Revelation 9:17-18, fire, smoke and sulfur from their mouths

Revelation 9:17-18

Revelation 9:17-18, in every translation this tool compares.

First, in plain English

Say fire and brimstone and most people think of one old story. Sodom and Gomorrah fell under sulfur and fire from heaven, and smoke rose from the land like a kiln. John's horses breathe out the same three things, and a third of humanity dies. The judgment that once fell on two cities now rides out against the world.

What matches

Fire (pyr), smoke and sulfur (theion). Genesis 19:24 has sulfur and fire rained on Sodom, and 19:28 the smoke going up like a furnace. Beale notes that the three occur together only in that story.

Why it doesn't match exactly

In Genesis the fire and sulfur fall from heaven. In John they come out of the horses' mouths. Genesis has no horses, lions or riders. John also calls the three plagues, the word for the plagues on Egypt. In the Greek of Genesis 19:28 the rising cloud is a vapor (atmis); John has kapnos, the smoke of 9:2.

What John does with it

Sodom became the Bible's picture of total judgment. Beale says the echo shows how deadly this trumpet is, a first act of the final judgment, which Revelation later describes with the same fire and sulfur (14:10; 19:20; 20:10; 21:8). The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible draws the same line forward.

What this echo is not

Not dragons or flamethrowers to be named. Beale reads the mouths as a figure for deadly lies. Keener sets the picture beside the fire-breathing beasts in the Wisdom of Solomon.

Go deeper

Beale says the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24, 28) is uppermost in mind, since the exact combination of pyr, kapnos and theion occurs only there, and 9:2 already alluded to the same text; Deuteronomy 29:22-23 calls Sodom's ruin a plague. He adds that fire and smoke from the mouth picture God's judgment in 2 Samuel 22:9 (Psalm 18:8), and that the sea dragon of Job 41 breathes fire and smoke. In the vault's Septuagint, Genesis 19:24 has theion kai pyr and 19:28 atmis kaminou. Revelation 9:17 reads ek ton stomaton auton ekporeuetai pyr kai kapnos kai theion. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Genesis 19:24, 28 with Deuteronomy 29:22-23 and Luke 17:29. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible links the sulfur with Sodom (Genesis 19:24), and the CSB Study Bible lists Genesis 19:24 among many texts. Keener notes Wisdom of Solomon 11:17-20, where God could have sent new fire-breathing beasts. The grade is drawn here: the triad is unique to the Sodom story, but John moves it into a new picture.

The ancient world behind this passage

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Sources

G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 9:17 and 9:18
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 9:17-18
NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 9:17
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 9:17
CSB Study Bible, cross-references on Revelation 9:17
Septuagint, Genesis 19:24 and 19:28, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 9:17-18