"A loud voice from the temple" now commands "the seven angels" to go and "pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth." These judgments are similar in nature and sequence to the trumpet judgments but are more severe. The first bowl causes "painful and harmful sores" to break out on the people who worshiped the beast "and its image."
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-2
1 And 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. 2 And 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.
 | Author: William MacDonald Rank: Author Posted on: 2024-07-06 Source: Title: Commentary on the New Testament Year (original): 1989 Author: William MacDonald Number of pages: 1504 Publisher/Editor: CLV Print: GGP Media GmbH, Pößneck |
The First, Second and Third Bowl
[Verse 1]. John hears how out of the smoke-filled temple “a loud voice” sounds. ‘Loud voice’ is literally ‘great voice’. In this chapter the word ‘great’ occurs often [Verse 9], [Verse 12], [Verse 14], [Verse 18], [Verse 19], [Verse 21]. The unrighteousness is great and God’s wrath is great. Great and extensive is the area of the unrighteousness, great and severe are therefore the means of God’s wrath.
The loud voice commands “the seven angels” to act. They must go, each of them to the territory on earth that was assigned to them. There they must pour out “the seven bowls of the wrath of God”. ‘To pour out’ is a sudden and complete effusion of the content on the objects of God’s wrath. The wrath of God does not consist here, so to speak, of a tap with a stick to correct wrong action, but of a complete overpowering and striking down of evil.
Bowl after bowl is emptied with a single move. The plagues follow one another in a great pace. Probably these judgments that spare nothing and no one, will be finished within a few days. They are not announced, as it happened with the two previous series of plagues – seals and trumpets. They happen without any warning because God has already warned enough [Prov 29:1].
[Verse 2]. The first four bowls are much like the first four trumpets in Revelation 8. The plagues of the first four bowls strike the same areas as the first four trumpets did. However, the difference is that the trumpet plagues struck a limited part of the earth, a third part, while the bowl plagues doesn’t have that limitation.
To emphasize the speed of action, it is not said ‘and the first angel went’, but “so the first went”. You find that also in each of the next cases. The first pours out his bowl on the earth. That is not the earth in the broad sense of [Verse 1], but in the limited sense of ‘the dry land’, because in the following there is also mention of other areas on earth, such as the sea and the rivers.
When the angel has poured out his bowl the consequences immediately become visible. The people who are connected to the beast and worship his image, get a loathsome and malignant sore as a mark. This couldn’t be just a small sore that you can put a plaster on, but it is an enormous, striking sore that cannot be treated. A sore is an outburst of inner uncleanness that goes together with pain and that changes the outer beauty into repulsiveness.
For people who sacrifice everything for a perfect body, both in terms of health and shape, this is a disaster of unprecedented proportions. They have done everything to keep their body in top condition and now by one act of God’s wrath their body turns into a wreck, a pitiful example of misery and pain. Such as satan once struck Job with loathsome sores [Job 2:7], God now strikes the followers of the beast with them (cf. [Exod 9:10]; [Deut 28:27-35]).
[Verse 3]. Without a renewed command from heaven – the command in [Verse 1] is one command for all seven angels – the second angel empties his bowl. The area that was given to him is “the sea”. The emptying of his bowl has the direct result that the sea becomes “blood”. However, it is not blood that flows, in which movement is possible, but it is blood that is clotted. The blood in a dead person is not running anymore. The sea turns into a clotted mass. Everything that lives in it cannot move anymore and dies immediately on its spot. The stench of the whole will be terrible and unbearable (cf. [Exod 7:19-21]).
Spiritually applied the sea is a symbol for all nations where things are disordered, in contrast to the earth as a symbol of an ordered whole. Everyone lives for himself, authority is not acknowledged. At the emptying of the second bowl this conduct will become a plague. In this way each individual will be left to his own, that it will be no more possible for him to be reached or to reach another person. As a result of utter mental numbing, all communication is dead. Loneliness prevails. As dead as they already were in the spiritual sense concerning their relationship with God, now death has also entered in their relationships with their neighbor.
[Verse 4]. In case there might still be any hope that fresh water can run to the sea from the rivers, which may cause it to live again, then this hope is erased by the third angel. The bowl that he pours out, strikes “the rivers” that they become blood. This also happens to the stand-alone “springs of water”. No water can be drawn for one’s own refreshment or to bring refreshment elsewhere.
All the water has turned into blood. Every possibility to bring life where death is, is cut off. When man is cut off from God and from his neighbor, he is utterly subject to the influence of death, without any alternative.
The loud voice commands “the seven angels” to act. They must go, each of them to the territory on earth that was assigned to them. There they must pour out “the seven bowls of the wrath of God”. ‘To pour out’ is a sudden and complete effusion of the content on the objects of God’s wrath. The wrath of God does not consist here, so to speak, of a tap with a stick to correct wrong action, but of a complete overpowering and striking down of evil.
