The Word Made Fresh
1Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels to go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s anger on the earth.
2The first angel poured his bowl on the earth, and terrible painful sores infected those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
3The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like a dead man’s blood, and everything in the sea died.
4The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and springs, and they were turned into blood, 5and I heard the angel over the waters say,
“You are fair in these judgments, O Holy One who is and who was;
6and because they have shed the blood of the saints and the prophets,
you have given them blood to drink,
for it is what they deserve!”
7Then I heard the altar reply,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
your judgments are true and fair.”
8The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to burn them with fire; 9they were parched by the terrible heat, but still they cursed the name of God who ruled over these plagues, and they refused to repent and glorify him.
10The fifth angel then poured his bowl on the beast’s throne, and the beast’s kingdom was thrown into darkness. People suffered in agony and chewed their tongues, 11and cursed the God of heaven for their suffering, and refused to repent of the things they had done.
12The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13Then I saw three filthy spirits crawling like frogs out of the dragon’s mouth, out of the beast’s mouth, and out of the false prophet’s mouth. 14These spirits are demonic. They go around to the kings of the world and perform signs, gathering them for battle on God the Almighty’s great day. 15(“Look! I’m going to come like a thief, and blessed is the one who stays awake, fully clothed, and not wandering around naked and ashamed.”) 16Then they brought the kings together to the place known in Hebrew as Armageddon.
17The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air. Then a loud voice called out of the temple, from the throne, saying “It is done!” 18There were lightning flashes, rumblings and peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, so violent the likes of which had not taken place since the first people on the earth. 19The great city split into three parts and the cities of the other nations also fell. God remembered the great city of Babylon and poured on her the fury of the cup of wrath. 20Every island fled and the mountains disappeared, 21and hundred-pound hailstones fell from heaven on people; it was so fearful a plague that they cursed God for the hail.
Commentary
1: The seven bowls of wrath will be poured out quickly in succession. There will be no interlude between the sixth and seventh as there had been with the seven seals and the seven trumpets. As the climax draws nearer, the action moves more quickly and more surely. The seven angels are commanded by a loud voice from the temple to pour their bowls of wrath out upon the earth. We shall see that the bowls of wrath mirror the plagues God sent in Egypt through Moses.
2: The first bowl of wrath inflicts worshipers of the beast with painful sores (compare Exodus 9:8-12).
3-7: The second and third plagues taint the sea and rivers with blood (Exodus 7:14-24). The “angel over the waters,” counterpart to the great beast Leviathan, sings praise to God for avenging the blood of the saints, with an “amen” from the altar.
8-9: The fourth bowl of wrath turns the sun’s rays into a scorching heat. This holds the central place among the seven angels and has no counterpart in the Exodus story.
10-11: The fifth plague is a plague of darkness, reminiscent of the ninth plague in Egypt (Exodus 10:21-23).
12-16: The sixth plague dries up the Euphrates to make way for the invasion of “the kings of the whole world” to come from the east. It bears the echo of the parting of the Red Sea, does it not? The three spirits like frogs seem to be inspired by the second Egyptian plague (Exodus 8:1-7). They are evil spirits sent to influence the kings and assemble them at Armageddon for a last desperate invasion of Israel. The quote in verse 15 seems to be a mixture of several sources: 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3; 2 Peter 3:10; Isaiah 47:3.
17-21: The seventh angel pours out the seventh bowl of wrath into the air. A voice from the temple declares, “It is finished!” as Christ had declared on the cross (John 19:30). A storm ensues, not unlike the hailstorm of the seventh plague on Egypt — see Exodus 9:22-26. The storm is accompanied by an earthquake (compare Isaiah 29:5-6 which describes the siege of Jerusalem) which splits the great city (Babylon/Rome) into three, sinks the islands and levels the mountains and sends massive hailstones to fall among the people.
Takeaway
John envisions a cosmic battle where the nations of the earth oppose God. Sometimes it looks like that’s what’s going on in the world these days. But never fear; we know the outcome.