Structure and Meaning in Revelation 16

Revelation 16:12-16 is a chiasm, and recognizing that fact will illuminate the contents of the passage.

A. Sixth bowl poured on Euphrates.

B. River dried up for kings from the sunrising.

C. Three frogs from mouths of dragon, beast, false prophet.

D. Frog are demons performing signs.

C’. Kings of oikoumene gathered.

B’. Behold I am coming like thief.

A’. They gathered to one place.

This helps to specify who is who in the passage. The B sections match each other. The kings of the sunrising are linked with the statement of that He is coming like a thief in the night. The words about the thief were previously spoken by Jesus (3:3), and Jesus is speaking here again. So the kings of the sunrising are somehow linked with Jesus.

The C sections are also linked. Here we have three frogs that are identified as the spirits of demons coming from the mouths of the three great enemies of the saints – the dragon (Satan), the beast (Rome), the false prophet (the land beast). And on the other side of the chiasm is another set of kings, the kings of the oikoumene, all the kings of the Greco-Roman world, not the kings of the land of Israel. So this army is structurally linked to the demons, and this must be the army of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

We have two armies here, and one is good and one is evil. There is the army from the sunrise associated with Jesus. There is the army of the oikoumene associated with the dragon and beasts, inspired by the triadic spirit of the frogs.