Revelation 8:11

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.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — John records the third trumpet judgment as a burning star falls from heaven onto a third of the earth's rivers and springs. The vision occurs within the sequential series of trumpet blasts issued to reveal impending divine judgments.

The words — The text identifies the fallen object by the Greek name Ἄψινθος (Apsinthos), literally "Wormwood," a plant known for extreme bitterness. The verb λέγεται (legetai) translates directly as "is named," establishing the star's designated title.

The thread — The bitter waters motif directly parallels the covenant curses in Jeremiah 23:15 and Jeremiah 9:15, where God declares he will feed his people wormwood. It also resonates with the warning in Deuteronomy 29:18 about individuals whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

Why it lands — The text plainly states that a third of the water sources became undrinkable and caused mass death. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment actively destroys the means of sustitution and demands sober recognition of rebellion's fatal cost.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 23:15 Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”
Jeremiah 9:15 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.
Deuteronomy 29:18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,
Proverbs 5:4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
Amos 5:7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.
Amos 6:12 “Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
Exodus 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)
Ruth 1:20 “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.
Lamentations 3:5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.