Revelation of John 8:10
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
a lamp--a torch.
Open source ↗We have already seen what occurred upon opening six of the seals; we now come to the opening of the seventh, which introduced the sounding of the seven trumpets; and a direful scene now opens. Most expositors agree that the seven seals represent the interval between the apostle's time and the reign of Constantine, but that the seven trumpets are designed to represent the rise of antichrist, some time after the empire became Christian. In this chapter we have, I. The preface, or prelude, to the sounding of the trumpets (Rev 8:1-6). II. The sounding of four of the trumpets (Rev 8:7, etc.).
Open source ↗8:10-11 The star named Bitterness (literally wormwood, a shrubby plant yielding a bitter extract) is symbolic rather than physical. Bitter water is connected with judgment from early in Israel’s national experience (Exod 15:22-26; Num 5:18; Jer 9:13-16; 23:15). The message is that wide-scale judgment has begun.
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
And the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned to blood.
Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the Abyss.
How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.
and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.
And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”
His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, tossing them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth.
So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation,
This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.