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 6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Revelation 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for…
Isaiah 2:14-17 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
Jeremiah 4:23-25 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 16:17–end
Here we have an account of the seventh and last angel pouring forth his vial, contributing his part towards the accomplishment of the downfall of Babylon, which was the finishing stroke. And here, as before, observe,
I. Where this plague fell - on the air, upon the prince of the power of the air, that is, the devil. His powers were restrained, his policies confounded; he was bound in God's chain: the sword of God was upon his eye and upon his arm; for he, as well as the powers of the earth, is subject to the almighty power of God. He had used all possible means to preserve the antichristian interest, and to prevent the fall of Babylon - all the influence that he has upon the minds of men, bl…
Plainly parallel to Rev 6:14-17, and by anticipation descriptive of the last judgment.
the mountains--rather as Greek, "there were found no mountains."
Adam Clarke on Revelation 16:20
Every island fled away - Probably meaning the capture of seaport towns, and fortified places.
John Gill on Revelation 16:20
And every island fled away,.... This may be understood either of the dissolution of the world, the present heavens and earth, when there will be no more sea, Revelation 21:1 and so consequently no islands:
and the mountains were not found; for the earth and the heaven will be fled away at the appearance of Christ the Judge, and there will be no place found for them, Revelation 20:11 and new heavens, and a new earth, without sea or mountains, will succeed: or rather this may signify the utter extirpation of all the antichristian powers in every shape, whether on islands or on the continent; for this day of the Lord will be upon every high mountain and hill, to bring them low, and the Lord al…
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. The Church, which, because of its eminence of stability, is compared to islands and mountains, cautiously hides itself from the waves of persecutors.
The holy Scriptures have taught us that "islands" refer to the churches and "mountains" refer to those who are leaders in them. That they flee at the time of the arrival of the aforementioned occurrences, we have heard from the Lord, who said, "Then they will flee from the east to the west and from the west to the east. For there will be a great tribulation, such as has not been from the foundation of the world, nor will ever be." At that time some will be tormented for their sins, and others will endure misfortunes for the testing of their virtue. Such misfortunes will not only be those torments from the antichrist which they suffer for the sake of Christ, but also their flights and their sufferings among the mountains and caves. For they will prefer the mountains and caves to living in the cities for the sake of preserving their piety.
It is my view that by the terms islands and also mountains the church is signified on account of the greatness of its stability. Isaiah spoke about these: "In [your] teachings give glory to the Lord; in the islands of the sea [give glory] to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel," and again: "And in the latter days that mountain of the house of the Lord will be established upon the tops of the mountains." This flight will occur when the society of evil persons is at last avoided to such an extent that there will be no confusion or mixture of the church with the wicked. Therefore, the prophet said, "Flee from the midst of Babylon, let every one save his life." Babylon will fall at that time when at the end it has received the power to persecute the saints. For this reason [Scripture] says, "The heart is proud before destruction, and the spirit is humbled before glory."
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
Earthquakes · SYMBOLI — SYMBOLI
Good And Evil · Conflict between — Conflict between
Island · Prophecies concerning — Prophecies concerning
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).
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Revelation 16:18-20
The catastrophic events of this judgment scene recapitulate the scenes portraying the destruction of the world (6:12-14; 11:13). They also foreshadow the final judgment (20:11-15) when the earth will be dismantled to make way for the new creation (21:1; cp. Isa 45:2; Rom 8:19-22).
