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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 8:11, the waters made bitter
Waters made bitter recall Marah, where Israel could not drink the bitter water until God made it sweet; here God makes sweet water bitter.
Revelation 8:11, in every translation this tool compares.
A story can repeat an old scene in reverse to show the tables have turned. Just after crossing the Red Sea, Israel came to Marah. The water there was too bitter to drink, until God showed Moses a piece of wood that made it sweet. At the third trumpet the waters turn bitter and people die from them. The miracle that saved Israel now runs the other way.
Water too bitter to drink. The Greek of Exodus 15:23 says the water at Marah was bitter (pikron); John says the waters were made bitter (epikranthesan).
At Marah the water was already bitter and God made it sweet. In John good water is made bitter, and many die. Marah is a single spring in the desert; John strikes one third of all rivers and springs. The reversal is drawn here from the two texts; the sources only note the recall.
Marah came right after the exodus, a sign that God would heal his people. John turns the sign around for those who oppose God. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible sets these deadly waters against the springs of living water in 7:17.
Not one of the ten plagues. Marah comes after the plagues, once Israel had crossed the sea. John blends it with the Nile plague in one trumpet.
The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says the bitter waters recall the first plague (Exodus 7:20-21) and the bitter water at Marah (Exodus 15:23), and contrast with the springs of living water of 7:17. Heiser says the water becoming bitter harks back to Marah, after the Red Sea crossing. In the vault's Septuagint, Exodus 15:23 reads ouk edynanto piein hydor ek Merras, pikron gar en; Revelation 8:11 has epikranthesan, they were made bitter. Beale draws a related contrast: the springs of water in 8:10 are linked to death, while the springs of 7:17 and 21:6 are linked to life. The grade is possible: two sources name Marah, and the shared word is short.
Heiser reads the second and third trumpets together. The sea turning to blood points back to the first plague; the water becoming bitter, he says, harks back to the incident at Marah in Exodus 15, after the Red Sea crossing. He notes there is little difference between the two trumpets.
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- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:11
- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 8:10-11
- Septuagint, Exodus 15:23, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 8:11
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 8: The Seventh Seal and the First Four Trumpet Judgments, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
