Revelation 16:16

A double thread of tradition is woven into this strand of prophecy, (a) that of a last conflict of the world-powers with God and the messianic people (cf. Revelation 17:14; Revelation 19:19) and (b) that of Rome's ruin by the Parthians under Nero redivivus. The two were originally distinct, but the apocalyptist naturally twists them together, although he never clears up their relationship. Here 13 16 is an enigmatic summary of what is variously depicted further on. But, though an erratic block in its present setting, it may have been placed here by the final editor, in his characteristically proleptic manner. Strictly speaking, the sixth plague is confined to Revelation 16:12. Ἁρμαγεδών, where the messianic Josiah will triumph, is (a) either to be located in mythology rather than in geography, as a mount where the final conflict of the gods is to be fought out (so fallen angels in En. vi. 5, 6 at mount Hermon) in which case the phrase is a survival of some apocalyptic myth no longer intelligible to John (Gunkel, Bousset) or (b) to be taken as an allusion to the hills near the plain (in the light of Judges 5:18-19; Judges 4:6; Judges 4:12; Judges 4:14; Ezekiel 38:8; Ezekiel 38:21; Ezekiel 39:2; Ezekiel 39:17). By gematria the name is equivalent to רומה הגדולה (Ewald, Hausrath), but neither this nor the proposal to take הר as a corruption of עיר (city, so Hitzig, Hilgenfeld, Forbes), much less of עֲרַא (Aram. = ארץ, Völter), is natural. Cf. for further etymological and mythological suggestions, Nestle (Hastings, D. B. ii. 304, 305), Cheyne (E. Bi. i. 310, 311), and Legge and Cheyne in Proc. Society of Bibl. Arch. 1900, ii. 2. Bruston's interpretation (Ερμα = ἀνάθεμα, Γεδᾶν, cf. Numbers 14:45; Numbers 21:3; Judges 20:45) is far-fetched, but there may be some link between this obscure fragment of tradition and the cycle of Gog and Magog (cf. Cheyne in E. Bi. ii. 1747, 1748).

17 21: the seventh bowl and plague as the climax of all.