Text -- Revelation 16:20-21 (NET)

16:20 Every island fled away and no mountains could be found. 16:21 And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people, but they blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it was so horrendous.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Rev 16:20

¹ tn Grk “And every.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

² tn Or “vanished.”

³ sn Every island fled away and no mountains could be found. Major geographical and topographical changes will accompany the Day of the Lord.

NET Notes: Rev 16:21

¹ tn Here BDAG 988 s.v. ταλαντιαῖος states, “weighing a talent…χάλαζα μεγάλη ὡς ταλαντιαία a severe hailstorm with hailstones weighing a talent (the talent=125 librae, or Roman pounds of c. 343 gr. or 12 ounces each) (weighing about a hundred pounds NRSV) Rv 16:21.” This means each hailstone would weigh just under 100 pounds or 40 kilograms.

² tn Or “the sky.” Due to the apocalyptic nature of this book, it is probably best to leave the translation as “from heaven,” since God is ultimately the source of the judgment.

³ tn Grk “on men,” but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a generic sense to refer to people in general (the hailstones did not single out adult males, but would have also fallen on women and children).

⁴ tn Grk “the men”; for stylistic reasons the pronoun “they” is used here.

⁵ tn Grk “the plague of it.”

⁶ tn Grk “since the plague of it was exceedingly great.”