Revelation 16

The seven bowls of the wrath of God

¹And I heard a loud voice from the sanctuary, saying to the seven angels: Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the fury of God.^•

²And the first went and poured out his bowl on the earth: a bad and malignant sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.^•

³And the second poured out his bowl into the sea: it became blood like that of a dead man, and every living soul that was in the sea died.^•

⁴And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters: they became blood.^•⁵And I heard the angel of the waters saying: Just are You, Who Is, and Who Was, the Holy One, because You have judged these things;^•⁶because they poured out the blood of saints and of prophets, and You have given them blood to drink; they deserve it.^•⁷And I heard the altar saying: Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are Your judgments.^•

⁸And the fourth poured out his bowl on the sun: it was granted to it to scorch men with fire.^•⁹Men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who has authority over these plagues, and they did not repent to give Him glory.^•

¹⁰And the fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast: its kingdom was darkened, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain,^•¹¹and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their works.^•

¹²And the sixth poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates: its water dried up, so that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared.^•¹³And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;^•¹⁴for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, who go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty —^•¹⁵Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his garments, so that he may not walk naked and others not see his shame —^•¹⁶And they gathered them to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.^•

¹⁷And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air: a loud voice came out of the sanctuary, from the throne, saying: It is done!^•¹⁸And there were flashes of lightning, and voices, and thunders, and there was a great earthquake, such as there had never been since men came to be on the earth, so great an earthquake as this.^•¹⁹And the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.^•²⁰And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.^•²¹And great hail, about the weight of a talent, comes down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for its plague is exceedingly great.^•

