Revelation 8:10-11

Revelation 8:10-11. These verses record the sounding of the third trumpet, when there fell out of heaven a great star burning as a torch. The star fell upon the third part of the waters of the earth exclusive of the sea, which had been already visited under the second trumpet. These waters are naturally divided into two portions, rivers and fountains. The one-third part, though not expressly mentioned, is to be understood in connection with the latter as well as with the former, for it appears from Revelation 8:11 that no more than one-third of all waters was hurt. The ‘hurt' consists in communicating to the waters the poisonously bitter qualities of the star which, in order to express its extreme bitterness, is called Wormwood; while the bitter waters themselves remind us of the waters of Marah (Exodus 15:23), and of those waters in the vision of Ezekiel which were only made whole by means of the living stream beheld by the prophet as it issued from the temple (Ezekiel 47:9). They represent the bitterness of that water with which, instead of the water of life, the world seeks to quench the thirst of its votaries. Under the third trumpet we first meet with men. Under the first we had nothing but inanimate nature; under the second nature was associated with creatures that had life; now we read of the death of many men . As the judgments of God are sent forth one after another they deepen in intensity.