Commentary - Revelation 16:4-7

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we witness the pouring out of the third bowl of God's wrath, a judgment that is intensely focused, terrifyingly specific, and perfectly just. John sees the fresh water sources of the land, the rivers and springs, turned into blood. This is not random destruction; it is a meticulously tailored sentence. The crime was the shedding of the blood of God's people, and the punishment is to be given blood to drink. This is the ancient principle of lex talionis, an eye for an eye, executed on a covenantal and cosmic scale. The judgment is so flawlessly righteous that it provokes heavenly commentary. First, an angel identified with the waters themselves, and second, a voice from the very altar of sacrifice, both erupt in praise, affirming the perfect justice of God's actions. This section serves as a divine explanation for the severity of the judgments falling upon apostate Jerusalem, demonstrating that God's wrath is never arbitrary but is always a righteous response to the wickedness of men.

This is a scene from the great covenant lawsuit that God is prosecuting against the generation that crucified His Son. The trumpet judgments were partial warnings; these bowl judgments are final and total. The turning of water to blood is a direct echo of the plagues on Egypt, positioning first-century Jerusalem as the new Egypt, the great oppressor of God's people. The praise from the angel and the altar underscores the central theme: God's judgments are not a problem to be explained away, but are rather a manifestation of His holy character that ought to provoke worship.

Outline

Context In Revelation

The seven bowls of wrath (Revelation 16) represent the final, intensified, and rapid-fire judgments of God upon the enemies of the Church, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. These judgments run parallel to the seven trumpets (Rev 8-9), but where the trumpets were partial, affecting a "third" of the earth, sea, or trees, the bowls are total. They are God's definitive answer to the prayers of the martyrs under the altar who cried out "How long, O Lord?" (Rev 6:10). Chapter 15 serves as the prelude, showing the seven angels receiving the seven golden bowls, "full of the wrath of God." The first bowl brought sores upon those with the mark of the beast. The second turned the sea to blood. This third bowl now targets the fresh water, continuing the systematic dismantling of the world of those who persecuted the Church. This judgment is not aimed at the entire globe in some far-flung future, but is focused on "the land" (ge in Greek) of first-century Israel, the epicenter of the covenantal conflict.

Key Issues

The Justice of Retribution

Our modern, sentimental age has a difficult time with the concept of retributive justice. We are comfortable with rehabilitation or deterrence, but the idea that a punishment should fit the crime in a direct, proportional way strikes us as primitive. But the Bible is not embarrassed by this principle at all. It is called the lex talionis, the law of retaliation, and it is a foundational element of biblical justice. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" was not a license for personal vengeance, but a principle for civil magistrates to ensure that punishments were neither too lenient nor too severe. Justice had to be seen to be done.

What we see in this passage is God Himself, the ultimate magistrate, applying this principle with perfect precision. The crime was judicial murder, the shedding of innocent blood. The persecutors, particularly the Jerusalem leadership, were thirsty for the blood of Christians. They were drunk on it. And so God, in a stroke of terrifying poetic justice, gives them what they craved. "You love blood?" He says. "Fine. You can drink it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." This is not a cruel and unusual punishment. It is a terrifyingly appropriate one. It is a judgment designed to make the punishment fit the crime so perfectly that no one in heaven or on earth could possibly mistake the connection. The sentence itself preaches a sermon about the crime.

Verse by Verse Commentary

4 Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters, and they became blood.

The third angel executes his assigned task. The previous bowl had turned the salt water of the sea into blood; this one targets the fresh water sources. The rivers and springs represent the very sources of life for a city or a nation. Without fresh water, life is impossible. This is a direct echo of the first plague on Egypt (Ex. 7:19-21), where God turned the Nile and all the fresh water of Egypt into blood. This parallel is intentional. John is showing us that apostate Jerusalem, the city that was supposed to be the source of living water for the world, has become the new Egypt. It has become the great enemy of God's people, and so it will receive the plagues of Egypt. The judgment is total; all the sources of life-giving water become a horrifying symbol of death.