Bowl after bowl is emptied with a single move. The plagues follow one another in a great pace. Probably these judgments that spare nothing and no one, will be finished within a few days. They are not announced, as it happened with the two previous series of plagues – seals and trumpets. They happen without any warning because God has already warned enough [Prov 29:1].
[Verse 2]. The first four bowls are much like the first four trumpets in Revelation 8. The plagues of the first four bowls strike the same areas as the first four trumpets did. However, the difference is that the trumpet plagues struck a limited part of the earth, a third part, while the bowl plagues doesn’t have that limitation.
To emphasize the speed of action, it is not said ‘and the first angel went’, but “so the first went”. You find that also in each of the next cases. The first pours out his bowl on the earth. That is not the earth in the broad sense of [Verse 1], but in the limited sense of ‘the dry land’, because in the following there is also mention of other areas on earth, such as the sea and the rivers.
When the angel has poured out his bowl the consequences immediately become visible. The people who are connected to the beast and worship his image, get a loathsome and malignant sore as a mark. This couldn’t be just a small sore that you can put a plaster on, but it is an enormous, striking sore that cannot be treated. A sore is an outburst of inner uncleanness that goes together with pain and that changes the outer beauty into repulsiveness.
For people who sacrifice everything for a perfect body, both in terms of health and shape, this is a disaster of unprecedented proportions. They have done everything to keep their body in top condition and now by one act of God’s wrath their body turns into a wreck, a pitiful example of misery and pain. Such as satan once struck Job with loathsome sores [Job 2:7], God now strikes the followers of the beast with them (cf. [Exod 9:10]; [Deut 28:27-35]).
[Verse 3]. Without a renewed command from heaven – the command in [Verse 1] is one command for all seven angels – the second angel empties his bowl. The area that was given to him is “the sea”. The emptying of his bowl has the direct result that the sea becomes “blood”. However, it is not blood that flows, in which movement is possible, but it is blood that is clotted. The blood in a dead person is not running anymore. The sea turns into a clotted mass. Everything that lives in it cannot move anymore and dies immediately on its spot. The stench of the whole will be terrible and unbearable (cf. [Exod 7:19-21]).
Spiritually applied the sea is a symbol for all nations where things are disordered, in contrast to the earth as a symbol of an ordered whole. Everyone lives for himself, authority is not acknowledged. At the emptying of the second bowl this conduct will become a plague. In this way each individual will be left to his own, that it will be no more possible for him to be reached or to reach another person. As a result of utter mental numbing, all communication is dead. Loneliness prevails. As dead as they already were in the spiritual sense concerning their relationship with God, now death has also entered in their relationships with their neighbor.
[Verse 4]. In case there might still be any hope that fresh water can run to the sea from the rivers, which may cause it to live again, then this hope is erased by the third angel. The bowl that he pours out, strikes “the rivers” that they become blood. This also happens to the stand-alone “springs of water”. No water can be drawn for one’s own refreshment or to bring refreshment elsewhere.
All the water has turned into blood. Every possibility to bring life where death is, is cut off. When man is cut off from God and from his neighbor, he is utterly subject to the influence of death, without any alternative.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-4
1 And 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. 2 And 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. 3 And 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. 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
 | Author: Ger de Koning Rank: Author Posted on: 2024-02-11 Source: Title: Revelation Author: Ger de Koning |
We are to pray that the will of God may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Here is a succession of terrible judgments of Providence; and there seems to be an allusion to several of the plagues of Egypt. The sins were alike, and so were the punishments. The vials refer to the seven trumpets, which represented the rise of antichrist; and the fall of the enemies of the church shall bear some resemblance to their rise. All things throughout their earth, their air, their sea, their rivers, their cities, all are condemned to ruin, all accursed for the wickedness of that people. No wonder that angels, who witness or execute the Divine vengeance on the obstinate haters of God, of Christ, and of holiness, praise his justice and truth; and adore his awful judgments, when he brings upon cruel persecutors the tortures they made his saints and prophets suffer.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-7
1 And 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. 2 And 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. 3 And 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. 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. 5 And 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. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. 7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous [are] thy judgments.
