Seven Angels With Seven Plagues
15 I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.[Some manuscripts ages ]
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”[ Phrases in this song are drawn from Psalm 111:2,3; Deut. 32:4; Jer. 10:7; Psalms 86:9; 98:2.]
5 After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened. 6 Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
NOTES:
15:1–16:21 The seven bowls, the third and last group of
seven after the seven seals and the seven trumpets, foreshadow the final
cataclysm. Again, the series is introduced by a heavenly prelude, in which the
victors over the beast sing the canticle of Moses (Rev 15:2–4).
15:1–4 A vision of the victorious martyrs precedes the
vision of woe in Rev 15:5–16:21; cf. Rev 7:9–12.
15:2 Mingled with fire: fire symbolizes the sanctity
involved in facing God, reflected in the trials that have prepared the
victorious Christians or in God’s wrath.
15:3 The song of Moses: the song that Moses and the
Israelites sang after their escape from the oppression of Egypt (Ex 15:1–18).
The martyrs have escaped from the oppression of the Devil. Nations: many other
Greek manuscripts and versions read “ages.”
15:5–8 Seven angels receive the bowls of God’s wrath.
15:5 Tent of testimony: the name of the meeting tent in the Greek text of Ex 40. Cf. 2 Mc 2:4–7.
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