Revelation 16:12 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Revelation 16:12
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
to pour forth · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
vial
φιάληνphialēn
G5357
a broad shallow cup ("phial") · noun — accusative singular feminine
upon
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
great
μέγανmegan
G3173
big (literally or figuratively · adjective — accusative singular masculine
river
ποταμὸνpotamon
G4215
a current · noun — accusative singular masculine
Euphrates
Εὐφράτην,Euphratēn
G2166
Euphrates · noun — accusative singular masculine, a place
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
water
ὕδωρhudōr
G5204
water (as if rainy) literally or figuratively · noun — nominative singular neuter
thereof
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
up
ἐξηράνθηexēranthē
G3583
to desiccate · verb — aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular
that
ἵναina
G2443
compare G3588 (ὁ)) · conjunction
way
ὁδὸςhodos
G3598
a road · noun — nominative singular feminine
kings
βασιλέωνbasileōn
G935
a sovereign (abstractly · noun — genitive plural masculine
of
ἀπὸapo
G575
"off · preposition
east
ἀνατολῆςanatolēs
G395
a rising of light · noun — genitive singular feminine
prepared
ἑτοιμασθῇhetoimasthēa
G2090
to prepare · verb — aorist passive subjunctive, 3rd person singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
Jeremiah 51:36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs…
Isaiah 41:25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon prince…
Isaiah 44:27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
Isaiah 11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shal…
Isaiah 42:15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
Jeremiah 50:38-40 A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
Isaiah 41:2-3 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 16:12-16
The sixth angel poured out his vial; and observe,
I. Where it fell - upon the great river Euphrates. Some take it literally, for the place where the Turkish power and empire began; and they think this is a prophecy of the destruction of the Turkish monarchy and of idolatry, which they suppose will be effected about the same time with that of the papacy, as another antichrist, and that thereby a way shall be made for the conveniency of the Jews, those princes of the east. Others take it for the river Tiber; for, as Rome is mystical Babylon, Tiber is mystical Euphrates. And when Rome shall be destroyed her river and merchandise must suffer with her.
II. What did this vial produce? 1. The dryin…
angel--so Coptic and ANDREAS. A, B, C, Vulgate, and Syriac omit.
kings of the east--Greek, "the kings who are from the rising of the sun." Reference to the Euphrates similarly occurs in the sixth trumpet. The drying up of the Euphrates, I think, is to be taken figuratively, as Babylon itself, which is situated on it, is undoubtedly so, Rev 17:5. The waters of the Euphrates (compare Isa 8:7-8) are spiritual Babylon's, that is, the apostate Church's (of which Rome is the chief, though not exclusive representative) spiritual and temporal powers. The drying up of the waters of Babylon expresses the same thing as the ten kings stripping, eating, and burning the whore. The phrase, "way may be pr…
Upon the great river Euphrates - Probably meaning the people in the vicinity of this river; though some think that the Tiber is intended.
The water thereof was dried up - The people discomfited, and all impediments removed.
The kings of the east - There seems to be an allusion here to the ruin of Babylon by Cyrus, predicted by the Prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 50:1-51:64. But what city or people is pointed out by this Babylon it is in vain to conjecture.
John Gill
The Church Fathers
The sixth angel made the Euphrates River passable, perhaps drying up some of its springs so that passage by it would be easy for the kings. By a diabolic agency and by the permission of God, many kings were gathered together for their mutual war; for the Lord had said that wars would occur at the time of the end in the brief testimony given above (Matt. 24:6).
And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on that great river Euphrates, etc. With the people perishing, the abundance of Babylon, in which nothing living, nothing green, that is not fit for fire, will remain. This is what was said above: The harvest of the earth is dried up (Rev. XIV), the holy king hastens to meet the Sun of righteousness. Alternatively, just as when the wicked boast, the poor are inflamed, so when the pestilent is scourged, the wise become more prudent. As usual, the seventh angel recapitulates briefly from the beginning.
Perhaps by divine providence the Euphrates River will diminish in size and provide passage to the kings of the nations for their wars of destruction against each other and the rest of humankind. According to what is adduced in subsequent portions of the Revelation, we think that the mention of Gog and Magog suggests that these kings will arise out of the region of the Scythians. But it is also possible that the antichrist, coming out of the eastern regions of Persia, where the Hebrew tribe of Dan resides, will cross the Euphrates with other kings or with strong men who have received a royal name, and [they will] inflict upon humankind either bodily death to some on account of their faith and perseverance or spiritual death to others because of their cowardice and faintheartedness.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Euphrates — Hebrew, Perath; Assyrian, Purat; Persian cuneiform, Ufratush, whence Greek Euphrates, meaning “sweet water.” The Assyrian name means “the stream,” or “the great stream.” It is generally called in the…
Euphrates · .In the symbolisms of the Apo — .In the symbolisms of the Apo
Euphrates, The · Shall be the scene of future judgments — Shall be the scene of future judgments
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Revelation 16:12
And the sixth angel poured his vial on the great river Euphrates,.... Which is not to be understood literally of the river Euphrates, which ran through Mesopotamia and Chaldea, and by the walls of Babylon; and of the drying of it up to make way for the Jews in the eastern parts of the world, to pass into their own land, and possess it; when a like miracle will be wrought for them as was when they came out of Egypt, by dividing the Red sea for them; and as when they entered into Canaan's land, by laying the waters of Jordan on heaps, so that they passed over as on dry land; in favour of which sense the passage in Isaiah 11:15 is thought to be, which the Targum interprets of God's smiting the…
The Euphrates, the largest river in Mesopotamia, stood between Babylon and Israel and formed the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. If it dried up, it would allow kings from the east to move their armies westward (cp. 9:13-16). From John’s perspective as an ancient Jewish writer, these armies would always be identified with Mesopotamia rather than with countries farther east such as China or India.