 | Author: Matthew Henry Rank: Priest AD: 1714 Source: Title: Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible Author: Matthew Henry |
I heard a great voice. Bossuet explains the pouring out of the seven vials in this manner. The five first he supposes to have taken place under the reign of Valerian and Gallien; the sixth he supposes to have been poured out during the reigns of Valerian, Dioclesian, and Julian; and the seventh under Honorius and the Alani. (Bossuet) — All commentators, however, seem to agree that the great city mentioned in the 19th verse, is to be understood of Rome, and that the plagues which are here foretold, are denounced against her. (Calmet, Pastorini, &c.) — Go and pour out the seven vials, &c. According to the exposition followed by the bishop of Meaux[Bossuet], all these seven vials are already past, being punishments and judgments exercised against the heathen emperors, from the time of Valerian even to the time of Julian, at whose death it might be said, [Verse 17] it is done. Idolatry is destroyed, as to its public worship. Here in particular, by the drying up of the Euphrates, and by the armies of the East, these interpreters understand those of the Persians, who first gave the great shock to the empire in Valerian’s time, and by whom afterwards Julian the apostate was defeated, and killed. By the great Babylon they also understand idolatrous Rome; and by the islands and mountains sunk by earthquakes, they understand the destruction of divers kingdoms. According to another interpretation, (which is very common) all these judgments are to come before the end of the world; and will be in a manner literally executed about antichrist’s time. At the first vial, men shall be struck with ulcers and wounds, not unlike to the sixth plague of Egypt. At the second and third vial, the sea and fountains shall be turned into blood, as in Egypt. At the fourth vial shall be excessive scorching heats, tormenting men, and burning every thing for their use. At the fifth vial darkness, like that of Egypt. At the sixth vial, [Verse 12] the Euphrates dried up, to open a passage for the armies from the East, to come and join the forces of antichrist. And the three unclean spirits like frogs, may signify devils sent by the dragon, or chief of the devils, to excite the wicked to all manner of unclean abominations. They are here said to be gathered together in a place called Armagedon, perhaps with an allusion to Mageddon, in the tribe of Manasses, where the two kings of Israel, Ochozias and Josias, perished. (4 Kings ix. 21.) And they are brought in only to signify a place of great destruction. See also [Zech 12:11]. At the seventh vial, a voice, it is done, i.e. the reign of the wicked in general, and of antichrist, is at an end. (Witham)
 | Author: George Leo Haydock Rank: Author AD: 1849 Source: Title: Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary Year (original): 1859 Number of pages: 571 Print: Edward Dunigan and Brother, New York, New York |
The order came out to the seven angels to go, and pour out the bowls, characterized by the following:
First: These bowls coincide with the plagues which happened in Egypt, yet the first agrees with the spirit of the book, which is symbolic. As for the plagues that happened in the past, they were real. Thereby, we do not find it difficult that what is brought in the bowls can be realized. We have to understand it in the spirit of the book.
• The first bowl conforms with the sixth plague.
• The second bowl conforms with the first plague.
• The third bowl conforms with the fifth plague.
• The fourth bowl conforms with the ninth plague.
• The fifth bowl conforms with the second plague.
• The sixth bowl conforms with the seventh plague.
• The seventh bowl conforms with the seventh plague.
Second: They agree with the seven trumpets except that they are more severe, and more harsh.
Third: His saying, “bowls of the wrath of God,” does not mean by “wrath” revenge without mercy, but as we noticed before, the wrath of God is in reality love. Perfect love of God directed to human beings, for God is never concerned for taking revenge on us, in the general meaning that we understand, but out of His love, He allows punishment, or abandons us for our repentance, or the repentance of others (1).
First: These bowls coincide with the plagues which happened in Egypt, yet the first agrees with the spirit of the book, which is symbolic. As for the plagues that happened in the past, they were real. Thereby, we do not find it difficult that what is brought in the bowls can be realized. We have to understand it in the spirit of the book.
• The first bowl conforms with the sixth plague.
• The second bowl conforms with the first plague.
• The third bowl conforms with the fifth plague.
• The fourth bowl conforms with the ninth plague.
• The fifth bowl conforms with the second plague.
• The sixth bowl conforms with the seventh plague.
• The seventh bowl conforms with the seventh plague.
Second: They agree with the seven trumpets except that they are more severe, and more harsh.
Third: His saying, “bowls of the wrath of God,” does not mean by “wrath” revenge without mercy, but as we noticed before, the wrath of God is in reality love. Perfect love of God directed to human beings, for God is never concerned for taking revenge on us, in the general meaning that we understand, but out of His love, He allows punishment, or abandons us for our repentance, or the repentance of others (1).
Footnote
(1) See this concept in our book of “Brotherly Love,” (in Arabic) in more details. (1963).
 | Author: Tadros Yacoub Malaty Rank: Monk Posted on: 2023-01-15 Source: Title: The book of Revelation Year (original): 1996 Author: Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty Number of pages: 257 Publisher/Editor: St. George's Coptic Orthodox Church, Sporting, Alexandria Print: Anba Reuis Press, Abassia, Cairo, Egypt Translation: Victoria and Ramzy Malaty |
The listed verse explanations of the individual persons have nothing to do with the explanations of the other persons. This also applies to the Bible translations.
