They Did Not Repent

16:1-2The first bowl: sores on the earth

The first angel pours his bowl "into the earth," and "a harmful and evil sore" breaks out on those who "had the mark of the beast, and who worshiped his image." The target is exact. Not every person on earth, but those who bear the beast's mark.

This is plague number six from Exodus. In Exodus 9:8-11, Moses sprinkled furnace ash toward the sky, and boils broke out "on man and on animal." Even the magicians "couldn't stand before Moses because of the boils." The Egyptian experts, who had matched some of the early signs, had nothing left.

Notice who sends the order. Nothing in these verses is random or accidental. The voice is from the temple, the angels are God's servants, and the bowls come from the throne. Chapter 13 gave the beast the power to compel loyalty with a mark. Chapter 16 shows who is actually in charge. And just as in Egypt, where the land of Goshen was spared some of the plagues (Exodus 8:22; 9:26), here too the judgment is aimed at those who belong to the beast, not at those who bear the Lamb's name.

16:3-4Sea and rivers turn to blood

The second bowl goes into the sea and the third into "the rivers and springs of water," and all turn to blood. This recalls the first plague of Egypt, when Moses struck the Nile and "all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood" (Exodus 7:20). The second and third trumpets had struck only a third of the sea and the waters (8:8-11). Here the effect is total: "Every living thing in the sea died."

The phrase "blood as of a dead man" describes thickened, lifeless blood. It is a repulsive picture, and meant to be. A sea that once symbolised chaos and trade and the beast's own origin now becomes a grave.

There is also an Egyptian echo with a hard edge. Pharaoh had commanded that every newborn Hebrew son be cast into the river (Exodus 1:22). The Nile later ran with blood. Revelation lets the reader see a principle that the Bible keeps returning to: those who spill innocent blood find that the blood does not simply vanish. Water, life's basic gift, becomes a witness. In the next verses, heaven itself explains what is going on.

16:5-7Heaven says amen

Before the bowls go any further, two voices speak. First the "angel of the waters" says: "You are righteous, who are and who were, O Holy One, because you have judged these things. For they poured out the blood of the saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this." Then "the altar" says, "Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments."

Two things stand out. The first is a missing phrase. In 1:4 and 1:8, God is "who is and who was and who is to come." Here it is only "who are and who were." The "to come" has gone. Many scholars see the reason: he has come (compare 11:17, where the same shorter form appears). What remains is to see him act.

The second is the altar. Back in the fifth seal, the martyrs beneath the altar cried out, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood?" (Revelation 6:10). Now the altar answers, "true and righteous are your judgments." The prayers of the saints were never lost. They have been heard.

The justice is poetic: those who shed the saints' blood are given blood to drink. It is hard to read, and the angel does not say it with delight. He says it with the plain voice of someone who sees that it is fair.

16:8-9The fourth bowl: scorched and defiant

The fourth angel pours his bowl on the sun, and it was "given to him to scorch men with fire." There is a sharp contrast here with chapter 7, where the redeemed are promised that "neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat." The same sun that is a blessing for the Lamb's people becomes a torment for those who have refused him.

Then comes the response, and it is the heartbreak of the chapter: "People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn't repent and give him glory."

Read the second half twice. The people know exactly who is behind the plagues. They name him and know that he "has the power." Yet knowing his power does not turn their hearts. They curse him instead. Pharaoh followed a similar path. Even his own magicians said, "This is God's finger" (Exodus 8:19), and still "Pharaoh's heart was hardened."

Repentance here is described as giving God glory, an acknowledgment that he is who he says he is and that we are not. That is what they refuse. It tells us that the root problem of the human heart is not lack of evidence. It is unwillingness to bow.

16:10-11The fifth bowl: darkness on the throne

The fifth bowl lands "on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened." This matches the ninth plague of Egypt, a darkness so thick that it "may be felt," when "nobody rose from his place for three days" (Exodus 10:21-23). It strikes at the heart of the beast's power, the seat from which he demanded worship. The bowl is aimed at the very centre of the counterfeit kingdom, and its light goes out.

Then comes the response again: "They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They didn't repent of their works."

Notice the phrase "the God of heaven." It is exactly what the ones who repented used earlier in the book. In 11:13, after a great earthquake, the survivors "gave glory to the God of heaven." So the same title appears in the mouths of the repentant and the defiant. Repentance is possible throughout the book. Both responses are open, and the same event produces both.

A final detail: they blaspheme because of "their sores," which belong to the first bowl. The pain has a memory. Their suffering has not softened them. It has hardened them further.