Intertextuality Pair

Revelation 8:10-11 → Jeremiah 9:15

Allusion

Later text

Revelation 8:10-11BSB

Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter like wormwood oil, and many people died from the bitter waters.

Earlier text

Jeremiah 9:15BSB

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square14:09

Significance

The third trumpet judgment names the fallen star "Wormwood" (Apsinthos), and the bitter, poisonous waters recall Jeremiah 9:15, where YHWH threatens apostate Judah: "I will feed this people wormwood (la'anah) and give them poisoned water to drink." In Jeremiah, wormwood is the bitter consequence of covenant infidelity — a judgment specifically tied to Israel's idolatry and refusal to obey God's Torah. The same imagery appears in Jeremiah 23:15 against false prophets. John's appropriation universalizes the judgment: what fell on apostate Judah in Jeremiah now falls on the entire rebellious world. The star falling from heaven may evoke the false teachers who corrupt spiritual waters (cf. Jude 13, "wandering stars"). The wormwood tradition in the prophets consistently links bitterness to the consequence of spiritual unfaithfulness, making this trumpet a warning against the world's idolatrous rebellion.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Longitudinal Theme + Analogy

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