Revelation 16King James Version
The seven vials of the wrath of God are poured out upon the earth. Sores. The sea becomes as the blood of a dead man. The rivers become blood. The sun scorches men with great heat. The kingdom of the beast is full of darkness. The Euphrates dries up. The seventh: a great voice from the throne saying, It is done.
The seven angels pour out their bowls in rapid sequence. Sores break out on those with the beast's mark. The sea becomes like dead blood, killing everything in it. Rivers and springs turn to blood, and an angel declares this justice for the blood of the saints. The sun scorches people with fire; they blaspheme and do not repent. The beast's throne is plunged into darkness; people gnaw their tongues and still do not repent. The Euphrates dries up for kings from the east. Three frog-like spirits gather the world's armies at Armageddon. The seventh bowl brings the greatest earthquake in history, Babylon splits, cities fall, and hail of a talent-weight crushes the earth.
The bowl sequence moves faster and harder than the seals or trumpets, and the repeated note that survivors blasphemed and repented not is the darkest thread running through it: judgment lands and produces not softening but hardening.
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." The same phrase as the cross, spoken now from the throne at the completion of judgment: something is finished.
The hailstones in the seventh bowl weigh a talent each, roughly 75 to 100 pounds per stone. The sixth bowl assembles the armies by way of miracles performed by demonic frog-spirits. The imagery is deliberately repulsive: frogs were unclean animals in Jewish law, and the mouth of the dragon producing them echoes Egypt's second plague. The whole sequence reverberates with Exodus and inverts it.
Seven angels executing the bowls; the angel of the waters, who declares the blood-water judgment just; three frog-like unclean spirits from the dragon, beast, and false prophet; the armies of the world gathered at Armageddon; those who blaspheme through all of it.
Armageddon appears only once in the entire Bible, here. It likely derives from Har Megiddo, the hill of Megiddo, a plain in northern Israel famous as a battlefield from Canaanite times through the World Wars. The gathering of kings there is announced but the actual battle is not described until chapter 19. The greatest earthquake in history shifts every geography permanently.
For when you wonder whether judgment actually changes anything. This chapter is the uncomfortable answer: it does not always. People in the middle of the bowl plagues blaspheme God specifically because of the plagues. Suffering, even catastrophic suffering, does not automatically produce the response you would expect.
1And 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.
2And 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.
3And 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.
4And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5And 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.
6For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9And 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.
10And 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,
11And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
12And 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.
13And 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.
14For 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.
15Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17And 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.
18And 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.
19And 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.
20And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21And 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.