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Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Revelation 16:1-21

Pouring out the seven bowls (16:1-21)The bowl judgments are similar to the trumpet judgments, only much more severe. The judgments announced by the trumpets affected only one third of the various areas (see 8:7-12), but here the judgments are total and final. The first judgment brings disease on the earth, the second death in the sea, and the third death in the waters on the land (16:1-4). God acts justly by inflicting the persecutors with punishments suited to the evil they have done (5-6).... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Revelation 16:1

out of. App-104 . Temple. See Matthew 23:16 . seven angels. See Revelation 15:1 . Go . . . ways = Go forth. Greek. hupago. vials. See Revelation 15:7 . God. App-98 . upon = into. Greek. eis. earth. App-129 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Revelation 16:1

REV:16This is the famed chapter of the bowls; and what we have here is a "free adaptation, with modifications and amplifications,"[1] of the series of trumpet judgments depicted in Revelation 8 and Revelation 9, which "the prophet wishes to emphasize by recapitulation."[2] "These bowls are final but not complete."[3] God's saints are not harmed by them. What they represent is the total corruption of earth's environment, not the physical environment which is here used as a symbol, but the moral,... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Revelation 16:1

Revelation 16:1. I heard a great voice, &c.— In obedience to the divine command, the seven angels pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth: and as the trumpets were so many steps and degrees of the ruin of the Roman empire, so the vials are of the Roman church. The one, in polity and government, is the image of the other: the one is compared to the system of the world, and has her earth, and sea, and rivers, and sun, as well as the other; and this is the reason of the... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Revelation 16:1

1. a great voice—namely, God's. These seven vials (the detailed expansion of the vintage, Revelation 14:18-20) being called "the last," must belong to the period just when the term of the beast's power has expired (whence reference is made in them all to the worshippers of the beast as the objects of the judgments), close to the end or coming of the Son of man. The first four are distinguished from the last three, just as in the case of the seven seals and the seven trumpets. The first four are... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Revelation 16:1

1. The commencement of the bowl judgments 16:1The voice John heard was evidently God’s (cf. Revelation 15:8; Revelation 16:17). The fact that God told all seven angels to pour out their bowls seems to indicate that these judgments will follow each other in rapid succession.The frequent use of the Greek adjective megales in this chapter indicates the unusual severity and intensity of the bowl judgments. The NASB translators rendered this word "loud" here and in Revelation 16:17; "fierce" in... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 16:1-21

The Seven BowlsIn the last chapter there was a pause of suspense, during which the angels of the ’plagues’ were seen coming forth from the Presence of God to pour out His wrath. In this chapter the suspense is ended, and the angels pour out God’s wrath into the earth.1-9. The vision of the ’bowls’ (RV) is parallel with that of the ’trumpets’ (Revelation 8 f.). In each vision there are four preparatory judgments, falling upon the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, and the sun. But, in the... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Revelation 16:1

XVI.THE SEVEN VIALS.(1) And I heard . . .—A great voice is heard out of the temple; it bids the angels pour out their vials “into the earth;” later on (Revelation 16:17) the voice is heard saying, “It is done.” The voice is then said to come from the throne; it seems likely that the voice of the first verse is the same—the divine voice from the throne itself. read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Revelation 16:1-21

Revelation 16:1 In the thirty-seventh chapter of Shirley, Charlotte Bronte applies this passage to Napoleon's final campaign in Russia, in 1812: 'This summer, Bonaparte is in the saddle: he and his host scour Russian deserts.... He marches on old Moscow: under old Moscow's walls, the rude Cossack waits him. Barbarian stoic! he waits without fear of the boundless ruin rolling on. He puts his trust in a Snow-cloud; the Wilderness, the Wind, and the Hail-storm are his refuge; his allies are the... read more

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