1I heard a loud voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God on the earth!”
2The first went, and poured out his bowl into the earth, and it became a harmful and painful sore on the people who had the mark of the beast, and who worshiped his image.
3The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man. Every living thing in the sea died.
4The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5I heard the angel of the waters saying, “You are righteous, who are and who were, O Holy One, because you have judged these things. 6For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.”
7I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.”
8The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn’t repent and give him glory.
10The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, 11and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They still didn’t repent of their works.
12The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings that come from the sunrise. 13I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, something like frogs; 14for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to gather them together for the war of that great day of God the Almighty.
15“Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn’t walk naked, and they see his shame.” 16He gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew, “Harmagedon”.
17The seventh poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake such as has not happened since there were men on the earth—so great an earthquake and so mighty. 19The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for this plague was exceedingly severe.
The sixth bowl judgment dried up the Euphrates River so that the kings of the east, led by three unclean spirits, could gather the armies at Armageddon. The kings of the east likely do represent an Asian coalition’s army. This is somewhat parallel to the sixth trumpet judgment, which also involved the Euphrates River. There, the cavalry unleashed on mankind was 200 million strong and killed a third of humanity. This army is different. It comes to do battle with God, not with humanity. So, this judgment is separate from, not parallel to, the trumpet judgment. It is not a recapitulation, a second description of the first.
The three unclean spirits are spirits of deception, demons sent out to accomplish Satan’s purpose. Some refer to them as the “unholy trinity,” represented by the dragon, beast, and false prophet. However, they are not a trinity, but like the false prophets in 1 Kings 22:19-23. They are deluding spirits. In all this, the raging of the nations spoken of in Psalm 22 will be fulfilled.
This is the gathering of the world’s armies to fight each other, who then unite to fight Christ when He returns to Earth to set up His kingdom. The deception of the demons that unites them to attack Jerusalem rather than each other is likely the promise that they can stop Jesus’ return. Zechariah 14 reveals that their attempt will be futile and that Jesus will slaughter them in an instant.
Here, the location of the battle is called “Harmagedon,” which means in Hebrew, the mountain or hill of Megiddo. Megiddo is a city overlooking the Jezreel Valley and guarding access to Jerusalem from the north. This is likely where the armies of the world will gather to attack Jerusalem.