Revelation 16:4 - Printer Friendly

ESV: The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

NIV: The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.

NASB: Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood.

CSB: The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

NLT: Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs, and they became blood.

KJV: And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

NKJV: Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.

The contents of the third bowl empty into the water supply sources. As a result, the water supply sources turn to blood—this is most likely a symbolic description, just as it was in Revelation 8:8–9. This is somewhat different than the second bowl judgment (Revelation 16:3), which more specifically described the putrid condition of ocean waters and how everything living in them died. The fact that this affects all of "the rivers and the springs of water" means that now all of the world's water—fresh or salt—has been corrupted. Earth, at this point, is in the midst of planetary death throes.

This bowl judgment is an intensification of the third trumpet judgment (Revelation 8:10–11). This third bowl judgment affects the water people use for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, and keeping plants, lawns, shrubs, and trees alive. Just as the second bowl judgment seems to have affected all ocean waters, so too does the third bowl judgment seem to pollute all of the world's fresh water.

When the nation of Israel rejected God and turned to idolatry by building and worshiping a golden calf, Moses ground the idol into powder and sprinkled it into the people's water source (Exodus 32:19–20). Perhaps the gold powder temporarily changed the color of the water. This was God's way of making the people see and taste the putrefying effects of their sin.

Similarly, the beast and his followers had shed the blood of the saints and now would taste blood. Their sin would return to haunt them. This is precisely what an angel will declare in the next few verses.

Revelation 16:1–7 reports the beginning of the bowl judgments which were predicted in Revelation 15:5–8. The first and second judgments resemble the plague of boils and the plague of blood that God brought upon the Egyptians when Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews leave Egypt (Exodus 7:19–21; 9:8–12). The third judgment turns the water sources into blood. The second and third judgments resemble the third trumpet judgment (Revelation 8:8), but their intensity is greater. A break occurs in 16:5–7 as an angel reflects on the first three bowl judgment and affirms that God is just to judge the wicked.

This chapter explains the bowl judgments, which are the last and most severe of God's outpouring of wrath on earth. The first three bowls bring sores, seas of blood, and rivers of blood. After a declaration of God's justice come the next three bowl judgments, involving scorching sunlight, darkness, and a drying of the Euphrates to clear the way for an invading army. In the final, seventh bowl judgment, an earthquake tears Jerusalem into three parts, levels cities worldwide, and displaces islands and mountains. Hundred-pound hailstones fall, but unbelievers refuse to repent and instead continue to curse God.

Revelation 16 resumes the account of God's judgments on the wicked. It describes the bowl judgments, the third and final series of judgments. The seven seal judgments of Revelation 6:1–17 and 8:1 are the first series of judgments. The trumpet judgments of Revelation 8:1—9:21 and 11:15 are next. All of these judgments vent God's wrath and are recognized as the day of his wrath and the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:17). Chapters 17 and 18 further describe the destruction caused by the judgments. Revelation 19 and 20 will describe the culmination of God's wrath and the final events of the end times.

The word ''revelation'' means ''an unveiling or disclosure.'' This writing unveils future events such as the rapture, three series of judgments that will fall on the earth during the tribulation, the emergence of the Antichrist, the persecution of Israel and her amazing revival, as well as Jesus' second coming with His saints to the earth, the judgment of Satan and his followers, and finally, the eternal state. This content, combined with the original Greek term apokalypsis, is why we now refer to an end-of-the-world scenario as ''an apocalypse.''