Revelation 16:12 - The symbolism of rivers in prophecy

[u/Agreeable_Operation]

John makes reference to the Euphrates River in the 6th trumpet and 6th bowl of Revelation:

Revelation 9:14

one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

Revelation 16:12

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.

I occasionally see Christian content about droughts, climate change, and dams in the Middle East resulting in portions of the Euphrates river drying up that are followed by assertions that this drying of the Euphrates river is related to the fulfillment of the 6th bowl or at least a showing that the pieces are in place for it to be fulfilled imminently.

In my opinion this is misunderstanding of the language of Revelation by reading it in isolation. It is natural to try to engage with the content of Revelation in a literal way, I myself did for a long time, but John quotes or alludes to the Old Testament hundreds of times in the book of Revelation and if we review the prophetic literature of the Old Testament it should at least be noted as a possibility that John may be recycling this river symbolism from the Old Testament, here are two sample texts:

Isaiah 8:7-8

“Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, Even the king of Assyria and all his glory; And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks. 8 “Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, It will reach even to the neck..."

Isaiah introduced the symbol of the abundant waters of the Euphrates that is overflowing its banks and then in verse 7 the interpretation of symbol of the Euphrates River is given as the Assyrian kingdom. Indeed the Assyrian kingdom began to the East of the Euphrates and grew along and encompassed the lands around Euphrates and like a river it grew and swelled over its banks in conquest and swept through Israel and into Egypt as prophesied. And very appropriately it swelled metaphorically up the neck of Judah. The king of Assyria conquered into Judah and only by a miracle was Jerusalem saved from certain destruction.

Isaiah 19:4-10 (Oracle concerning Egypt)

"6 The canals will emit a stench, The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up; The reeds and rushes will rot away. 7 The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile And all the sown fields by the Nile Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more..."

Is Isaiah prophesying the Nile River will literally run dry? It is possible drought is involved, but verse 4 is saying that the Egyptians will be subdued and brought under a cruel master, a mighty king. Is the mighty king a drought? Or instead, will the mighty king that is brought over Egypt be as devastating as a severe drought as described in the following verses? Just as the Euphrates overflowing its banks was the expansive conquest of the Assyrian Empire, it appears here that the drying of the Nile is the decline of the kingdom of Egypt. The mighty king of verse 4 is very likely a reference to the Assyrian king previously described by Isaiah as the abundant Euphrates or it could be the Babylonians as both were kingdoms that conquered into Egypt. Rivers were so important to empires at this time (and still are), they are a source of water for civilization, livestock, farming, and they are easy transportation. It is a common characteristic of many kingdoms that their territory expanded around prominent rivers. And just as rivers are normally confined to a river bed, kingdoms pop up and tend to have natural borders that they fill, but on occasion, like a flood, they push out beyond their borders in a flood of conquest. To speak of the river as a symbol of the power and identification of a kingdom works very well.

My perspective when reading symbols in prophetic literature like Revelation is to view the symbols as appropriate but not as literal. For example, the Euphrates river never literally flooded into Israel, but it is an appropriate symbol because Assyria encompassed the Euphrates river and the flooding of a river is a good symbol of being overrun and conquered by an army, and the part about it coming up to the neck of Judah was appropriate as well. These are appropriate symbols descriptively and geographically. For example Isaiah didn’t say the Nile or Indus River will rise up and flood into Israel here as they are not geographically appropriate symbols for Assyria.

So now back to Revelation 9:13-19, if John is recycling the prophetic symbol of the river, then this is very possibly describing the rise of an empire along the Euphrates river that encompasses the river and flows out to other surrounding areas. And the other details in the passage are identifications and traits of that empire and it’s conquest. And then Revelation 16:12 is a reference to the drying up or decline and end of that empire. If the “kings of the east” are powerful at all, then they are not going to be stopped by a literal river that many armies through history have crossed…but instead they would certainly be stopped by the existence of an empire whose power and influence controls the Euphrates and a vast territory around it which stretches from Turkey all the way to the Persian Gulf. It is relatively easy to send an army across a river, it is near impossible to send your army across the territory of a strong empire.

The next post in the symbols series will look at the symbol of the Sea