Revelation 16:2 - Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Bible Comments

And the first went — So the second, third, &c., without adding angel, to denote the utmost swiftness; of which this also is a token, that there is no period of time mentioned in the pouring out of each phial. They have a great resemblance to the plagues of Egypt, which the Hebrews generally suppose to have been a month distant from each other. Perhaps so may the phials; but they are all yet to come. And poured out his phial upon the earth — Literally taken. And there came a grievous ulcer — As in Egypt, Exodus 9:10-11. On the men who had the mark of the wild beast — All of them, and them only. All those plagues seem to be described in proper, not figurative, words.

Revelation 16:2

2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.