Revelation 8:11

became wormwood We are perhaps to be reminded, as before, of the plagues in Egypt, so here of the mercy to Israel, Exodus 15:25: here, as those are intensified, so that is reversed.

many men died Of course such water would be unwholesome for ordinary use, though wormwood is not exactly poisonous. But it may be a question whether St John means the name to indicate the herb now known as wormwood, or another more deadly one: poisonseems to be meant in Deuteronomy 29:18; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15. The root of the Hebrew word there rendered "wormwood" seems to mean "noxious."