Revelation 16
The full text of Revelation 16 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out on the earth the seven bowls of God's wrath."
2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and ugly, painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned to blood like that of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.
5 Then I heard the angel of the waters say:
"You are just, the One who is and who was, the Holy One,
because you have judged these things.
6 For they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it."
7 And I heard the altar respond:
"Yes, Lord God Almighty,
true and just are your judgments."
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire.
9 They were scorched by the intense heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had power over these plagues, but they refused to repent and give him glory.
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony
11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east.
13 Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14 They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
15 "Look, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes on, so that he will not go naked and be shamefully exposed."
16 Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!"
18 Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a massive earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever happened since people have been on the earth - so tremendous was the quake.
19 The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.
20 Every island fled, and the mountains could not be found.
21 And huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell from the sky on people. And they cursed God for the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
Translation notes (12)
- Revelation 16:2a The Greek helkos kakon kai poneron (ἕλκος κακὸν καὶ πονηρόν) refers to a 'bad and malignant sore', echoing the boils sent upon Egypt in Exodus 9:9–11.
- Revelation 16:3a Greek haima hos nekrou, literally 'blood like that of a corpse', takes nekros, 'corpse' (νεκρός) as a substantive. The phrase evokes the dark, coagulated blood of the dead rather than fresh blood.
- Revelation 16:5a The Greek phrase 'the Holy One' (ho hosios) is found in the earliest manuscripts; some later manuscripts read 'and who is to come.'
- Revelation 16:6a The terse Greek verdict axioi eisin, 'they are worthy', rendered here as 'They deserve it', turns a word of commendation into a sentence of judgment. The punishment answers the crime in kind: those who poured out blood must now drink it, a retributive image echoing Isaiah 49:26, where oppressors are made to drink their own blood.
- Revelation 16:7a The Greek makes thysiastērion, 'altar' (θυσιαστήριον), the speaking subject, a personification that echoes 6:9–10. The SBL Greek New Testament reads 'the altar'; the Byzantine tradition reads 'another from the altar,' with some adding 'angel' (reflected in the King James tradition).
- Revelation 16:12a Greek apo anatolēs hēliou, literally 'from the rising of the sun', is condensed here as 'from the east'. The image recalls the fall of historical Babylon, whose capture by Cyrus was associated with the diversion of the Euphrates (Herodotus, Histories 1.191), and echoes prophetic oracles of the river drying up (Isaiah 44:27; Jeremiah 50:38).
- Revelation 16:13a batrachoi, 'frogs' (βάτραχοι), likely recalls the plague of frogs in Exodus 8, and akatharta, 'unclean' (ἀκάθαρτα), is the standard Greek term for ritual impurity and demonic spirits.
- Revelation 16:15a This abrupt saying of Christ interrupts the vision, echoing the thief imagery of Matthew 24:43, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10, and Revelation 3:3. Greek gregoron (γρηγορῶν), 'staying awake', is the same verb Jesus uses in Gethsemane (Mark 14:38). The image of guarded garments may reflect the temple watchman whose clothes were burned if he was found asleep at his post (Mishnah, Middot 1.2).
- Revelation 16:16a Greek Harmagedōn (Ἁρμαγεδών) most likely transliterates Hebrew har Megiddo, 'mountain of Megiddo', the site of decisive battles in Israel's history (Judges 5:19; 2 Kings 23:29). The identification is debated, since Megiddo sits on a plain rather than a mountain; other proposals connect the name to har mo'ed, 'mount of assembly' (Isaiah 14:13).
- Revelation 16:18a The Greek here employs terms that are specific to seismic and atmospheric events: astrapai ('flashes of lightning'), phonai ('rumblings'), brontai ('peals of thunder'), and two phrases emphasizing the earthquake's unprecedented magnitude: seismos hoios ouk egeneto ('an earthquake such as had not occurred') and telikoutos seismos houto megas ('so great an earthquake, so mighty').
- Revelation 16:19a Greek stacks two terms for anger, thymos, 'fury', and orgē, 'wrath', an intensifying combination rendered here as 'the fury of his wrath'. The cup of wine given to Babylon draws on prophetic imagery in which nations are made to drink God's judgment, as in Jeremiah 25:15 and Isaiah 51:17.
- Revelation 16:21a The Greek text says 'about a talent in weight,' which is roughly 100 pounds (about 45 kg).
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is a new translation of the Bible prepared by Trinity Bible — rendered from the original Greek and faithful to the earliest and most reliable manuscripts. Finished in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation you can read today, and it is available only through Trinity Bible. All 66 books, including Revelation, are free to read on this site.
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