10 Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast so that darkness covered his kingdom, and people began to bite their tongues because of their pain.⁠ 11 They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their sufferings and because of their sores, but nevertheless they still refused to repent of their deeds. 12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and dried up its water to prepare the way for the kings from the east.⁠ 13 Then I saw three unclean spirits that looked like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.⁠ 14 For they are the spirits of the demons performing signs who go out to the kings of the earth to bring them together for the battle that will take place on the great day of God, the All-Powerful. 15 (Look! I will come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose his clothes so that he will not have to walk around naked and his shameful condition be seen.) 16 Now the spirits gathered the kings and their armies to the place that is called Armageddon in Hebrew.⁠ 17 Finally the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying: “It is done!” 18 Then there were flashes of lightning, roaring, and crashes of thunder, and there was a tremendous earthquake—an⁠ earthquake unequaled since humanity has been on the earth, so tremendous was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. So Babylon the great was remembered before God and was given the cup filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath. 20 Every island fled away, and no mountains could be found. 21 And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on people, but they blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it was so horrendous.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 9:18 and Revelation 16:21

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation’s description of destructive hail recalls the Egyptian plague in Exodus where hail and fire struck the land. Revelation reshapes elements from the exodus narrative into a final, eschatological judgment.

Passages

Exodus 9:18

Hebrew Bible
18 I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 So now, send instructions to gather your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place. Every person or animal caught in the field and not brought into the house—the hail will come down on them, and they will die!”’” 20 Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the Lord’s message hurried to bring their servants and livestock into the houses, 21 but those who did not take the Lord’s message seriously left their servants and their cattle in the field. 22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sky that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on people and on animals, and on everything that grows in the field in the land of Egypt.” 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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Revelation 16:21

New Testament
17 Finally the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying: “It is done!” 18 Then there were flashes of lightning, roaring, and crashes of thunder, and there was a tremendous earthquake—an earthquake unequaled since humanity has been on the earth, so tremendous was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. So Babylon the great was remembered before God and was given the cup filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath. 20 Every island fled away, and no mountains could be found. 21 And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on people, but they blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it was so horrendous.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... Set in its first-century Asian context Revelation's image of the fall of the great city in an earthquake had greater power than the Old Testament alone could have given it ... This expression in 16:18 was something of an apocalyptic technical term, derived from Daniel 12:1 (which is echoed in Testament of Moses 8:1; 1QM 1:11; Matthew 24:21; Mark 13:19; compare also Mark 9:25). John will certainly also have noticed the similar terminology used with reference to the Egyptian plagues of hail and locusts (Exodus 9:18, 24; 10:6), the great cry at the death of the firstborn (Exodus 11:6), Joel's locust plague (Joel 2:2) and the great day of the slaughter of the Amorites (Joshua 10:14). But the technical apocalyptic formula, describing the end events as the unprecedented climax of all previous history of divine judgments, corresponded to a more everyday hyperbole, the natural tendency to describe a remarkable event as unprecedented. Josephus described the earthquake in Judaea in 31 B.C. as 'such as had not happened at any other time' (Antiquities 15.121), and Pliny called the earthquake in Asia in A.D. 17 the greatest in human memory (N.H. 2.86). Revelation 16:18 both alludes to whatever its readers were accustomed to recall as the greatest earthquake ever, and projects that experience into the apocalyptic future which will surpass any known disaster ... the contrasts of 11:13 and 16:19-21 are instructive. The earthquake of 11:13 accompanies the resurrection and ascension of the two witnesses, whose careers are modelled on those of Moses and Elijah and also Jesus Christ ..."
Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993), 206–208.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Exodus 9:18 and Revelation 16:21

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