Bird's-eye view
The pouring of the seventh bowl represents the absolute culmination of God's covenant wrath upon apostate Israel, the great city which had become Babylon in her whoredoms. This is not a far-off future event describing the end of the space-time continuum; it is the final, catastrophic judgment that fell upon Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The voice from the throne declares, "It is done," signifying the completion of the covenant lawsuit that Christ Himself initiated in His earthly ministry. What follows is a description, in the highly symbolic and seismic language of Old Testament prophecy, of the complete undoing of the old covenant world. The great earthquake, the splitting of the city, the fall of Gentile powers, and the unprecedented hail are all apocalyptic metaphors for a historical event of world-shattering significance: the destruction of the temple and the final end of the Mosaic age. This is God remembering Babylon the great, not the literal city on the Euphrates, but the city that was once holy and had become the great harlot, drunk with the blood of the prophets and of the Lord Himself.
The passage is designed to show the finality and severity of this judgment. There is no recovery, no rebuilding. Every foundation is shaken, every landmark of the old world is removed. And yet, even in the face of this overwhelming display of divine power, the hearts of unrepentant men are not softened. They respond not with fear and repentance, but with blasphemy. This final act of defiance seals their condemnation and vindicates the righteousness of God's judgment. The seventh bowl is the gavel of the divine Judge coming down, ending the trial and executing the sentence upon that wicked generation.
Outline
- 1. The Final Stroke of Judgment (Rev 16:17-21)
- a. The Declaration of Finality: "It is Done" (Rev 16:17)
- b. The De-Creation of the Old Covenant World (Rev 16:18)
- c. The Collapse of the Great City (Rev 16:19)
- d. The Obliteration of the Old Landscape (Rev 16:20)
- e. The Unbearable Plague and the Unrepentant Heart (Rev 16:21)
Context In Revelation
The seventh bowl is the last of the seven bowls of God's wrath, which themselves are the third series of seven judgments, following the seven seals and the seven trumpets. This structure is one of intensification. The seals announced the coming trouble, the trumpets were partial judgments and warnings, but the bowls are the undiluted, final outpouring of God's fury. They are poured out in rapid succession and target those who have the mark of the beast and worship his image, which in the context of the first century, refers to those within the covenant community who rejected their Messiah and threw in their lot with Caesar and the apostate temple system. This final bowl follows the gathering of the kings of the earth at Armageddon, which was the Roman military encirclement of Jerusalem. The pouring of this bowl is the trigger for the final assault and the complete destruction of the city, an event that Jesus prophesied would come upon "this generation" (Matt 24:34).
Key Issues
- The Meaning of "It is done"
- The Identity of "the great city"
- The Nature of Apocalyptic Language (Earthquakes, Hail)
- The Fulfillment of Judgment in A.D. 70
- The Hardness of the Human Heart
- The Relationship between Jerusalem and Babylon
The Great De-Creation
When modern readers encounter passages like this, they tend to think in literal, scientific terms. An earthquake that levels all mountains? Hailstones weighing a hundred pounds? This must be the end of the physical planet. But that is to misread the genre. John is saturated in the Old Testament prophets, and this is how they talked. When a great empire fell or a covenant judgment was executed, the prophets described it as a cosmic collapse. The stars fall, the sun goes dark, the earth reels like a drunkard (Isa 13:10; 34:4; Ezek 32:7-8). This is the language of de-creation. God is unmaking a particular world, a specific political and religious order.
The world being unmade here is the world of Old Covenant Israel, with the temple at its center. That world was, in a very real sense, a microcosm of the cosmos. The temple was the meeting place of heaven and earth. So when God determined to bring that world to an end, He did so with language that matched the gravity of the event. This was not just another provincial war; it was the end of an age. The earthquake is the shaking of everything that can be shaken, so that the unshakeable kingdom of Christ may remain (Heb 12:26-27). This is political and covenantal de-creation, making way for the new creation in Christ.
Verse by Verse Commentary
17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the sanctuary from the throne, saying, “It is done.”
The seventh angel pours his bowl not on the earth or sea, but upon the air. This is comprehensive. The air is everywhere; it is the very realm of life and breath, and it is also, biblically speaking, the domain of the "prince of the power of the air" (Eph 2:2). This judgment strikes at the very atmosphere of the rebellious world order, affecting everything and everyone. Immediately, a loud voice issues from the ultimate place of authority, the sanctuary, from the throne itself. This is the voice of God. And the declaration is one of absolute finality: "It is done." This echoes Christ's cry from the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30). What was accomplished in principle at the cross is now being executed in history. The sentence passed on the harlot city is now carried out. The age of the old covenant is definitively over. There are no more warnings, no more delays. The end has come.
