King James Version · Under Rome
Revelation 16
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And I heard a great voice out of saying to the seven , Go your ways, and pour out the vials of upon the earth. 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 , and upon them which his . And the second poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as of a man: and every living in the sea. And the third poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became . And I heard of the waters say, Thou art , O , which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed of and , and thou hast given them to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the say, Even so, , true and are thy judgments. And the fourth poured out his vial upon the sun; and was given unto him to scorch men with . And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of , which hath over these plagues: and they not to give him . And the fifth poured out his vial upon the seat of ; and was full of ; and they gnawed their for pain, And blasphemed the of because of their pains and their sores, and not of their deeds. And the sixth poured out his vial upon the great river ; and the water thereof was dried up, that of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three like frogs come out of the of the dragon, and out of the of , and out of the of the false . For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of . Behold, I come as a thief. is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk , and they see his . And he gathered them together into a place called in the . And the seventh poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of of , from , saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great came in remembrance before , to give unto her of the of the fierceness of his . And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of , every stone about the weight of a : and men blasphemed because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.