Notes

16:1 “A loud voice from the sanctuary”: Gr. ναός (cf. 15:5–8). “Pour out”: Gr. ἐκχέετε. “Bowls of the fury of God”: cf. 15:1, 7. Cf. Ex 7–10. ↩
16:2 “A bad and malignant sore”: Gr. ἕλκος κακὸν καὶ πονηρόν (cf. Ex 9:9–11; Deut 28:35). “The mark of the beast… its image”: cf. 13:15–17; 14:9–11. ↩
16:3 “It became blood”: lit. “there came blood”. “Blood like that of a dead man”: cf. 8:8–9; Ex 7:17–21. “Every living soul”: Gr. πᾶσα ψυχὴ ζωῆς, lit. “every soul of life” (cf. Gen 1:21); the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read ψυχὴ ζῶσα. ↩
16:4 “They became blood”: lit. “there came blood” (cf. Ex 7:19–21; Ps 78:44 [LXX 77:44]). ↩
16:5 “The angel of the waters”: cf. 7:1; 14:18. “Just are You”: cf. 15:3; Deut 32:4; Ps 119:137 [LXX 118:137]. “Who Is, and Who Was”: cf. 1:4, 8; 11:17. “The Holy One”: Gr. ὁ ὅσιος (cf. 15:4); the Textus Receptus reads “Just are You, O Lord, who is, and who was, and who shall be”. ↩
16:6 “Blood of saints and of prophets”: cf. 17:6; 18:24. “You have given them blood to drink”: cf. Isa 49:26. “They deserve it”: Gr. ἄξιοί εἰσιν, lit. “they are worthy” (cf. 3:4); the Textus Receptus reads “for they are worthy”. ↩
16:7 “I heard the altar saying”: cf. 6:9–10; 8:3–5; 9:13; the Textus Receptus reads “I heard another, from the altar, saying”. “Yes”: Gr. ναί (cf. 1:7). “True and just are Your judgments”: Gr. κρίσεις (cf. 15:3; 19:2). ↩
16:8 “Scorch”: Gr. καυματίσαι (cf. 7:16). ↩
16:9 “Heat”: Gr. καῦμα (cf. 7:16). “Blasphemed”: cf. 13:6; 16:11, 21. “Did not repent”: cf. 2:21; 9:20–21. “Give Him glory”: cf. 11:13; 14:7. ↩
16:10 “The throne of the beast”: cf. 2:13; 13:2. “Was darkened”: Gr. ἐσκοτωμένη, perfect participle (cf. Ex 10:21–23; Joel 2:31 (Heb. 3:4)). ↩
16:11 “The God of heaven”: cf. 11:13; Dan 2:18–19, 44. “Sores”: cf. 16:2. ↩
16:12 “The great river Euphrates”: cf. 9:14. “Its water dried up”: cf. Isa 11:15; 44:27; Jer 50:38 [LXX 27:38]; 51:36 [LXX 28:36]. “The kings from the rising of the sun”: cf. 7:2; Isa 41:2, 25; 46:11; the Textus Receptus reads “risings” in the plural. ↩
16:13 “The false prophet”: Gr. ψευδοπροφήτης (cf. 13:11–14; 19:20; 20:10). “I saw coming out of the mouth”: lit. “I saw out of the mouth”. “Unclean spirits”: Gr. πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα. “Like frogs”: Gr. ὡς βάτραχοι (cf. Ex 8:2–7 (Heb. 7:27–8:3)); the Textus Receptus reads ὅμοια βατράχοις, “resembling frogs”. ↩
16:14 “Demons”: Gr. δαιμόνια (cf. 9:20). “Signs”: Gr. σημεῖα (cf. 13:13–14; 19:20). “Whole world”: Gr. οἰκουμένη ὅλη (cf. 3:10; 12:9). “Gather them for the war”: cf. 19:19; 20:8. “The great day of God”: cf. 6:17; Joel 2:11; 2:31 (Heb. 3:4); Zeph 1:14. Variants: the Textus Receptus reads “the kings of the earth and of the whole world”; the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “of that great day”. The dash marks the parenthesis of v. 15, as in the Greek. ↩
16:15 “Behold, I am coming like a thief”: cf. 3:3; Matt 24:43; Luke 12:39; 1 Thess 5:2; 2 Pet 3:10. “Blessed”: cf. 1:3; 14:13. “Watches”: Gr. γρηγορέω (cf. 3:2–3). “Garments”: Gr. ἱμάτια (cf. 3:4–5, 18). “Shame”: Gr. ἀσχημοσύνη, lit. “indecency”, nakedness exposed (cf. 3:18, where “shame” renders αἰσχύνη). ↩
16:16 “They gathered”: Gr. συνήγαγεν, singular with a neuter plural subject, the spirits (16:13–14); alternative reading: “And he gathered them”. “Armageddon”: Gr. Ἁρμαγεδών, from the Hebrew, generally understood as “mountain of Megiddo” (cf. Judg 5:19; 2 Kgs 23:29; Zech 12:11); alternative reading: “mountain of assembly” (cf. Isa 14:13); the Textus Receptus reads Ἁρμαγεδδών, the source of the familiar English spelling. ↩
16:17 “Upon the air”: the Textus Receptus reads “into the air”. “Out of the sanctuary, from the throne”: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus add “of heaven” after “sanctuary”. “It is done”: Gr. γέγονεν, perfect (cf. 21:6; also 10:7; 15:1). ↩
16:18 “Flashes of lightning, and voices, and thunders”: cf. 4:5; 8:5; 11:19. “Such as there had never been”: cf. Dan 12:1; Matt 24:21. “Since men came to be”: some manuscripts read “man”, singular. “So great an earthquake as this”: Gr. τηλικοῦτος σεισμὸς οὕτω μέγας, lit. “such an earthquake, so great”. ↩
16:19 “The great city”: cf. 11:8; 17:18; 18:10. “Was split into three parts”: lit. “came to be in three parts”. “Was remembered before God”: Gr. ἐμνήσθη ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ (cf. 18:5). “The cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath”: cf. 14:8, 10; 18:3; Jer 25:15 [LXX 32:1]. ↩
16:20 Cf. 6:14; 20:11. ↩
16:21 “Hail”: cf. 8:7; 11:19; Ex 9:23–25. “About the weight of a talent”: Gr. ὡς ταλαντιαία, “weighing a talent”, a measure of weight of about 30 to 40 kilograms (65 to 90 pounds). “Comes down”: present in the Greek. “Plague”: Gr. πληγή (cf. 9:18; 15:1). ↩