5 The Pouring Out of the Fifth Vial, Ch. 16:10‐11
The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the throne of the Beast; and his kingdom was darkened; and men gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, and they repented not of their works: the symbol of wrath poured out on the throne of the Beast as the representative of Satan’s power in the world, thus afflicting the worshippers of the Beast and his image. Under the fifth vial it will be seen that the plagues pass from the physical to the spiritual sphere of action, just as they did in the seals and trumpets; and they are found to be cumulative rather than successive, while, as under the preceding vial, they do not lead to repentance but to wrath and punishment. Also, throughout the vials, it is not the third part only that is affected, as under the trumpets, but the punishment falls upon the whole created world, showing the universal character of the judgments.
6 The Pouring Out of the Sixth Vial, Ch. 16:12
The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river, the Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up,(501) that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrising: the symbol of wrath poured out on the Euphrates, the center and seat of heathenism, or on the world‐ forces of evil, thereby opening the way for the influx of the Kings of the East to march to their ruin. The Kings of the East evidently belong to the “kings of the whole world” (v. 14), and are instruments of the Dragon and of the Beast who go up to war, not against Babylon, but against believers.(502) The Euphrates was the center and stronghold of heathenism to the Jewish mind, and behind that lay the indefinite world‐power which is here represented by the Kings of the East; upon these the angel poured out the vial of the retributive wrath of God.
[At this point the Episode Vb, given in verses thirteen to sixteen, occurs in the order of the vision,—a paragraph which though of limited extent has yet a clear relation to the course of the vials as an intervening vision of warning to the redeemed, and preparing the way for the approaching end.]
7 The Pouring Out of the Seventh Vial, Ch. 16:17‐21
The seventh angel poured out his vial upon the air; and there came forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done:(503) and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth”: the symbol of wrath poured out on the air as the familiar abode of evil spirits,(504) and also of the coming of the End, which is depicted by the fall of cities, especially of Babylon the great city, the type of the godless world, which is divided asunder into three parts, a symbol of completeness,—also three a symbol of the divine, perhaps implying God hath wrought it,—and is given to drink of the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God’s wrath; by the destruction of islands and mountains, and by a plague of great hail, exceeding great, every stone of which was about the weight of a talent, i. e. from 108 to 130 pounds; “and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail”.(505) The End itself is unrecorded; but with the infliction of the seven vials it is declared that “the wrath of God is spent”.(506) The whole course of the vials is toward the End, which though not described, yet stands out in singular prominence as the inevitable result of the ruin wrought by sin; and here, as in the vision of the trumpets, the millennial period is not brought into view as a preceding stage. The transition to the scene of victory in the seventeenth chapter is after this immediately made by one of the vial‐angels (ch. 17:1).