18 And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.
The accompaniments to the divine voice are standard signs of a theophany, God's powerful presence: lightning, thunder, and voices. This is Sinai language, reminding us that the God who gave the law is now judging by that law. But the central feature is the earthquake. This is not just any earthquake; it is described in the most superlative terms possible. It is a world-shattering event. Biblically, earthquakes signify the judgment of God, the shaking of human institutions and earthly powers. This particular earthquake represents the complete and utter collapse of the entire Jewish religious and political world. The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans in A.D. 70 was precisely this kind of foundational, world-altering event. For the first-century Jew or Christian, it was the end of the world as they knew it. The hyperbole is intentional; it communicates the theological significance of the event. The foundation of the old world is being ripped out.
19 And the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the wrath of His rage.
The effect of the earthquake is specified. The great city is split into three parts. Throughout Revelation, "the great city" is where the Lord was crucified (Rev 11:8), which is to say, Jerusalem. The splitting into three parts signifies internal division and total ruin, a city collapsing in on itself. Josephus records the terrible factionalism and civil war inside Jerusalem during the Roman siege, which contributed mightily to its fall. At the same time, the cities of the nations fell. The judgment on Jerusalem has ripple effects throughout the Roman empire, which was itself thrown into turmoil during this period, known as the Year of the Four Emperors. But the central focus is on Jerusalem, now explicitly named Babylon the great. She is "remembered" before God, a biblical euphemism for God acting in judgment. She who was supposed to be the bride of Yahweh had become the archetypal enemy of God's people. Now she must drink the cup of God's wrath, a common Old Testament metaphor for experiencing judgment. This is not just wrath; it is the "wrath of His rage," emphasizing the intensity of the divine fury against covenant-breakers.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
The de-creation imagery continues. Islands and mountains are symbols of stability and permanence in the ancient world. For them to flee and disappear means that the most stable and foundational elements of the old order are being completely obliterated. Nothing is left untouched by this judgment. The entire landscape of the pre-A.D. 70 world is being leveled. This is not about literal geology; it is about political and religious geography. The "mountains" of human pride and institutional power, particularly the Temple Mount, are being brought to nothing. The old world is not just being shaken; it is being erased to make way for the new.
21 And huge hailstones, about one talent each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.
The final element of the judgment is a plague of enormous hailstones. A talent was a measure of weight, perhaps 75 to 100 pounds. This is a picture of an utterly crushing, inescapable judgment from heaven. Hail was one of the plagues on Egypt (Exod 9:24) and a weapon of God against His enemies (Josh 10:11). Josephus tells us that during the siege, the Romans used catapults to hurl massive white stones into the city, which would have looked like giant hailstones. But whether a direct historical parallel or not, the image is clear: God is actively pelting His enemies with a lethal judgment. And what is the response of those being judged? Repentance? Acknowledgment of their sin? No. They blasphemed God. The severity of the plague does not soften their hearts; it hardens them. They curse the God whose judgment they are experiencing, proving that the judgment is entirely just. Their final act is to shake their fist at heaven, confirming their rebellion to the very end.
Application
The finality of the seventh bowl is a stark reminder that there is a point of no return in rebellion against God. God is patient and long-suffering, but His patience has a limit. For the generation that rejected His Son, that limit was reached, and judgment fell. This principle holds true for nations, for churches, and for individuals. We cannot presume upon the grace of God indefinitely. A day of reckoning comes.
Second, we must learn to read the Bible's apocalyptic language for what it is. It is not a secret code for predicting newspaper headlines, but a symbolic way of describing God's mighty acts in history. The primary fulfillment of this passage was in the first century, and it teaches us how God deals with covenant unfaithfulness. He will shake every earthly kingdom and every human institution so that the kingdom of His Son alone will stand.
Finally, we see the terrible reality of a hardened heart. The goal of God's judgment is not primarily remedial; it is retributive. It is the execution of justice. These men, under the crushing weight of God's wrath, do not repent; they blaspheme. This should be a terrifying warning to us. A heart that continually resists God's grace will eventually be so hardened that even the most severe discipline will only provoke more rebellion. The only proper response to the holiness of God is not defiance, but to bow the knee, to confess our sin, and to flee for refuge to the cross of Christ, where the cup of God's wrath was drunk to the dregs on our behalf. It is only there that we find shelter from the storm of His righteous judgment.