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Revelation 16:18-21

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

18. And 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. 19. And 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. 20. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21. And 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.

Revelation 16:18-21 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Revelation 16:18

Theological / Devotional

Voices. Or, “sounds,” “noises.” Compare chs. 4:5; 8:5; 11:19. What the “voices” utter may be similar to the declaration of ch. 11:15.

Thunders. Or, “peals of thunder.”

Lightnings. Or, “flashes of lightning.” Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) that this word precedes “voices, and thunders.”

A great earthquake. A literal earthquake, as the remainder of v. 18 implies (see on v. 1; cf. vs. 20, 21), but accompanied by a figurative earthquake, which shatters mystical Babylon (v. 19). As a literal earthquake leaves a literal city in ruins, so a figurative earthquake brings ruin and desolation to “great Babylon” (see on chs. 17:16; 18:6–8, 21). The threefold union of vs. 13, 14 collapses (cf. Isa. 28:14–22).

Such as was not. Both literally and figuratively.

By SdaBc