Revelation 16:1-12

Chapter sixteen relates the pouring out of the vials. And they bear a close resemblance to the opening of the seals and the sounding of the trumpets in the preceding section of the Book. As previously we saw plagues fall on the grass and trees, the sea, rivers, and fountains, and upon the sun, and moon, and stars; as there were clouds of locusts and armies of horsemen, and angels unloosed at the river Euphrates, so here the plagues fall on sea, and rivers, and fountains, on the sun, on the throne of the beast, on the river Euphrates, and lastly upon the air.

These were the judgments that fell on this great enemy of God, or, foretokened the judgment that was to fall.

We are told in the tenth verse that the fifth angel poured out his vial on the seat of the beast, which evidently meant the seat of government of this persecuting power. Imperial Rome.

Verse twelve tells us that the sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.

We may remember in this connection that the doom of old Babylon was achieved by turning aside the waters of the Euphrates. As we use the word Waterloo as a symbol of defeat, they may have used the drying of the Euphrates as a symbol of defeat. "That the way of the kings of the East might be prepared." It is said that some of those nations in the far East first broke the prestige of Rome, and eventually the invading hordes from Asia and northern Europe completed her downfall and this suggests what is meant by the drying of the Euphrates, the coming of destructive armies.