Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Revelation 16:19 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 19. 19And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse splits the great city and collapses nations' cities as Babylon receives judgment.
Read It With
- Revelation 16:17-21
Read Revelation 16:19 with 16:17-21. This verse splits the great city and collapses nations' cities as Babylon receives judgment. The complete unit's controlling movement is: The final bowl brings a throne declaration, storm, unprecedented earthquake, collapsing cities and geography, Babylon's remembered cup, huge hail, and continued blasphemy.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The preceding movement establishes: Revelation 16:10-16 established this prior movement: Darkness falls on the beast's kingdom; the Euphrates dries, frog-like spirits gather kings for battle, and Christ interrupts with a blessing on alert readiness before the place Armageddon is named. This unit then contributes: The final bowl brings a throne declaration, storm, unprecedented earthquake, collapsing cities and geography, Babylon's remembered cup, huge hail, and continued blasphemy. The following movement develops: Revelation 17:1-6 continues the book through this next movement: An angel shows John a richly adorned prostitute riding the beast, named mystery Babylon and drunk with the blood of saints and Jesus' witnesses. At Revelation 16:19, this verse splits the great city and collapses nations' cities as Babylon receives judgment.
Follow the Context
- The air-poured seventh bowl and its completion formula introduce one climactic collapse through the chapter's close.
- The final bowl brings a throne declaration, storm, unprecedented earthquake, collapsing cities and geography, Babylon's remembered cup, huge hail, and continued blasphemy.
- Babylon is named before chapters 17–18 explain her. Cosmic geography and enormous hail signal prophetic totality; they are not measurements for forecasts.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Revelation 16:19 does not turn the fact that it splits the great city and collapses nations' cities as Babylon receives judgment into a standalone universal rule. Babylon's collapse does not authorize attacks on cities or institutions.
What Remains True
Revelation 16:19 shows that splits the great city and collapses nations' cities as Babylon receives judgment; its faithful force remains governed by creator worship, the slain Lamb, truthful witness, patient endurance, justice, and new creation.
How It Can Shape Life
- Use Revelation 16:19 by attending to its actual contribution: it splits the great city and collapses nations' cities as Babylon receives judgment. Before a modern analogy, explain this role inside Revelation 16:17-21, state the unit's uncertainty or first-century control, and refuse unsupported mapping or coercive imitation.
Teach It Back
Explain Revelation 16:19's specific contribution to Revelation 16:17-21: splits the great city and collapses nations' cities as Babylon receives judgment. Include the surrounding movement, one material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Revelation 16:17-21 — The Seventh Bowl Declares Completion and Collapses BabylonSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The package keeps the leading alternatives visible and weights them by textual, historical, literary, and reception evidence rather than pretending every proposal is equally strong. Babylon is named before chapters 17–18 explain her. Cosmic geography and enormous hail signal prophetic totality; they are not measurements for forecasts.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete coverage.
Exact location: Revelation 16:17-21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations checked independently of the KJV.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Revelation.txt, 16:17-21
Open the Revelation Greek text file ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible — Revelation with translators' and textual notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2005–2026 online edition
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual variants, imagery, cross-references, and stated alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible Revelation PDF, printed pp. 2408–2447, 16:17-21 and attached translator/textual notes
Open the official NET Revelation PDF ↗