C. The Third Trumpet (8:10-11)
C. THE THIRD TRUMPET (8:10-11)
10. From the water of the sea attention moves to the waters on the land (cf. the first plague in Egypt on the river Nile). The third trumpet brought about the fall from heaven of a great star, blazing like a torch. Again a third is affected, this time a third of the rivers and the springs of water. This is unusual imagery and Charles finds no parallel in Jewish apocalyptic. John may be thinking in part of the frequent worship of river deities and the like. All such spirits are impotent before the judgments of Almighty God. But the main thrust of the passage is concerned with the effects on people. John’s prime concern is with the punishment of the ungodly.
11. The name of the star is Wormwood, a very bitter substance (cf. Je. 9:15; La. 3:19; see RSV). A third of the waters ‘became wormwood’ (NIV, bitter), with the result that many people died. Wormwood as we know it is not poisonous. John may have in mind another substance resembling it in some ways. Or he may be taking the bitterness of the taste as itself suggesting poison.