Later text
Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.
Earlier text
Exodus 10:22BSB
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days.
The fourth trumpet — a third of the sun, moon, and stars darkened — recalls the ninth Egyptian plague where "total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days" (Exod 10:22). The Exodus plague was a direct assault on Ra, the Egyptian sun god, demonstrating YHWH's supremacy over all creation. John's trumpet judgment extends the darkness beyond the sun to include moon and stars, and applies it cosmically rather than geographically. The "third" proportion again indicates a partial, warning judgment. The darkness plague in Exodus was the penultimate judgment before the death of the firstborn — the decisive blow. Similarly, the fourth trumpet marks a transitional point before the three "woes" of the remaining trumpets, which will bring even more severe judgments. The darkening of celestial bodies also evokes the Day of the LORD tradition in the prophets (Joel 2:31; Amos 8:9), adding an eschatological layer to the Exodus typology.