5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who is and who was, O Holy One, because You judged these things;

As soon as the judgment falls, a voice is heard in praise. This is not a cry of horror, but a declaration of worship. The speaker is identified as "the angel of the waters." This suggests that in God's ordered creation, He has assigned angelic beings to oversee various aspects of the natural world. This angel, whose very charge was just transformed into a scene of judgment, is the first to speak up and affirm the rightness of God's action. He is not complaining about the ruination of his domain; he is praising the God who did it. The angel addresses God by His eternal name, "who is and who was," emphasizing His unchanging character. The title "O Holy One" is particularly significant. This judgment is not an outburst of rage, but an expression of God's absolute moral purity and separation from sin. God is righteous because He judged these things. His holiness demands it.

6 for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.”

Here the angel provides the legal basis for the sentence. The reason for the judgment is stated plainly: "they poured out the blood of saints and prophets." This is a direct reference to the persecution and martyrdom of Christians and the faithful prophets of the Old Testament. The ruling elite of Jerusalem had a long and bloody history of this, a history that Jesus Himself recounted in His woes against the Pharisees (Matt. 23:31-36). They killed the prophets, they crucified the Messiah, and they were now persecuting His apostles. Because they shed blood, God has given them blood to drink. The angel then adds a blunt and unadorned verdict: "They deserve it." The Greek word is axios, meaning worthy, or deserving. There is no equivocation. The punishment is not excessive; it is precisely what their actions have merited. This is the declaration of a courtroom where perfect justice is being dispensed.

7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”

A second voice joins the first in confirmation. This voice comes from the altar. This is almost certainly the altar of sacrifice in the heavenly temple, the very same altar from beneath which the souls of the martyrs cried out for justice in the fifth seal (Rev. 6:9-10). Their prayer was, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" This bowl judgment is the direct answer to that prayer. The altar itself, the symbolic center of both sacrifice and prayer, now speaks. It personifies the entire history of martyrdom and the saints' plea for vindication. The altar's testimony is an emphatic "Yes," or "Even so." It affirms the angel's declaration and praises God with the highest titles: Lord God, the Almighty. His judgments are not only righteous (consistent with His character) but also true (consistent with reality). They are not just deserved, they are perfectly executed.

Application

This passage is a bucket of ice water for any flimsy, sentimental view of God. The God of the Bible is not a celestial grandfather who winks at sin. He is the Holy One, the Almighty, and His judgments are true and righteous. This should be a profound comfort to the believer and a terrifying warning to the world. For the persecuted church, it is a guarantee that no act of injustice goes unnoticed. The blood of every martyr cries out from the ground, and God will answer. He is a God who vindicates His people, and we can trust Him to settle all accounts with perfect justice.

For us today, this is a call to examine our own hearts. The central sin of the Pharisees was a bloodthirsty hypocrisy. They honored dead prophets while killing the living ones. We can fall into the same trap, praising the reformers of the sixteenth century while despising the faithful pastor who calls out our sin today. We can claim to love the martyrs of the early church while slandering a brother who takes a costly stand for the truth. The principle of lex talionis has a spiritual application as well. If we are thirsty for gossip, God may give us a full cup of it, and we will find it turns to poison in our mouths. If we pour out criticism and slander, we will find ourselves drinking the same bitter draft.

The only escape from the perfect and righteous judgment of God is to flee to the cross. At the cross, the ultimate act of injustice, the shedding of the perfectly innocent blood of the Son of God, became the means of our salvation. There, God poured out His full cup of wrath, not on us, but on His Son. Jesus drank the cup of judgment that we deserved so that He could offer us the cup of salvation, the living water that we do not. When we see the terror of God's judgments, it should not lead us to despair, but rather drive us to worship the one who bore that judgment for us.