I heard a loud voice out of the Temple, saying to the seven angels,
“Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God1 on the earth!”
2The first angel went, and poured out his bowl into the earth, and it became a harmful and evil sore on the people who had the mark of the beast, and who worshiped his image.
3The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man. Every living thing in the sea died.
4The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5I heard the angel of the waters saying,
“You are righteous, who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have judged these things. 6For they poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.”
7I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, LORD God All-Powerful,2 true and righteous are your judgments.”
8The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the Name of God who has the power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
10The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, 11and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They did not repent of their works.
12The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrise. 13I 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, something like frogs; 14for they are spirits of demons, performing signs; which go forth to the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to gather them together for the war of that great day of God Almighty.
15“Behold, I come like a thief.3 Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he does not walk naked, and they see his shame.”
16He gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
17The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came forth out of the Temple of heaven, from the throne, saying,
“It is done!”
18There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men on the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. 19The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent,4 came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for this plague is very severe.
- 16:1 God, English translation of theos. It is the Greek equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew) which are related to allah (Arabic) and alaha (Syriac), all of which translate as “God,” and refer to the one true God. ↩︎
- 16:7 LORD God All-Powerful, this combination mirrors the Septuagint’s* way of translating the Hebrew word combination, YAHWEH elohim sabaoth, into Greek. LORD in all caps represents God’s personal name YAHWEH in the Hebrew scriptures. An example of this combination is Hosea 12:5, which says: “Even YAHWEH God All-Powerful; YAHWEH is the Name by which he is to be remembered!”
*Septuagint is the name of an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures used by early Christians. ↩︎ - 16:15 I come like a thief, the Second Coming of ‘ISA AL-MASIH will be sudden and unexpected, as taught elsewhere in the Injil. Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 says: “For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.” Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:10 says: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” ‘ISA AL-MASIH himself in Matthew 24:42-44 teaches: “Watch therefore, for you do not know in what hour your Lord comes. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you do not expect, the SON OF MAN will come.” ↩︎
- 16:21 One talent is about 34 kilograms or 75 pounds. ↩︎